DIY Wine Cork Wreath for Easy Decor

Learn how to make a wine cork wreath the easy way! You can have a pretty piece of decor in minutes; this is perfect for beginners.

Skills Required: None. Even if you’ve never crafted before, you can make this wreath. You’ll be gluing corks to a wreath form and I’m going to show you exactly how it’s done.

There are some materials you just can’t let go into the recycle bin if you’re a crafter. Remember the quote from Elle Woods in Legally Blonde? “The rules of hair care are simple and finite. Any Cosmo girl would have known.” This is after she wins the big case in the movie.

Well my friends, the rules of crafting are also simple and finite. You don’t chuck perfectly good surfaces out with the recycling.

You save glass jars, lids, egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, wine corks, sturdy cardboard boxes . . . the list goes on and on. You never know when you might need them.

And NO, you don’t necessarily know what you’re going to do with them when you save them, but that doesn’t matter. You’ll use them. Right?

That’s why I’m happy to share this wine cork wreath with you.

Because today, you’re actually going to USE those items you’ve been stashing away just for such a moment: wine corks. If you’ve never worked with cork before, it’s VERY easy.

You’ll be able to make this wreath regardless of your crafting expertise, so no worries. I’m going to show you the easiest way possible to make this project!

Cork Wreath

Before we jump into the cork wreath tutorial, I wanted to answer a few frequently asked questions about this project.

How many wine corks do you need to make a wreath?

Most wine cork wreaths that I’ve seen take at least 150+ corks if not 200 – 250. This wreath takes 101 corks and is about 13.5″ wide when it’s complete. This is because the corks hang off the edges when glued.

How do I clean wine corks?

You have a few options. You can simply rinse them off. You can also bathe them in a solution of hot water and a splash of hydrogen peroxide overnight to sanitize and bleach them a little bit. You might not lose the wine staining completely, but the wine corks will be completely clean.

What is the best glue to use on wine corks?

I definitely like hot glue, but you can also use craft glue or E-6000. If you use something liquid, the corks can separate and roll away until the adhesive starts to set.

So you may have to hold corks down depending on what kind of wreath form you use. In this case, you could use a light adhesive tape (like washi tape) to hold them together until dry.

What type of wreath form can I use?

There are wire wreath forms, extruded (rounded) wreath forms, and flat wreath forms. Wire is the most difficult to use, though you can wrap it with ribbon first.

You will see some people use rounded wreath bases, but you’ll have to use a lot more corks to get the coverage as you work the corks around the ring. You’ll see when you start gluing.

My personal preference is the flat wreath form. I have one made out of chipboard. They also sell similar flat wreath rings made out of wood called “floral rings.” They are typically found in the floral section of the craft store, so be sure to check there.

Note: if you find cardboard that is thick enough, you can cut your own wreath form. You could even cut multiple cardboard rings of the same size and glue them together. I already had this form, or that’s what I would’ve done!

Does hot glue work on cork?

Absolutely! It works really well on cork. More tips on working with cork here.

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Are you ready to jump into the tutorial? Get it below!

Gather These Supplies

• Wine corks – I used 101
• Flat wreath form – 12″
• Hot glue gun and plenty of glue sticks
• Sandpaper
• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Bow maker or this tutorial
• Knife (optional)

Tips and Thoughts for This Project

NOTE: I used 50 wine corks for the first layer, 34 for the second, and 17 for the third = 101 wine corks. depending on the size of wreath form you have and the size of the wine corks, you may end up using a few more or a few less.

Boiling corks makes them very easy to cut. I discovered this at (almost) the end of the project. The sandpaper also comes in handy if you need to remove just a *little bit* of material to make the cork fit.

I think my red buffalo plaid bow makes this project perfect for Christmas, don’t you? It’s a great recycled Christmas idea after all the drinking 😮

I think it would look lovely in the kitchen too. Or wherever you keep the wine!

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Let me know what you think about my wreath in the comments. I’d also love it if you’d visit these other ideas!

Coffee Filter Wreath • DIY Mini Cork Board • DIY Ribbon Wreath • Pom Pom Wreath • Wine Cork Coasters • Wine Cork Pumpkins • Wine Cork Skeleton • Wine Cork Stamps