Making Sound Absorbing Acoustic Panels W/ Wine Corks

After collecting wine corks for years, I finally found a use for them: to make sound absorbing acoustic sound panels for my home voice over booth. Since screw top wine bottles have become more prevalent, I have been saving corks for various home projects. What I have done here could also be applied when making a trivet or a push pin cork board, you may just need to adjust the size and add a frame to the final product!

Step 1: Preparing the Wine Corks for Mounting

I gathered all of my corks and carefully sawed them in half lengthwise using my scroll saw. When I had enough for my project, I dusted them all off so that there wouldn't be too much cork sawdust on each.

Step 2: Mounting Them on a Cardboard Panel

My home voice over booth consists of two heavily padded partition screens facing each other with a padded "roof" I attached to the top. I wanted to add additional sound absorbing panels and had already so many moving blankets, comforters and foam that i wanted something else to add to the mix that wouldn't take too much space. I cut pieces of cardboard to fit into the external and internal grooves of the partition screens and affixed the cork, flat size down, in a pattern onto the cardboard board. I used Barge glue, which is highly toxic, but I think you can use hot glue as well. When finished, the panels slide right into the side openings of my partition screens and they make a big acoustic difference.

Step 3: Enjoy!

The acoustic panels smelled a lot like wine in the beginning, but that wore off after a while...and the acoustic difference was instantaneous in my recording quality. As a bonus, the panels that are directly in front of me can me used as a cork push pin board to attach copies of my scripts that I am recording, as well!

Step 4: