Thursday's Unique Picks - Uncork the Possibilities

This week’s Unique Picks is brought to you by the material known as cork.
This natural material isn’t just great for stopping wine bottles, It is quite functional in the home and can be potentially fashionable as well.

A minor bathroom renovation in my home inspired this week’s topic…
Because I strongly dislike linoleum I urged the hubby to install a lovely tile floor in the bathroom. Small space, simple enough right? Done. 

We used to be stoners in the bathroom.

We chose a natural stone…that I naturally thought looked really nice, but unfortunately within a year or so of installing it, as with many DIY home projects, naturally there was bound to be some issues. There are so many possibilities as to why the grout began to crumble and the tiles started popping up. I could blame the contractor for mixing sub-par quick set and grout…but I love him and would really like to get my bathroom sink out of my living room. We lived with the crumbling tiles, grout etc. for quite a while, made attempts to reattach some of the loose tiles, but realizing that we were fighting a losing battle, decided that we just had to make yet another flooring change. The final push through, to get the old tile up was when we discovered there was a leak coming from our toilet. In order to repair the leak the tiles had to all come up. 
Boo leak! Happy new floor! The joys of owning a home. Enter cork. 

We are now going to be corkers. 
One of the bonuses of having a cork floor, is that if your house floods you will have a built in flotation device.

We decided to try something a little different and went with cork flooring.
Now it hasn’t been installed yet, the contractor told me that the flooring needs to sit in the room for 48 hours to acclimate before being installed. It has now been 120 hours…I am pretty sure the cork tiles are feeling right at home in the bathroom and are ready to be installed. 

My future cork floor, acclimating in the bathroom.

 With cork on the brain and not on my bathroom floor I set out to find some pretty awesome items from etsy sellers that are not only cool but corky!

Corky accents for the home...

Bringing cork to light. This vintage modern lamp from Sixty to Seventy's etsy shop combines the natural texture of cork with modern sleek chrome.

Handmade recycled cork and wood bud vase found in Erde Designs' etsy shop.

Rustic yet sophisticated handmade floating shelves from WaterDrop WorkShop on etsy, was created using reclaimed wood and repurposing wine bottle corks. Gee, I think it would stink to have to drink all of those bottles of wine in order to collect the corks for these great shelves.

Delightful decorative reclaimed cork bowl from DMFD's etsy shop, has a durable pop colored painted interior.

The corky host will use...

Don't sweat it, these adorable vintage apple shaped coasters with useful cork inserts from Raemj's etsy shop, will protect your furniture from those undesirable glass rings.

Divine cork decorated Mid Century ice bucket from Radically Retro on etsy.

Cork stoppers are not just for wine bottles. When you are done pigging out, you can keep your snacks fresh in this handmade pig jar with cork snout stopper from paulaware's etsy shop.

Organize it and keep it corky

Cube shaped cork revolving vintage desktop organization for your cubical from Ugly Santa's etsy shop.

This great vintage find from Blue Butterfly Vintage on etsy, is so much more than your average cork board. It also features little hooks for hanging, a pocket for stashing mail and of course a hooter-ific carved owl decoration.

Wine may wind you down, but these handmade upcycled cork spools from Blue Pearls etsy shop, will wind you up! What a super idea for storing and organizing your trims, yarns or ribbons.




Stylish storage from Print Party's etsy shop. These handmade cork baskets with colorful printed "nice" pattern could practically store anything. When they aren't being used, they fold flat so you can easily store them!

Accessories to highlight your natural corky personality
 This handmade ring from kimquinndotcom on etsy needs no bling to stand out. It has a unique design that features a section of cork mounted on a half band, that gives this piece a natural yet modern look.

Browse about town in these fab vintage wedge sandals from school of vintage on etsy. The cork used in these wedges may be faux but they are truly stylin'.

An amazing vintage cork tote bag from OmniaWears etsy shop for you to fill up with all of these unique corky finds!

I am pretty sure that these fantastic finds from etsy sellers will have you feeling like quite the corker!

2 comments:

  1. Great post and FABULOUS bathroom floor! What an interesting idea! Thanks so much for including our wedges (even though they're faux cork). P.S. That cork lamp is awesome!!

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  2. Awesome floor and thanks for including my owl wall hanging with all of these wonderful ideas!

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