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!

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.

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.

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!