Cork, the bark of an oak species that grows chiefly along the Mediterranean in Spain and Portugal (great travel destinations, by the way!) is among the most handsome and versatile of all wall coverings. It comes in textures ranging from the familiar fine-grained cork used for bulletin boards to exotic designs of woven, fissured or marbleized cork – available mostly through shops that cater to professional decorators.
Cork walls complement fine furnishings. In a practical vein, they can serve as message centers in kitchens or other workrooms and as buffers around the dart board in a game room. Cork walls are easy to install and maintain, and they provide excellent insulation against heat and sound.
The many cork textures available are the result of different processing methods. Some of the natural bark is simply sliced into sheets or slabs, rather like plywood. More often it is ground up into chunks or granules and then reconstituted and formed into rolls, sheets or slabs.
Cork wall covering sold in sheet form is flexible and usually is no more than 1/4 inch thick. Hardware stores usually sell it in bulletin board-sized rolls, typically 2 x 3 feet, or 4 x 6 feet; 3 or 4-foot-wide bulk rolls. These cork rolls can be cut to size, and they are available at some lumberyards. In slab form, wall cork is commonly cut into square or rectangular tiles and is sold at hardware or wall-covering stores.
The surface to which cork is applied should be dry, flat and dust-free. Cinder block and similar porous materials should be coated with a sealer to prevent moisture from reaching the cork, and shiny surfaces such as high gloss enamel paint should be roughened with sandpaper. If you want your cork wall to be temporary, you can mount it on a portable surface – on a plywood panel, for instance, or a wall divider. Once in place, cork is almost impossible to remove without damaging not only the cork but also the wall surface.