Product Review: Quartet Cork Wall Tiles

Recently when rearranging my home office I realized I needed to create a bulletin board for posting important papers, messages, and reminders. Keeping important items at eye level instead of buried under a stack of clutter will help me be more efficient during my work and study hours.

After deciding I needed a bulletin message area I had to make the decision on what type to purchase. I looked at several stores including Wal-Mart, Target, Office Max, Office Depot, and Hobby Lobby for a corkboard that could serve as a bulletin board. At most of these stores corkboards were small surfaces or came with a dry erase board. I wanted to cover a much larger area with my message area and all the larger bulletin boards cost more than I wanted to pay.

The solution to my dilemma? I would create my own bulletin board message area using Quartet Cork Wall Tiles sold at Office Depot. The tiles are natural corkboard shaped into 12 x 12 inch squares that attach to any flat surface. One pack comes with 4 tiles and costs 11.99; so two packs will cover an area large enough for the space behind my desk without costing me a bundle.

The tiles come with foam tape stickers that make it easy to securely mount on any surface. Once you place the tiles on the wall or other surface you can be sure they will stay. I easily attached eight tiles to the area behind my desk to create a large cork bulletin board.

The tiles created a great bulletin message area behind my workspace but there are a few problems with the product. First is the width of the cork tiles. They are only ¼ inch thick so a push pin goes all the way through the cork into the wall unless you consciously push it only partially into the cork. You can secure items on the board without pushing the pin through to the wall, but it is a hassle to worry about leaving pinholes in the wall from the bulletin board.

I did encounter another unexpected problem with the product. After using two packs of tiles to create a bulletin board I opened a third pack to use two tiles to further extend the length of my bulletin board. After opening the package and lining the tiles up against the other tiles I realized they were all half an inch too short. Despite being labeled 12 x 12 inches, these tiles were definitely not the right size. Because of the difference in size I could not use these tiles for my bulletin board. Since I bought all three packages of tiles together I found it odd that one was shorter than the other two.

Since I had another use for the product I was not upset, but this could have been a major problem for someone else. When buying the tiles make sure you check to see if the packages of tiles are all the same size.

Despite the problems I had with the product I am very pleased with the end result. The cork wall tiles created a nice bulletin message area for my workspace that will help increase my efficiency and creativity when working.