How to Build a Wine Room

Wine has been celebrated for thousands of years for its complexity, aroma, flavor, and more. If you're a wine lover, a wine room or cellar can make an excellent addition to your home. Depending on the location, buying audience, and other real estate trends, it can even add significant resale value to your home. Here, we're going to briefly discuss how to build a wine cellar and offer ideas and trends to help ensure your cellar is a modern, trendy, and a hit.

How to Build a Wine Cellar

Despite the fact that it's called a “cellar,” nearly any room can be a wine room, as long as it is properly insulated. Temperature control is recommended to ensure your collection doesn't reach temperatures outside of what's recommended. Basements are a solid choice, but any room you can keep cool will serve and it can sometimes be difficult to control costs. That said, an attic, garage, or shed are usually not the best locations to store wine. Make sure the room is well ventilated. Avoid spaces adjacent to rooms that reach temperatures between 85 and 100 Fahrenheit.

For proper wine cellar construction, it's a good idea to wrap the entire perimeter of the room with a vapor barrier. Waterproof foil or plastic 6mm in thickness should do the job. After it's sealed, the room will need an interior frame to contain high-efficiency insulation. The frame and insulation will then be covered in drywall or another material of your choice. Any paint or stain you use should be waterproof. Finally, you should install a specialty cooling system which may require a bit of a remodel. An HVACR tech can recommend and install the best system for your needs. If the space you're building in is especially dry, a humidifier may be necessary.

From there, you can incorporate display features and lighting and then decorate to suit your tastes.

Innovative Wine Cellar Designs: Tips & Trends

Beyond the necessities discussed above, your wine room can be decked out in just about any style, flavor, or vintage you wish. You can go with the classic wooden style, update your cellar with chic metal and glass, interweave the two or do something completely original. It's up to you. Here are 17 wine room styles and trends for your consideration. This list is not exhaustive, but it should get your imagination flowing.

1. Wood

The use of deep, rich, dark woodwork in a wine room is a classic, fail-proof move. You cannot have too much high-quality wood.

2. Wine Bar

However you design it from small and cute, to long and winding, a wine bar is a great way to turn your cellar into a tasting room.

3. Wall Racks

Save space, and money with minimalistic racks. Iron or steel wall racks use minimal space to maximize room for more wine.

4. Executive Cabinet

A tiny wine room doesn't have to look or feel cheap. With a glass and steel folding door, you can add an executive wine closet to your den or home office.

5. Wine Pantry

Enhance a kitchen, hall, or dining room with a small, out-of-the-way wine pantry. Use dark wood to add to the effect and display your collection.

6. The Hidden Cellar

Build a through-way into a basement from the kitchen or hall, or build a secret access panel into an adjacent guest room. Wine and mystery mix well.

7. The Utility Cabinet

Add a shock of style to a utility room with a voguish-looking wine rack. A choice wine could be the perfect companion to Saturday afternoon chores.

8. Wallpaper

Wallpaper does not have to look cheap. It can be festive, adding a playful papier-mache feel. Use it for accents, and leave higher quality materials bare.

9. Classic Meets Modern

Hardwood flooring or furnishings mixed with streamlined chrome or steelwork well together. Matching modernity and classic style sends all the right signals.

10. The Wine Window

Another minimalistic idea, the wine window can be a simple cabinet, or offer a view of what's kept in the wine room.

11. Resting Bottles

Some wines keep better when stored on their sides. Building a rack or cabinet to accommodate them this way can save space and raise eyebrows.

12. The Corridor

Consider the idea of a long, narrow hallway lined with wines organized by pairings, year, and type. Cased in metal and glass or wood, it's a marvelous way to display.

13. The Battery

Tall, freestanding, densely packed, wooden wine racks have an appeal all their own. Fill your cellar with them and impress with a massive collection in a small space.

14. Beneath the Stairs

There's no more appealing way to make use of this oft-misused space. Build a triangular case and enclosure for your wines and display them under the stairs.

15. Accessibility

Consider the executive cabinet in a less hidden away space. Front and center, in a living room or entryway- an “accessibility” cabinet is a bold statement.

16. Librarian's Ladder

Build your collection high and wide. Then add to the old-world feeling with a scrolling librarian's ladder.

17. Recessed Minimalism

Build a wine rack into an unused kitchen corner. If built right, you can fit dozens of wines into a closet-sized space.

When you are ready to create a wine room in your house, contact Denny + Gardner.