Are you curious how to store wine? I was storing mine the wrong way! This post shows how I turned a cool, dark nook in my basement into a little DIY wine cellar.
When I started buying nicer clean wines on the regular, I knew I needed to rethink my storage options. I WISH I had a whole room dedicated to rows of aging wines. But most of us don’t have the space for something that grand. The idea to turn our basement nook into a wine storage area came about because I realized I was storing wine the wrong way. We have an extra fridge downstairs where I put ALL of my wine for a while (red and white). It kept the whites ready to chill and the reds “not hot” so I thought that would be a smart way to store wine. That was until I Googled “Is it ok to store wine in a fridge?” The fridge is actually NOT ideal! Whoops.
So where should you store wine?
If a dedicated cellar is out of the question, the next best thing would be a fridge built for wine storage with optimized climate for both red and white wines. I would eventually like a freestanding (or built in!) dedicated fridge like this one. But that’s not a priority at the moment. So the third best thing for long-term wine storage is a cool, dark place where bottles are still and sideways.
I keep my “next to drink wines” in a vintage box fitted with a wire rack in my kitchen.
The nook before
This little nook in my house was previously a catch-all for relocated decor to be used in the future. I had a silver tray of my grandmother’s that desperately needed polishing, some candle sticks, extra frames, antique crocks, and more. That chair is one my grandmother painted of Williams Shakespeare!
I needed to find a good spot for some of these things in other areas of the house!
I had also started to pile bottles and boxes here as I collected them.
The “Cellar” After
After I had relocated most of the decor, I was able to organize the bottles in a pretty row. I am on the hunt for a rack that will fit perfectly in these shelves for phase 2, but for now I don’t have enough wine to warrant a second row. (Those little minis are from a sampler Scout and Cellar offered!)
Wine storage rack ideas:
- Natural wood X rack
- Two long rows
- For the few whites I do keep chilled in the fridge
- Rose gold if you are looking for a countertop or buffet option
- 4 rows but still small enough to fit in a nook
Underneath
On the bottom, I moved the chair to a more visible spot in my house and brought in this wooden crate I had in our storage room. It’s now housing guest towels, but I could see it turning on its side and being an extra area for wine storage if need be.
How do you store the wine in your house?
I signed up for the Scout Circle wine club to get 4 bottles (one per weekend) of wine delivered per month with free shipping. These wines are “clean crafted” which means they’re made without synthetic pesticides, chemical additives, and more than 100 ppm of sulfites. If you’d like to learn more, you can get on my email list here:
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
Thanks for the tips! Your makeshift cellar looks great 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Denise says
I work at a glass company, and we often install glass panels and doors for “wine rooms” people create in corners of their homes. Since Thomas is a builder, he could do most of the work himself. One creative couple enclosed a “T” section of their hall between the kitchen and living/dining area. They never walked straight through, they always veered to the left around a freestanding column. So they enclosed the top of the “T” with fixed glass panels and then added a glass door on the bottom opening for access. It turned out great! Look for glass wine rooms on Pinterest or Houzz for some creative ideas.
Kath Younger says
Oh that is very neat!! I’m assuming these glass rooms have different climate controls so that’s what makes them good for storage? We do have an unfinished utility room downstairs, but I think that is much more likely to become a workout space or office than a wine room 😉 But could be both perhaps!?
Denise says
Oh definitely! It’s definitely a great way to be inspired for your workout lol! And yes, they are climate controlled. We partner with another company who handles that end of it.
Kath Younger says
Haha!
Sara says
My cousin lives in a small apartment and she has a storage bed where the bed lifts up to access the storage space. She and her partner keep their wine there! Along with a bunch of other stuff! But it’s dark and the bottles are horizontal, and it’s the coolest room in their place.
Kath Younger says
Perfect spot!!