From Closet to Wine Cellar

You know what makes me happy (and sane)? Wine! I love it!  I love the way it makes me feel. The way it tastes and smells. The way it pairs with food. It's color! I love it so much, that in our last two homes it has even played a major role in our home decor.  

I have always fantasized about having a wine cellar in our house but it never really seemed like something in our reach. We settled for wine boards in our last home and it was always a big topic of conversation when we were entertaining or hosting holidays. 

When we bought our new home and decided that we were going to do some "renovations" it was an idea that I just threw out there. Never thinking it would stick or that Dallas would go for it. However, with the excessive amount of closets and storage we had on our first floor, to my surprise, both our GC and my husband, not only entertained the idea but dare I say, thought it was a good plan.

Everyone was excited about the concept that we would take a basic under the stairs closet and transform it into a temperature-controlled wine cellar. That was until we priced out what the temperature-controlled unit would cost us.  

We went back and forth for days. "Should we even do it?" After all, we already have two wine chillers in Dallas's man room for our white wine and champagne. After sitting down with our General Contractor (Gus Levi of The Levi Group) we decided to go for it. Gus asked us what kind of wine we would store in the cellar and after thinking about it we said, "mostly reds." He pointed out that red wine doesn't necessarily need to be chilled. It just shouldn't ever get warm and that the stone, in addition to the lack of direct sunlight, should keep the room cool enough for reds. 

We also collectively decided that we would make the cellar as close to being temperature controlled as possible, That way if we ever decided, later on, to convert it over we could. 

And so, our construction began...

As Gus's guys started to tear out sheetrock we were left with the difficult decision of what stone to dress the remaining cellar walls in. After looking at man-made vs natural stone until I was blue in the face we decided to go with the man-made stone that we had already chosen for our vault fireplace. (Details in a blog, coming soon.) We thought it would be a nice way to blend the two rooms. 

As the stacked stone was being installed, Gus ordered our glass wall and door to seal off the room. We chose black hardware to tie in the black wood railings and accents throughout the house and started searching for black floating wine racks online. 

After a ton of research Gus and I decided to go with Vintage View's floating wine racks and to stagger their hight according to the ceiling. 

Since there was already electric running to the cellar (for future endeavors) I establish that I wouldn't mind lighting to accent the stone walls. I went with a small plain black track lighting to be installed over the door frame just high enough to be out of sight but still provide ambiance.  

Photo Credit: Catrina Earls of Catrina Earls Photography 

After seeing the finished product, I think this concept far exceeded our expectations. It is the perfect centerpiece for our home and it was so gratifying to see the process come to fruition. Something that I never thought was possible is now one of my favorite features in our home!