Stylish Wine Cellar Design Ideas For Your Home
A carefully curated collection of wines deserves a dedicated wine cellar. And your wine cellar deserves just as much careful thought and planning as the other areas of your home.
Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have an underground wine cellar. Or a spare room that you can convert into a wine room. Either way, it helps to have a few useful tips and ideas to get you started.
So, we’ve put together this guide to wine cellar design ideas for your home. From the basics of ensuring optimal conditions for wine storage to interior design tips to create the cellar of your dreams, this guide has it all.
Important Considerations When Designing A Wine Cellar
Before you can consider the décor of your wine room, here are some important considerations when designing a wine cellar to ensure that you meet the optimal conditions for wine storage.
Framing Your Wine Cellar
When choosing the framing for your wine cellar walls, it’s best to use 2x6 framing lumber. This will improve the energy efficiency because this lumber depth means you can install thicker insulation with a higher heat flow resistance.
Insulation and Vapor Barrier
You have to build an enclosure around the whole room to control the humidity in your wine cellar. This consists of insulation material and a vapor barrier.
When using conventional insulation, a minimum of 4mm plastic is generally recommended, with the seams overlapped and taped. The vapor barrier must be installed on the outside of the cellar insulation material.
A simpler option for insulating your wine room is closed-cell (polyurethane) foam. This offers insulation as well as a vapor barrier for your cellar. As a result, you won’t need to install plastic sheeting over the insulation material.
Closed-cell foam spray insulation being applied. (Credit:
Go Green Insulation
)
Electrical Outlets And Light Fixtures
Electrical outlets, switches, and light fixtures should be contained in sealed plastic boxes. It’s also important to caulk all wiring penetrations to prevent outside air from entering your wine cellar.
Any penetration of the vapor barrier must be completely sealed and airtight!
Doors And Windows
A wine cellar door should always be fully insulated and of commercial exterior-grade quality. If you want glass doors to show off your impressive wine display, be sure to use the right glass. It should be insulated, double-paned, and completely airtight to prevent fogging. Use UV filtering glass.
The door should have a gasket around the frame to seal it airtight, and a floor sweep at the bottom to seal the gap between the door and the floor.
All windows should be of the insulated, double-wall type. The space between the window frame and the wall studs should be tightly packed with insulation and covered with the vapor barrier.
This may not be an issue in a basement wine cellar. But, a room in your house will likely have more sunlight streaming in. Direct sunlight and UV rays are not friends to your wines. So, you want to minimize the amount of light that enters your wine room.
Ideal Lighting For Wine Cellars
Lighting adds ambiance to wine cellars, but also heat, which can be an issue. So, use low-voltage LED bulbs for lighting or use light fixtures that have transformers located outside of your wine cellar.
Avoid installing recessed lights that penetrate into the insulation and vapor barrier.
Wine Racks And Shelving
Tables or shelves where cases of wine bottles can be placed to be opened are very useful. You may also like to have a wine tasting area in your wine room. But take care that you do not block the supply or return air registers with wine cabinets, shelving, and wine racks. The air needs to circulate freely.
Store your wine bottles horizontally, at a 45º angle with the cork facing downwards, or somewhere in between. Because this keeps the wine in constant contact with the cork, no air will get into the bottle.
Ideal Temperature And Humidity For Storing Your Wine Collection
It’s very important to store your wine in a controlled environment. Wine ages four times faster at room temperature, so you want to keep the temperature in your cellar cool.
Much depends on the age of the wines and how long you intend to store the wine. But, the ideal temperature for your wine is 55-59 °F (12-15 °C).
A bit of humidity will keep the corks moist and prevent them from cracking. Keep the humidity between 55-75% if possible.
7 Amazing Home Wine Cellar Ideas
No matter whether you’re working with a small space or a large basement you want to convert into a beautiful wine storage area, here are some top ideas to inspire you.
Rustic Wine Cellar Style
Ideal for smaller cellars, keep things simple with the rustic style. We’re talking about wooden wine racks, simple arches, and wall niches to highlight your wine displays. This look lends itself equally well to larger rooms, too.
For the ceiling, consider a barrel vault ceiling kit . This can help give the space a cozy, old-school atmosphere.
For a down-to-earth rustic look, keep your color palette understated with neutrals and earthy tones for both walls and floor. Incorporating lots of wood and brick is a great way to do this.
A wood-paneled barrel vault ceiling compliments the natural tones and brick work in this wine cellar. (Credit: Archways & Ceilings)
Modern Wine Cellar Style
Go for a streamlined, modern look with simple, clean lines. This style will suit any wine cellar or wine room, big or small. Smaller wine rooms can look far more spacious with minimalist style décor.
Our cove ceiling will suit this minimalist aesthetic, with its smooth curved design from the walls to the ceiling.
A monochromatic color scheme pairs well with glass shelving, metal wine racks, and mirrors. Partner this with a sealed hardwood floor. To avoid the room looking austere, adding a vivid splash of color, perhaps in some modern artwork, can do wonders.
Vintage Wine Cellar Style
Embrace the vintage trend and take your wine room to new heights with the medieval look. You’ll need the space for this, but if you’ve got it, go for it. After all, your home is your castle.
Our barrel vault ceiling kit and our gothic arch will lend the room a bit of medieval drama. If the gothic style arch is too dramatic for you, our Tudor arch will complement this look as well.
Have fun with this theme. A bold color palette will best showcase these dramatic ceiling and arch features. Add a beautiful, traditional chandelier to enhance this look even further.
The brick-finished groin vault and arched wall niches give this wine cellar a vintage look. (Credit: Archways & Ceilings via Cua Builders )
Spanish-Style Wine Cellar
If you’re passionate about this style and have lots of space, bring some Spanish style into your cellar.
Achieve this lively look with our cloister vault ceiling and our bell-curve arches . Or, introduce one of our custom-built wall niches into an unused corner. You can use the niche to store wine racks or proudly display a colorful clay sculpture.
Add some sealed cork flooring and a fiery color palette. And perhaps a wrought-iron chandelier for some dramatic flair.
Traditional-Style Wine Cellar
More of the traditional type? We’ve got you covered. A traditional look doesn’t have to be boring. We’re thinking of an understated yet sophisticated style.
For a simple yet powerful visual impact, we recommend our groin vault ceiling kit. Further, traditional elements include lots of dark wood and perhaps a classic upholstered armchair or some art. An arched entryway would also be great for this wine cellar look.
You can also highlight your impressive wine collection with large wall niches with display shelves.
Traditional wine cellars generally have a lot of brick or stone on the walls and floors. If you feel this is too much, opt for a statement wall that features these materials.
This wine cellar features groin vaults, barrel vaults, igloo vaults, archways, and wall niches! (Credit: Archways & Ceilings via Cua Builders )
Smaller Wine Room Ideas
Don’t have much space and want to create a small wine cellar?
Even the smallest wine cellar can look spacious and sophisticated with the right design elements.
If the room is small but the ceilings are high, make the most of the vertical space with a feature ceiling. Our radius ceiling kits are an easy way to introduce some excitement to drab ceilings.
Consider an arched doorway to bring some visual interest to the room without taking up interior space. You could also place a single wall niche in your small wine cellar to place some wine-themed décor or a piece of art to tie the room together.
Use light colors to visually enlarge the space and incorporate every available nook for wine storage space.
Custom Wine Room
Even if your wines are displayed in your home bar or your lounge area, give your room a new look. Make the most of your mini cellar by thinking outside the box. Our specialty wall displays will turn any room of your choice into the ideal wine room.
We can prefabricate any custom wall design kit your imagination can conjure. If you can draw it or describe it, we can design it for you.
And once you’ve got your custom wine storage in place, add a splash of color. But while you’re being bold, make some bold color choices too. Perhaps a red wine-inspired hue?
Final Thoughts
If you love wine, then it might be time to revamp your wine storage space. Whether you’re looking to turn an area of your home into your very own wine cellar or if you simply want to upgrade your old cellar, our kits can help you completely transform your space!