Wood wine rack
Once your wine collection expands beyond a bottle or two, you're bound to confront the pesky question of storage. Wine racks are available to purchase in a variety of sizes and styles, but finding one right for your needs and budget can be tricky. Fortunately, you can build a homemade wine rack to your exact preferences using inexpensive materials and basic tools.
Choose a Style
A wine rack can be as simple as a piece of wood with angled holes cut in it to hold the necks of wine bottles. For a more sophisticated look, a lattice wine rack offers efficient storage, an eye-catching diamond pattern and the opportunity to design a beautiful case or use an existing box or cabinet. The most versatile style of wine rack, though, is a modular shelf system. With this approach, you can set your initial shelf width and rack height to match your desired capacity (from a dozen bottles to a dozen cases of wine), and you can expand your storage system as needed, one shelf or rack at a time.
Determine Shelf Dimensions
A modular shelf wine rack uses raised dividers or inset arcs to separate and secure wine bottles lined up in parallel along a set of support rails. To determine the width of each shelf, decide how many bottles you want it to hold, multiply by the space allotted to each bottle, add the width of dividers or spaces between bottles and leave room on either end to allow for vertical supports. Keep in mind that most wine bottles are 3 inches in diameter, and very few are larger than 4 inches. A common configuration is eight bottles per shelf, with 2 inches per bottle (smaller than the bottle diameter to allow a round bottle to rest securely on square or beveled dividers), nine 2-inch dividers (one more than the number of bottles, so you can place dividers on either end and between each pair of bottles) and an inch at either end. This gives you a total width of 36 inches (16 + 18 + 2).
Determine Rack Height
Design a rack to hold however many shelves you like. Shelves can be designed to interlock and stack by cutting matching slots into the rails and side supports, or you can anchor shelves to corner struts of a fixed height with side supports attached at intervals for the shelves to rest on. The latter approach tends to be stronger and more stable. When planning rack height, factor in 6 inches per shelf, 6 inches at the bottom to serve as legs for the rack, and an inch at the top to hold a lid. For example, planning for six shelves that hold eight bottles each (for a total of 48 bottles, or four cases of wine) would give you a height of 43 inches: (6 x 6) + 6 + 1.
Prepare Materials
Once you have your dimensions determined, you can sketch your wine rack plans, buy lumber and cut it to size. Most varieties of wood---from basic, affordable pine to a beautiful cherry or mahogany---will work well for your wine rack, as will a range of board sizes. As a starting point, consider using 1-by-4s for support rails and vertical (corner) struts, 1-by-2s for dividers and side supports, and a single piece of 1-by-12 for the lid. Be sure to double-check your design and measure each piece of wood carefully before cutting.
Assemble Your Wine Rack
It may be easiest to start by assembling each shelf. Lay support rails parallel with a 4-inch space between, and then attach your dividers (or mark and cut arcs, which can be the same size or larger for the bottle bases and narrower for the necks). Construct the sides of your rack in a similar way, by attaching side supports to your vertical (corner) struts. Use a square and level to make sure everything is aligned properly, and then use finishing nails or wood screws to connect your pieces. For an extra touch, add a coat or two of stain or polyurethane to make your wine rack look even better.
Tags: wine rack, side supports, corner struts, support rails, wine bottles
