For the last decade, in-home wine cellars have grown in popularity. Enthusiasts can house and display all their vintages, regardless of whether they have a few dozen or a few hundred bottles.

If you’re considering a wine cellar in your home, it’s essential to have a strong understanding of what’s involved.

You will want to consider your wine collection and thoroughly examine the options in your home for the best location, merging your desires and the construction/design realities that lie ahead. It might be the most expensive square footage in the house.

Historically, replicating Old World cave-like environments was the norm when it came to wine room design. In the past five years, however, wine storage design has taken a page from contemporary interior design, creating unique spaces that can be found in just about any area of a home.

Modern cellars often incorporate acrylic racks to give bottles a floating look; some include metal or steel racks. Many wine cellar customers also prefer to display wine in a “label out” fashion so that the bottle’s label can be viewed without having to take it out of a rack.

The focus is not on wanting to fit as many bottles into a space as possible but creating a room with a specific format to show many bottles. The focus is more on showcasing your collection.

Today’s wine cellar consumers are also gravitating toward glass enclosures. Incorporating glass into wine cellar designs also brings flexibility with where a wine cellar can be built in the home. Not all wine cellars require a dedicated room; you’ll find them in a hallway, along a wall (wine wall), and in closet spaces.

The modern looks don’t mean Old World elements like wood and stone are entirely out of the mix. There’s a shift toward integrating different materials in response to emerging transitional interior design styles, in which traditional elements combine with contemporary ones.

Wood is still prevalent in wine cellar design. It’s just being used to accent other materials, offering an aesthetic that doesn’t seek to abandon the Old World look and feel as much as appropriately place it among a sleeker look. Wine cellars today add functional and artistic value to the home.

Cheers!