I have a few batches of wine down in the basement that I’m planning to bottle in a few months and I have no storage for them. So, I’ve been planning a wine rack for this wine and the others I have in cases down there as well. I thought I’d share my progress
I wrote up some requirements for the project:
- It should store at least six cases of wine
- I’d like it to be a standard 36 inches tall to match a counter-top height
- It should be modular and strong so that multiple racks can be stacked side by side or on top of each other
- I’d like something a little more appealing than the typical diamond-pattern wine rack
Requirement number four ended up being the most time-consuming design requirement. I wanted something different from the standard pattern you usually see in wine racks. I got out the sketch pad and tried several ideas. I liked a herring-bone pattern that I came up with but ultimately decided on an “alternating V” pattern as shown here:
This is the wine rack with a fairly unique (click on the image to get the full high-res drawing)
These are still preliminary drawings and the details haven’t been fully fleshed out yet, but here are some of the details.
The bottom of the “V” will be joined with dovetails for strength. As the end of each V goes into the side of another, they’ll be joined with mortise and tenon joints. Standard 750mL wine bottles are three inches in diameter and about 12 inches long. If dimensioned correctly, the V allows exactly one case to be stored in each compartment.
I haven’t decided on a joint for where the diagonal boards meet the vertical and horizontal carcass pieces. As the rack loads up, there will be a lot of downward force and perhaps some pulling inward. I might a sliding dovetail for these joints for the strength.
The bottom will contain slats to hold individual bottles and will be positioned so that more bottles can be stacked.
Otherwise, the carcass will be a standard cabinet. The back will need to be fairly thick to help with the load – especially if another rack is stacked on top of this one.
This will be an ongoing project. As I detail out the drawings and get started, I’ll post more.