Room of the Day: An Inviting Space for Sipping Wine With Friends
This Minnesota wine room conveniently located next to the family room is designed to draw a crowd
Wine rooms or cellars are usually enclosed, climate-controlled spaces for quiet, intimate tastings of the wine enthusiast’s favorite vintages. Not so in this family’s home. The owners wanted their wine room, located directly off the family room, to be a warm and inviting space that would draw in friends and family for a glass of wine that they could take back to the adjacent seating area at their leisure.
The wine room’s cherry cabinets have LED lighting on the top and bottom for easy viewing once the sun goes down. The clients requested a wine barrel in the room, so Carson and his team found a barrel, cut it in half to insert sink plumbing and fastened it to the wall. Reclaimed-wood ceiling beams sit below a tongue-and-groove ceiling that was distressed to make it look aged. The countertops are granite, the floor is slate laid in a random staggered pattern, and the backsplashes below the liquor and glassware cabinets are clad in field tile from Encore Ceramics. Martha O’Hara Interiors found the cheese table and the bronze chandelier to add to the wine room’s old-world ambience.
With its large-screen television and plenty of comfortable seating, the new family room has become the home’s most popular hangout. The lower level also has bedrooms, a bath and a spa. The homeowners “love the space,” Carson says. “They can sit and relax in front of the TV while admiring their prized wine collection and sharing a bottle with family and friends.”
A new entertainment center was constructed of alder wood and stained to match the cherry cabinets in the wine room. On a final walkthrough, the homeowners opened a bottle of “very good wine,” Carson says, “and we toasted the project. It took several design iterations to figure out the wine room, and it was a real collaborative effort. But we’re really proud of it.”
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Wine Room at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of wine enthusiasts
Location: Sunfish Lake, Minnesota
Size: Wine room and family room are about 350 square feet (32.5 square meters)
Designers: TreHus Architects + Interior Designers + Builders and Martha O’Hara Interiors
The space was previously a wet bar and kitchenette, so the plumbing was already in place for its transition to a wine room. TreHus senior project manager Dave Carson and his team created a space where guests could peruse the extensive wine collection, open up a bottle and then take a glass back to the family room.
The custom wine cabinets are refrigerated, with airtight seals surrounding the quarter-inch tempered-glass doors. A ventilation and temperature control system allows the homeowners to ensure that the various cabinets are kept at the appropriate temperature for the different wine varietals. The ceilings and walls are insulated to add even greater temperature control.