Get warm and cozy with a wine room this holiday season
Photo credit: Sebring Design Build
Although I’m inching my way to my 30s (I’ll be 27 next month), I’m getting comfortable with living back home with the parents through the pandemic. I eat four meals a day, someone does my laundry, my entire salary goes to my savings (and wine and shoes), and I’m back to dating hot high school exes. They’re actually hotter now without the awkward, fluctuating voices, lanky arms, and bad hair.
And in my spare time (because I have so much of it), I work on some home projects with my baby sis. I guess it’s the best way for us to show appreciation to mom and dad. In a sense, we’re paying rent by fixing up and increasing the value of their home. This weekend, we took a stab at building a wine room in the rec room. Oh the memories. Calculus study groups while watching Riverdale. Ross Butler. Ok—I digress. Back to home projects.
Location, location, location!
On a mission to build a legit wine room to impress the parents, I did some research. I found out that, when it comes to storing wine, location matters. The wrong temperature, humidity, and exposure to light could potentially ruin perfectly good wine.
According to the American lifestyle magazine Wine Spectator, the ideal temperature in a wine room is 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but anything between 45 and 65 degrees will work. Humidity should also stay between 50 and 80 percent. Luckily for us, the rec room was a perfect spot. The area was cool, not too dry or damp, and had very little exposure to UV light, thankfully, so there was no need to purchase a cooling system.
Show off your collection
My next step was to figure out the design. I scrolled through some Instagram accounts for inspiration and found that I really loved the idea of a wine accent wall. The entire back wall of the rec room seemed like a great focal point. According to HGTV, wine collections are the newest centerpieces in high-design homes.
I really wanted it to have that showcase feel so I went to Amazon and ordered some really chic wall-mounted metal wine racks that were affordable and surprisingly easy to install. Another option I considered was installing wine cabinets—but for a fraction of the cost, the racks worked out just fine and gave the room a functional, modern aesthetic.
Photo credit: Amy Storm & Company
With that in place and the wine bottles beautifully displayed (maybe later on we could add a glass enclosure), the rec room was beginning to be transformed into a connoisseur’s oasis. I could just imagine all of the new memories I would form there with my baby sis, drinking a tall glass of Chardonnay while watching Emily in Paris—the perfect combination for a 2020 escape.
Make it your own
I was motivated to finish decorating. I wanted to style the room in a way that was appropriate for the family but also for any future potential home buyers, in case my parents ever decided to put the house on the market. According to Zillow, a wine cellar generates a 31% boost in a home sale price. You’re welcome, Mom.
I knew the fam would appreciate a comfy seating area, so I removed the ping pong table where I used to do my homework and replaced it with a nice rug from Pottery Barn, a cute contemporary coffee table from West Elm, and four accent armchairs to make the room pop. I found some really great art work on Etsy to hang on the walls, and since we already have dimmable recessed lighting, we totally pulled off that classy, chill atmosphere.
So far, the new wine room is a success. We plan to spend our evenings there, enjoying each other’s company and catching up with the day’s events. I’ve already invited one of my hot exes over for a drink, and my sister and I have designated Thursday’s as our Netflix and Wine nights.
The gist
A display of those bottles of wine that are now just collecting dust under your staircase can seriously bring beauty and style to your home and potentially impress special guests, ex-boyfriends, and future home buyers. And now that winter is here and we are all still staying at home, it’s a great time to get started on that wine room for the holidays. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have some fine wine tasting in the comfort of their own home?
