When planning custom-built, small modern wine cellars, it’s important to strike that balance between having a beautiful cellar and having a cellar with functional integrity. That’s why your builder has to be a team of trained engineers and designers who specialize in wine cellar construction like Coastal Custom Wine Cellars. Look at this wine closet we built in the hallway of a deluxe California home. This shows us that big or small, any space can be converted into a luxurious, fully functional wine area given the right team of wine cellar experts like the Wine Cellar Designers Group.

Small Modern Wine Cellars As a Stylish Extension of a Home

Together with Coastal Custom Wine Cellars, we always pay attention to a home’s design inside and out because we want to create wine cellars that are synergistic with the home’s style. As much as wine cellars are prominent features in any property, we still want to maintain that consistency, look-wise. For a California home that’s classic on the outside and modern on the inside, we opted to keep up with the contemporary concept by using glass, metal, and solid lines for the wine cellar.  

The modern design style was apparent throughout the home with neutral-shaded walls, large grid windows, rectangular furniture, and design pieces made of metal. Slight touches of the old can be seen mainly on the exterior, like the windows reminiscent of the colonial era and some wainscot panels within the dining room. The combination of these style features gave the home a very luxurious vibe, but the kind of luxurious vibe that echoes discreetly and with class — this is what we wanted for this home’s small, contemporary wine cellar to exude!  

Apart from meticulously planning the wine cellar’s design, we also develop suitable self-contained or split-system cooling systems, lighting, and insulation solutions that could stand through the area’s microclimate. Since the home is perched on a California hillside overlooking the Marina, it receives a lot of sun and heat most of the year. Building the cellar on a small hallway then was a logical thing to do, aside from the fact that it was our client’s personal preference as well. 

Industrial-Grade, Ducted Wine A/C to Keep the Wines Cool

Efficient insulation is only part of the entire approach to achieving a well-controlled wine cellar environment. A wine cooling system is necessary to keep the temperature and humidity levels within the ideal range. For this project, we installed a ducted cooling system great for small modern wine cellars. Split-type cooling units allow us to maximize small spaces and not have difficulty with how to make the evaporator look as stylish at the same time.   

We brought in a ducted wine cooling unit with temperature and humidity controls. It came with an LED-display control panel with tactile sensors for easy touch and control, so the thermostat control also looked ultra-modern. At Coastal Custom Wine Cellars, we only use devices of premium quality to ensure efficiency and longevity.   

Since it is a split system, we mounted the condenser outside the house and installed the air outlet on the cellar’s ceiling, hidden behind a black-painted metal grille. 

Metal Peg Wine Racking Provides Plenty of Room for More Bottles

There are different types of metal peg wine racks. For this compact, modern wine closet, we decided on triple-deep metal pegs wherein a pair of pegs could hold three (3) wine bottles. Despite the limited space of the cellar, the homeowners can store 159 wine bottles on the rack and three (3) more bottles on a metal box we placed at the center of the wall.  

The metal box is an open box that allows the homeowners to showcase their best wines in a vertical orientation. We placed a mirror at the back to make it look like there was more space and allowed light to bounce around so people could see the bottles more clearly.   

On the metal peg rack, wines are positioned in a label-forward orientation, which means that the owner doesn’t have to grab the bottles and cause unnecessary shaking just to identify the wine. That’s style, and convenience rolled into one!   

A wine cellar isn’t complete without some dim lights to set the mood too. So, we set up some LED lights around the back panel, so the cellar looks glowing from the end of the hallway. Modern LED lighting systems are low-heat emitting, so they don’t significantly affect the temperature inside the cellar. 

Elegant Designs as Defined by Minimalist Small Modern Wine Cellars

The reason why wine cellars can revamp a home’s value is that they’re one-of-a-kind. Not all homes have custom-built wine cellars, and the market for them is pretty exclusive. So, it is highly advisable to build a customized cellar so it would stand out when the time comes that you decide to sell your home.   

Modern designs are characterized by an abundance of straight lines and neutral colors like black, brown, and white. While some modern designs can appear less artistic, any modern space can show elegance with the right approach. For this wine cellar, we didn’t dwell so much on fancy ornamentation; instead, we focused on the materials we used for the structure, including metal and glass.   

We installed a frameless glass wine cellar door that is thermally glazed to inhibit condensation. A frameless door allows people to see the entire collection without interference, and it gives a very minimalistic yet rich look — precisely what elegance is about! 

Design and Build Your Own Small Modern Wine Cellar with the Coastal Wine Cellars Team! 

The Wine Cellar Designers Group has been around for years, and we have an immense fascination for designing and building highly unique wine cellars. We are wine enthusiasts, which means we know all about wines and the best environment to keep them in.   

With our professional expertise, we can help you create your own custom modern wine cellar — big or small — and see what cooling, lighting, and insulation approach would best serve your design.   

Get in touch with our design consultants today by calling us at +1 (702) 475 – 5399.