Here is some progress of the conversion of the coal room in my basement to a wine cellar. I have been working on the design of the wine rack for a while. I’m using wood reclaimed from my kitchen remodel to build the rack.
Here is the original design.
life as interns 
A cellar or basement conversion is just another term for a remodel, except for the fact that you are not just updating or changing the look; you are converting your basement or cellar to be used for something different.
By: cellar conversion on September 12, 2009
at 9:34 am
A good place to start is to call Miss Utility before you even think about digging your basement out.
By: Cellar Conversion on October 31, 2009
at 1:19 am
Not digging my basement out. It was previously a coal room, a concrete box basically. Adding wine racks, counter space, and lighting.
By: PatrickJL on December 21, 2009
at 5:31 pm
Is cellar conversion worth the investment ? How much would I pay to rent the equivalent space?
By: Cellar Conversion on December 18, 2009
at 1:25 am
Depends on your situation. I spend about $150 on the lighting for the cellar space, $100 on wood for the wine racks. Everything else I already had. Most of the wine racks are constructed from scrap wood I had from replacing my kitchen floor. I painted the racks with leftover paint we had. The design is rather sparse, other than the racks, there is a bistro table and a couple of chairs. I estimate that I will have room for about 12 cases of wine.
I did a quick search on what it would cost to rent cellar space. It is approximately $2.50 per case/per month to store wine at a cellar. There is also a $15 fee to pickup/dropoff wine (for the first three case, $5 per case after that). That doesn’t include various inventory or handling fees. If I were to store what my cellar will be able to hold, I would pay about $30 per month for the storage alone. If I needed wine to be picked up or dropped off once a month, it would add $15 to that. Lets round that up to $50 with the various handling charges and tax. It would take me five months to recoup my investment. In my quick search I also wasn’t able to find wine cellar storage in my area so it looks like I wouldn’t even have a choice. I was surprised to find that the cellar fees were rather affordable. This would be something I would consider if I were required to spend more or didn’t have the space to do it.
By: PatrickJL on December 21, 2009
at 5:52 pm