Claude Wine Rack 

I’ll spare you the diatribe about why I try to avoid working with plywood, but the short story is that I don’t like how ply ages. Because of my strong feelings towards plywood, I usually shy away from cabinet jobs. 

Plywood cases are so much faster and cheaper to make that it’s uncommon to find a project with the right conditions (or clients) for solid wood. Luckily, the design and details of this wine cabinet offered a rare opportunity to justify solid wood. Even better, the clients shared my propensity to avoid ply. 

The prompt was straight forward: design a cabinet that can hold at least 60-bottles of wine (various sizes), integrates seamlessly with existing architecture, and includes a system to ensure the bottles won't slide out in the case of a minor earthquake.

We divided the cabinet into three vertical sections to mirror the cabinets below the countertop and designate an enclosed space for glasses. The two large compartments are designed to handle standard wine bottles, while the lower row can handle the monster bottles. Ultimately, the design allowed for 100 bottles, and a party's worth of glasses. 

I won't get my hopes up that solid wood cabinets become the norm, but I'm glad it's still occasionally happens. 
-Jeff

Scope of work: design, fabrication
Materials: walnut, tempered glass, stainless steel
Dimensions: 80” x 40” x 15”  (WxHxD)
Completion date: 5/2017

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