Wine-OH!

one of my most favorite parts of our remodel is not the windows. it's not the countertops. it's not really even my faucet that i have promised to marry!  IT'S MY WINE STORAGE!  i think i've mentioned before that i went a little nuts with the whole "storage" idea in this remodel. if there was an empty space under or behind something, i wanted to find a way to use it. i did actually hold back when it came to all that blank space behind the seating in the banquette. you have to stop at some point or people are gonna think you really ARE crazy. i like to think i stopped just this side of crazy.  
the first time i mentioned the wine storage was in my little Check List of items.  i actually did finish it back in August.  okay, the top steps are finished.  and although i have not taken a true After photo, with the steps painted & all, here they are, or rather here they were in August!

how cool is that?!  keep in mind, these are the 2 sets of steps that separate the dining from the living room.  and that's just the first step of storage.  the step below that has drawers that are about twice as deep.  so here's how i did it!  oh, and forgive the pics, cuz, again, in a rush to get photos i used my phone & that's really not the best when you have the shakes from all that wine like i do!

Materials - aside from the drawers themselves that Tom @ PlumCreek made

• i used cork shelf liner (to carry the wine cork theme, but also for grip)
• Xacto knife or Box Cutter - aka Utility Knife apparently in the Mid-West!
• Ruler
• extra wine corks for spacers
• and of course WINE!!!

oh, & btw, that is an original Charles Chips can holding my spare corks. i have 2 of them thanks 2 mom!

Assembly

make sure you have a clean drawer. i vacuumed it out & lightly sanded it.

Special Note:  Nacho had to use the table saw & sander to the bottoms & front panel because i ended up adding thin felt strips to the bottom for glide - or else it scratched my beautiful Marmoleum floor. i found the felt strips at Hobby Lobby & it came in a sheet of 8.5 x 11, just like paper.  even as thin as it was, this would affect the fit so he had to take a little off to make it work. this was trial & error so there were actually multiple trips to the sander & table saw before we got the bottoms & front whittled down so they didn't stick.

now, cut your shelf liner to size. the easy way for me was to actually turn the drawer over & trace the bottom. perfect fit every time - except for the 1st one cuz i didn't think of it until after that!

hold it down & peel it back as you go

and there you have it! a nicely lined drawer!

Spacers
since wine bottles vary in size, i didn't want to put anything too permanent in place where i might run into "accommodation" issues later. not that i can't drink my way out of any "accommodation" issues! but i wanted to leave a little wiggle room inside the drawer.  to do that, i sized the drawer up by laying out a few bottles without everything being crammed bottle-to-bottle.

anyone want to guess my current favorite wine?

take 4 spare corks & hot glue 2 to each side, placing them close to the front & back of the bottles. i figured this keeps the bottles from clanging against the sides of the wood.  i could have fit a 5th bottle in there, but, again, bottle sizes vary so i could run into issues down the road.

dab of hot glue on the bottom of the corks

THIS IS JUST ON THE RIGHT & LEFT OF THE DRAWER! don't hot glue anything in between bottles. i considered & even tried cutting some corks in half lengthwise & whatever the other direction is. wine corks don't cut so well, & since i've had some pretty serious run-ins with sharp objects, i'm restricted on how much i'm allowed to use a knife (just you wait Nacho!). so it was just easier to use the whole cork & glue it in place on each side.
now just lay spare corks in between the wine bottles as you need them.  i used 2 like the sides - 1 to the front & 1 to the back!

and what's nice about this, is as i take a bottle out, if i don't have something to immediately take it's place, i just put a bunch of extra wine corks in the gap until i get replacement wine bought!

and since i have extra space behind the bottles (to the back of the drawer), i just move the spare corks back there when i'm restocking the drawer. that way i always have extra corks right where i need them!

....and just wait! i have more ideas for all those corks! bwah ha ha!

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