If you and your significant other like wine or enjoy having friends over and entertaining guests, a custom wine pantry is something you may want to consider adding to your home. Custom wine storage might not be the first home renovation project that comes to most people’s minds. However, if you consider yourself to be a connoisseur of sorts, it will no doubt be a valuable addition to your home. You could remodel your pantry to include wine glass hanging racks or transform a once bare corner or niche into custom-built wine racks and shelves. Whether you want to convert your entire pantry into a wine storage room or just a part of it, check out these wine pantry ideas and tips below!

Where You Store Your Wine Matters

As you likely already know, where you choose to store your wine matters. Wine is often stored in cave-like cellars for a reason: wine needs to be in a dark and dry place for the taste to be preserved. Both sunlight and fluorescent light can cause the flavors and smell to change, so you need to consider the overall environment of your custom wine pantry. We’re guessing you don’t have any windows in your pantry, so natural light won’t be something you’ll have to worry about. However, what lights should you use? LED lights are the best choice because they don’t emit any UV light and don’t emit much heat. If you’re adding custom wine storage in your kitchen or anywhere else in your home that has windows, ensure wine is kept behind UV-resistant cabinet doors.

Custom Wine Pantry Essentials

There are a lot of custom wine pantry ideas out there, but they all have some commonalities. More specifically, they have lots of storage and space for glasses. There are a variety of options for storing your wine bottles such as shelving, racks, cubbies, pegboards, drawers, and more. These options can allow you to get creative with how you store your wine. Next, you can even make a statement piece or work of art that’s as aesthetically pleasing and as interesting as it is functional. If you have limited space, we recommend wall-mounted storage. However, if you’re transforming an entire pantry, you can combine a lot of different custom wine pantry ideas for storage to create something unique. When choosing from all these options, don’t forget about how you’ll be storing your wine glasses. You could simply reserve some space in a cabinet for this. Alternatively, you can think creatively about hanging them upside down by their base to store them. You could do this by adding a wine glass rack that hangs from the wall, underneath a cabinet, or underneath a shelf.

The Right Way to Store Your Wine

Regardless of whatever custom wine pantry storage options you choose, you’ll need to ensure that they all keep your wine bottles sideways rather than upright. This is especially important if you’re storing them long term. This will work for bottles that you either want to age or if you’re saving it for a special occasion. Bottles should be stored this way because they keep the wine in contact with the cork. This is important to keep the cork moist, meaning it’s less likely to dry and shrivel over time which would expose the wine to the air. However, it can take weeks for a cork to dry out. Therefore, you shouldn’t worry too much about storing a bottle upright if you plan on drinking it soon.

Have these custom wine pantry ideas inspired you to give your pantry a makeover? If so, let the organizational experts at Closet America help you realize the potential of your space. We’ll work with you to create custom wine storage solutions and an overall closet design that you love and then bring it into reality. From 3D rendered designs to installation, we’re with you every step of the way. Contact us to schedule your free design consultation with one of our experts today!