How to Make a Wine Rack

Whether you have just a couple of wine bottles, or a large collection, your wine will gain immensely from correct storage in a custom made wine rack. By making your own wine rack you can customise it to just your space and collection requirements. It need not be expensive. Start by thinking about your needs. Will you need a wine rack that can be easily expanded later as your collection grows? Or is it simply to hold a few bottles on a wall in the dining room?

Making a simple wine rack does not need many tools or great experience. Perhaps for your first wine rack it would be better to construct it out of wood, rather than metal or plastic. For a simple wooden wine rack you wll need a hammer, saw, screwdriver, drill, sandpaper, a jigsaw or bandsaw, a holesaw and some wood glue. For finishing your wine rack you wll need stain, paint, varnish or oil, depending on your preferences.

Wooden wine racks can be made from just about any timber, depending on your taste and the décor in your home. Softwoods are easier to work, but tend to be less durable than hardwoods. Excellent woods for a wine rack include birch, mahogany, cedar and oak. Buy properly seasoned wood ensuring that it has a moisture content below 12 percent.

Once you have sketched out your design, make a full-sized drawing of it. You can then use this drawing as a template for the individual parts. Using tracing paper, transfer your design on to the selected wood and carefully cut out each part.

Start with the frame, making sure that any joints are cut as accurately as possible. If your design uses screws to hold the wine rack together, make sure that you pre-drill any holes to avoid splitting the timber. The parts that support the bottles will have two separate arches, one for the bottle body and the smaller for the neck. The easiest way to cut these is to use a holesaw, although a jigsaw or bandsaw can also be used.

Sand all components well to a smooth finish, then assemble the parts according to your plans. Finish the wine rack with a coat of paint, varnish or oil. If your design includes a flat top for serving your wine, a coat of polyurethane will help protect from accidental spills.

Your wine rack will help you organise your wine collection and prove a valuable addition to your home.

If everything else fails, no worries: you can always get a ready-made wine rack on Bob Shop.