Hunenberg House - The Wine Cellar Design

For as long as I can remember Liam and I have been talking about having a Wine Cellar, first it was in our house in Cape Town and then here in Raebmatt but we just never seemed to get round to it. Now with our move to Hunenberg and the renovations that we are doing to the ground floor, it made sense to finally create a room of his dreams (with my inout of course!). The only problem is now that we have the option to make one, we are questioning all our previous ideas and designs – and Pinterest has been helpful and unhelpful at the same time – having us requestion everything everytime we see something different.

Initially, we thought about having an open wine cellar, but I realised for me personally I am not into alcohol being on display. Then I thought about combining the wine cellar with a wet bar, but as our main entertaining area is upstairs leading to the outdoors, we don’t have space for a wine cellar there, let alone a wet bar. Plus, the wine cellar should be a “cellar” where temperature can be regulated and that would not work well on the “living area” floor where for us maximising the light has been the main priority.

Idea Vitoed – Open Wine Cellar

Idea Vitoed – Open Wet Bar

But it got me thinking about making a second cosier “indoor” entertaining area on the ground floor, so that when winter hits we would have a large space for indoor entertaining but high on the casual front: so along the lines of this amazing space Sarah Richardson created in her dream home.

Already, I can map out the whole space where everything would go. The only problem being is that this space for now can only be used as non-living space. Hence the reason for the next two or three years it is becoming my IGC Studio and store room, until the living area percentages change at the Muncipality level.

In the future, it will be my plan to have a pool table (where my current craft table is now) and a proper Wet Bar come kitchenette (where my makeshift coffee counter is now) and then fortunately already now we can have a lounge area that leads into the Spare Bedroom/Study and Bathroom. There is also a room leading off the studio space into the main hallway of the house and for now this is just a storeroom for all IGC’s props but the builidng work has been done already that will convert this into another ground floor bathroom; that way there is a bathroom for when the space is an entertaining area and it will be right next to the gym. Which brings me back to the wine cellar.

The old Wine Cellar currently sits across the hall from the storeroom; and is a great spot as it is a door out of the way under the stairs. It is long and thing and so totally lends itself to racks and racks of bottles. I had thought about seating or a mini bar, but I realised whilst it would look good – is anyone really going to open a bottle down there and sit there drinking? But what I did think about in addition to the racks is to have a built in wine fridge on the small far end wall and have something decorative above this – a mirror to reflect some light? And then also on the one wall to have the bottom half as cupboards with shelving. This being the spot to store other drinks and provisions etc.

Idea Vitoed – Sitting/Standing Area