Having a wine cellar is like every wine lover’s dream. But what if you can build your very own wine cellar into your stairs? An Australian builder did just that by creating a wine storage staircase, transforming his flight of stairs into wine drawers.
Murray Berrill, a 58-year-old house renovator has been building and restoring heritage homes in Bendigo for more than 30 years. The veteran builder is known for his detailed and grand finishes of heritage features. His latest creation, however, is something he built for himself. He decided to create a wine cellar. But instead of constructing an entire room to store the wines, he thought of merging it to other parts of the house. And that’s when the idea of a wine storage staircase came to his mind.
This staircase is designed to double as a wine cellar
“I hate dead space when renovating a house, as you’re essentially paying for nothing,” Murray shares. “So we thought of putting the wine in drawers in the staircase rather than behind it.”
The wine storage staircase has 12 built-in drawers with bottle holders inside. All in all, it could fit up to 156 bottles of wine. Murray has to carefully consider essential factors for the design. First, the drawers need to be wide enough for the bottles to fit. It took 6 steps of the stair for him to build 12 widened drawers in two juxtaposed rows. Second, the stairs have to be structurally strong to sustain substantial weight on the surface while securing the bottles inside.
“There is a stud wall from the concrete slab to underneath each tread that runs down the middle of the stairs. An elephant could walk on it. That’s also where the draw slides are fixed so that the draws are anchored to the slab to minimize vibrations.”
This wine storage staircase has 12 extended drawers to hold bottles of wine
Lastly, the wine storage staircase should include all the important features of an active wine cellar. It should protect alcoholic beverages from potentially harmful external influences while providing constant temperature and sustained humidity. Murray made sure that the staircase is well-insulated and installed a built-in thermometer to ensure that everything stays at perfect temperature. He is now also considering adding a cooling unit to keep the wine bottles chilled and ready to serve at all times.
Murray created his wine storage staircase by using pre-made drawers he purchased from Bunnings Warehouse, a hardware store chain in Australia. It only took him just a week and a half to complete his clever creation. Murray shared his project on Facebook and it wasn’t long until his post became viral. Apparently, many people have been asking how much it would cost them to bring this brilliant concept into their own homes. Murray estimates that it would cost around 5,000 AUD ($3,500) which is actually much cheaper than building an actual wine cellar.
Here’s what people have to say about this innovative construction idea
Source: Facebook