Residential Wine Cellars: Customizing this Orange County Garage in California

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This residential wine cellar’s wooden wine racks were all custom-made by our wine rack design team.

Is your garage too big and you’re looking for enough space to build a full wine room in your home?

Residential wine cellars can be placed almost anywhere in your home when you work with the right specialists. Explore the fascinating journey of converting a small section within a two-car garage into a personalized wine haven.  Nestled in Dana Point, Orange County, California, this impressive wine sanctuary was custom-built to have remarkable storage capacity of 725 bottles!

Contemporary Residential Wine Cellar in a Garage

Modern wine rooms are designed to serve as an elegant display area, as well as a fully functioning wine storage space.

A residential wine cellar can be installed in a seldom used or unused living space of a home, such as a bathroom, basement, under the stairs, in a closet, or even in a garage.

Custom wine cellars installed in Orange County California should be a beautiful addition to any home, as they not only provide a unique showcase area for wines but also add to the aesthetic appeal of the space.

Several factors come into play when it comes to custom wine cellar design and installation, such as controlling storage temperature and humidity, ensuring optimal sealing, and racking solutions for storage and display. Properly addressing these factors will create an environment that is conducive to storing and showcasing wines.

The Dana Point Wine Cellar Design

This recently completed wine cellar installed in a residential home in Dana Point Orange County California is a garage conversion project.

Only a portion of the garage was built with a residential wine cellar.

It demonstrates how carefully installed wine cellar components can provide the best climate conditions for long-term wine storage.

For this completed home wine cellar project, our team converted just a small portion of the client’s 2-car garage into a dedicated wine room.

After overcoming a few obstacles (e.g. the garage door, roller tracks), the Coastal team managed to create a 11′ long and 5′ wide wine cellar design that has a total storage capacity of 725 wine bottles.

The room in a two-car garage enclosure features a number of different wine-racking styles.

The different styles of racking used accommodate the client’s standard-sized and large format bottles, a proper cooling system, and an impressive Tuscan-styled arched wine cellar door.

Coastal Wine Cellar Builders California Office prepared a free 3D wine cellar design package that consisted of an overhead view, different elevations, and several 3D visuals.

The complimentary three-dimensional presentation of the design allows the client to preview the finished product, as well as see how all the components tie together.

Different custom wine rack styles were integrated into the design, which included wood case storage and 1.5-liter, 3-liter, and 6-liter requirements.

Custom Wine Racks for Different Wine Bottle Sizes

The right side wall of the wine storage space is dominated mostly by custom residential wine racks with single bottle openings.

With inner dimensions of 3 ¾” x 3 ¾,” they can fit most standard-sized wine bottles, including standard champagne bottles, California Bluechips, Oregon Pinots, and Zinfandels.

Of course, magnum wine bottles also have space inside this custom residential wine cellar.

We included a tabletop for serving wines and added a pair of drawers for wine accouterments. And just below the drawers are diamond bin components for bulk storage.

To accommodate the client’s collection of large format bottles, Coastal Custom Wine Cellar Builders California added label-forward custom wine racks just above the opening, which can hold a total of 4 magnums or 1.5-liter bottles.

Storage for Large Format Wine Bottles

The team also incorporated a thoughtful layout on its left side wall, dedicated to accommodating the client’s impressive collection of large format bottles and wooden cases. This side of the cellar features a carefully designed quarter-round shelf that artistically showcases wooden boxes housing magnum-sized bottles. As one progresses deeper into the wine room, purpose-built storage compartments come into view, specifically tailored to house large bottles ranging from 1.5 liters to 6 liters in a label-forward arrangement.

Within each compartment, a clever arrangement allows for the storage of four smaller magnum-style bottles per opening, while double magnums find a snug fit with two bottles in each slot. Directly below, the storage design extends to wooden shelves, meticulously designed to hold wood cases containing 12 packs and 6 packs of wines

Other Custom Residential Wine Cellar Rack Design Features 

The residential wine cellar in Orange County, California features custom wine racks that almost encircle the space. These racks have a high-reveal display row and hold wine bottles at a 15-degree angle. LED lighting behind a valance illuminates the bottles and their labels, creating an attractive ambiance.

An easy-to-clean wrought iron grill graces this glass wine cellar door.

This type of wine rack design is effective for managing wine collections since it stores similar wines both above and below the display row. The back wall across from the entrance showcases a custom wine rack design with an opening for wood cases, flanked by single bottle openings and a display row.

To maximize storage, the wine cellar builders incorporated a double deep configuration below the wood case storage. The back wall also includes a tabletop with adjustable shelves, initially meant for wood case storage but adaptable for artistic displays or serving purposes.

The double-deep lattice diamond bin below provides improved airflow between bottles and adds aesthetic appeal to the design. On the right side wall, a solid case opening with a premium redwood tabletop is surrounded by single bottle storage racks and a high-reveal display row.

This display rack tilts wine bottles to a 15-degree angle, maintaining cork contact and showcasing the best bottles. A quarter-round display rack serves as an elegant end piece on the left side wall, suitable for decanters or decorative items.

Underneath the solid case opening, drawers hold wine accessories, while a diamond bin configuration provides additional bulk storage. The chosen Pinot-colored paint scheme complements the Premium Redwood wine racking systems.

Meeting the client’s desire for proper storage, organization, and display, the Coastal team employed diverse storage and display rack styles.

Arched Wine Cellar Door with Operable Wrought Iron Grill

One of the most eye-catching features of this project is the Tuscan-style wine cellar entry door with a wrought iron grill. The unique grape leaf design of the iron grill adds a touch of elegance and is operable, which means it can be opened and closed for cleaning purposes. The custom grill is accessible on the backside of the glass door, but it is fully visible from the outside.

Check out our range of wine room doors options here.

Through-the-wall wine cooling unit from CellarPro.

Wine Cellar Cooling Unit from CellarPro

The Coastal team installed a self-contained CellarPro refrigeration system to maintain ideal climate conditions in this Dana Point home wine cellars project.

To stabilize temperature and humidity inside the wine cellar space, a CellarPro exterior vent cooling unit was installed in an opening within the right wall racking system.

The cooling unit exhausts to the outdoors. It has an extended cover to protect the unit against elements.

For more custom wine cellars video tours, visit our YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/winecellarsbycoastal.

Processed Video Transcription:

Hi, and thank you for visiting Coastal Custom Wine Cellars.  I’m going to take you through our California wine cellar design process.

This particular job is a project we recently completed in Dana Point, California. We actually created the residential wine cellar in Orange County in the enclosure of a two-car garage.  We will be sharing some photographs of the California wine cellar design with you as well.

Every Project Starts With A Three-dimensional Wine Cellar Design

Everyone that comes to Coastal Custom Wine Cellars receives a complimentary three-dimensional wine cellar design created by our California specialists.  It includes the plan view, which is what we are looking at now, some elevations, and some 3D visuals. In this particular residential wine cellar, as you can see, the dimensions posted here are just over 11′ long and just over 5′ wide.  This particular cellar accommodated 725 bottles, and a fairly large percentage of them included wood case storage, 1.5-liter, 3-liter, and even 6-liter requirements.

The limited height that we had because of some obstacles in the garage, just over 6’2″, I believe, but we were still able to manage over 700 bottles, right at 725 bottles, as you can see.  Those numbers are posted here, and how these various bottles are broken down into various components are also posted just above that.

Let us take a look at Elevation A, which is the right side wall as you enter from here.  Elevation A is, for the most part, single bottle storage openings.  I call these openings universal openings.  They measure 3 3/4 inch x 3 3/4 inch inside dimension, which essentially means you can store just about any 750 ml bottle in the marketplace, including standard champagne bottles, Oregon Pinots, Shiraz, Zinfandels, and California Bluechips.  Very few bottles will not fit here.

We also included a high reveal display row, and as you can see from the side view, the bottles pitch to a 15-degree angle.  Many of our clients like to include some soft LED wine cellar lighting in this area here which is called the light valance just above the display, which will illuminate these bottles.  Not only is it a beautiful feature of the wine cellar design, but it’s a good management tool as well for a residential wine cellar Orange County.  You can store like wines above and below the display row.

These are the actual 3D designs we showed to our client.

Perfect California Wine Cellar Design Built in a 2-Car Garage

The open area here is open to the garage wall.  We included a tabletop, drawers for wine accouterments (e.g., corkscrews, napkins), and some bulk wine storage just below that.  The client had a number of large format bottles, so just above the opening, we have the capacity for four magnums or 1.5-liter bottles, and these are stored and displayed in a label forward, horizontal display.

The back wall across from the entry has an opening for wood cases.  These little icons here represent wood case openings, and we flanked that with some more of the single-bottle wine storage and the display row.  But below, and as you can see from the side view, we created this to be a double-deep configuration.  The wine storage capacity was increased a bit and offered more tabletop areas while the client was in there managing and working with the wines.

The left side wall is where we included most of the 3-liter and the 6-liter displays, as you can see at the top.  A little bit of single bottle storage so that we can continue the high reveal display going around the perimeter of the room.  These are adjustable shelves so the client can control the spacing for the different-sized wood cases that he offered.

The end piece here is called a quarter-round display shelf.  It is not necessarily intended for wines to be stored vertically, as we have depicted here.  You could put decanters or other decorative items there.  As you can see, it just makes a nice finish or an end to the cellarage that is on the left sidewall.

These three-dimensional wine cellar design views give you a great idea of how everything is going to tie together.  This actual opening right here was left open where we placed our CellarPro exterior vent cooling unit.  We also included in our design our Tuscan-styled arched door.  It has an operable iron grill, which means you can open it for cleaning purposes and then close it back.

I certainly hope you enjoyed the tour here.  Cheers!

Work with Our California Wine Cellar Designers  for all Your Residential Wine Cellars!

Our team at Coastal Custom Wine Cellars is focused on creating functional and beautiful residential wine cellars for avid wine collectors. When you choose to work with us, we will assess your needs and take note of every detail to help us determine the perfect wine storage solution for you. We will create a design that will suit your budget, aesthetic, and functional requirements.

You will get a free custom design package, which includes 3-dimensional drawings. These images include the different elevation views, racking styles, room dimensions, door design, and bottle capacities. With CAD images, our clients can visualize their completed dream wine cellar.

Let our team of experts create a stunning California wine cellar design for your home. Let us know how we can help. You may talk to one of our specialists at +1 (949) 200-8134.

Pick Your Style, Visit Our Gallery of Custom Wine Cellars.