Home / Design / Furniture

Builder Transforms His Staircase Into a 156-Bottle “Wine Cellar”

By Jessica Stewart on April 15, 2020

If the thought of having a wine cellar sounds like a dream, what about having a wine staircase? That's exactly what Australian builder Murray Berrill created for himself when renovating his home. Not only do his stairs hold 156 bottles of wine, they also have a built-in thermometer to ensure that everything stays at the perfect temperature. The clever idea was created using pre-made drawers purchased from a hardware store, and it took just a week and a half to complete.

So what prompted the idea? “I hate dead space when renovating a house, as you're essentially paying for nothing,” shares Berrill. “So we thought of putting the wine in drawers in the staircase rather than behind it.” Some innovative planning allowed the builder to bring his idea to fruition. Mainly, this required him to understand how all the bottles would fit and to ensure that the structure was strong enough.

Though Berrill had never previously built a wine storage staircase, once he worked out the details, everything fell into place. Aside from the built-in thermometer, Berrill also took care to ensure that the drawers are well insulated. Now, he's even thinking about including a cooling unit to chill some bottles.

Once Berrill shared his project on his company's Facebook page, it became clear that the wine staircase had a lot of fans. As one person commented, “I’ll drink to that idea! Very clever!!” while another declared, “Omg it’s the stairway to heaven!”. Given the popularity of the project, we have a feeling that this won't be the last wine staircase we see. In case you were wondering, Berrill estimates that it cost about $5,500 Australian dollars (about $3,500 USD) to complete the entire project.