Our wine cellar: part 3 and reveal

Our wine cellar is a huge source of pride in our home. We love it!
 We didn't have air conditioning in our home for two years but we had a cooling unit for the wine cellar. I know, our priorities are all messed up! At least we had lots of cool  wine to dink away those hot summer days:)

Here is it is- our cellar:

We are currently running low-ish on wine since we restock in fall/winter during wine making season.
We painted the walls a light buttery color, installed wooden crown moldings stained walnut, and the wine racks were also stained walnut. Yes, we stained and assembled all these wine racks- it took forever!!! The wine racks were purchased at Aux Plaisirs du Bacchus on Bernard Avenue in Montreal.
You can also see the end result of the travertine floor. It's just the right look for a wine cellar.

 

We use an old wine barrel to decorate a corner of the room and we got some wooden wine boxes from our local liquor store to hide some wine making supplies. Tip: In Montreal if you ask your local S.A.Q. for some wooden boxes they'll give them to you for a small donation.

 We have a small bistro table in the room, mainly for good looks. We don't actually drink in the room because it's cold in there (10-12 degrees celsius). 

View from the wine room into the living room. We installed an exterior grade cedar wood door. Ideally, the wine should be in a dark room and the door shouldn't have glass. But I wanted to be able to see into the wine room from the living room so we decided on this door. The room is large enough that the light that flows in doesn't disturb the wine

View into the wine room from the living room. Love it!

The light fixture was purchased at Home Depot and it's the right size. color, a style for the room. Just to add some pizazz we also installed a decorative medallion.

I think it's now clear to everyone that I love my wine. Every year since we've been married Tony and I have made wine, about 200-250 bottles each year. We also like to buy some inexpensive bottles and of course we love it when our friends bring us gifts of wine bottles- hint, hint! LOL- just kidding:)

Smiles,
Nancy

linking to Between naps on the porch and other parties on my Party Link page

Living room renovation complete- the reveal

Hello, hello, hello! Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful summer weather.


At the start of the week I posted about our living room renovation. It was the second project we undertook and, with everything we had going on in our lives at the time (wedding plans, working on my Ph.D and, of course, work) it was probably one of the most challenging projects. Because it was a total gut of a large room in the home and we were new to the renovation world, we found ourselves overwhelmed! All the renovators out there know that little complication always show up, that time lines have no real significance, that budgets are meant to be thrown out the window, etc. But when your new at it, it's frustrating! 
At this stage in the renovation game (4 years in), I'm much better with all the challenges that appear along the way. One thing I keep in mind is that in the long run, it's always worth it. Also, all the little things that caused you to break out in tears or screams will actually make for good comedy once the project is over.


And after my rant, here are the after pictures of our living room:

We love the way the floors turned out. The color variations in cherry wood are just beautiful. The couches were hand-me downs from my brother. I'd prefer a darker color, but when its free you don't complain. You'll also notice from the before pictures below that the fireplace insert was spay painted black. If you plan on doing this, you must use spray paint made for fireplaces. The paint has to be able to withstand high heat. The light fixtures above the fireplace are the originals. I also sprayed them black (I know, I'm obsessed with spraying things black!) but I can't decide if I like them or not. I keep looking for alternatives but haven't yet found any I love.

The wall art is a reproduction of an Illustrated London News image from 1933. You can also see the train-station clock hanging on the wall.

View into the living room from the old kitchen. I am on the hunt for an area rug, but can't seem to decide on a style

View of our coffee bar. This is where we sit and have coffee every morning before work. I love this spot.

The bar, again.

Even our 17 year old cat Fonzi hangs out at the bar. He just waits to be served his milk. Cats can be so demanding!

Now, here are some reminders of what the room looked like before the renovation:

The fireplace remained more or less the same. The stone is stunning so I wanted to keep it. Everything else had to go.

View into the living room.

Entrance into the old kitchen

The bar

Let me know what you think. It still needs some decor so any ideas are appreciated.

Enjoy the beautiful day!


Nancy


See other posts about the living room transformation:
The before and the demolition  
Getting it done and choices 





I'm attending:

Living room renovation: getting it done and choices

Because this was our second large DIY renovation project (after the basement bathroom) we needed some help along the way. We were still new to the game. Luckily my father was still willing to help and teach us along the way. The project took a full 6 months to complete. This was because Tony and I were both working full-time, I was working on my Ph.D, and we were also planning out big Italian/Portuguese wedding. We were busy, busy bees!

My daddy and I hard at work! The first step was to put up the ceiling. 2"x4"s were used to help hold up the gyp. This isn't the smartest of ideas since the gyp was heavy! But, we were new to this. We used 5/8" gyp for both the ceiling and the walls.

We then installed the gyp on the walls. Even at this primitive point in the renovation I think the room looks better than the original. One thing I must say is that we didn't insulate the walls in this room. You can see in the previous image that there was some, although very inadequate, insulation. We were tight with the budget. Also, we figured that since many older homes in our area didn't have insulation, we didn't have to add it. This is one of our biggest regrets because the room is much colder in the winter than the other rooms we did insulate. Live and learn! 

You can see that there is a gap above the fireplace. This is where we removed the boxes hiding the old water heater pipes. We had to create a decorative molding to mask this gap.

My daddy working hard!

My daddy working hard again! I also enrolled my sister as a volunteer renovator. How nice of her to participate! Funny, both my father and sister stopped calling and coming over. I wonder why? Just kidding:)

The biggest impact in the room was the installation of wood floors. We choose a 2 1/4 inch wide American cherry. I know that large planks are in style but we loved the look of the very thin planks reminiscent of wood floors in older homes.

The arrival of tons of wood!

Installing the wood floors. We had such a hard time getting a company to install the floors. Because the planks are so thin, there was much more work involved. Some companies just refused while others wanted up to $5000 for the installation! Crazy! We called Montreal Parquetery, the store where we purchase the floors, requesting to return the floors. They recommended a company that gave us a great price and service. We are happy we didn't return it because the end result is gorgeous.

You can see how small the pieces are.

Installation complete! This is before the floors were varnished, which changes the color significantly.

We installed large 5 1/4 inch crown molding. Makes a big difference in the room.

The decorative items:

We wanted to keep a coffee bar area in the room so we purchased this bar from Hooker Furniture.

The coffee table and console are the Pavillion collection from Bombay Company

I purchased this clock years before we bought the house and just kept it in the box. It's large so you need tall ceilings but it's definitely a show stopper.

That's it for now!
Later in the week I'll show off the final product. Check back soon:)


Nancy