For those of us who choose to reside in the heart of a big metropolitan city, space often comes in at a premium. And for those of us with a little square footage to spare, it’s rarely adequate enough for a cellar. So what happens to our precious wine collection? Where do we keep our little treasures safe yet accessible?
The creative and engineering teams at wine space designers, CellArt, have decided to challenge space rather than leave space to challenge them. Whether you are looking to show off your collection or keep it hidden from envious eyes, CellArt has found impressive solutions in even the tiniest of places.
Each small wine space project is unique, but perfection is always found at the intersection of aesthetic alignment, capacity and performance. Where a long corridor can be a lost space, CellArt imagines sliding drawers combined with retro-lit niches to hold ancient bottles of whiskey. Where there is the sharp corner of a room, it is replaced with a recessed spirit bar of snowdrop white lacquered wood. Where we see a bare wall, they create an art piece that becomes the central feature of the room and subtly changes as bottles are added or taken away. A revolving door, an Aladdin's Cave, or a hidden panel, each piece is bespoke and completely integrated into its surroundings.
Photo Credit: CellArt
Imagine the elegant symmetry of a living room in a Haussmanian apartment in the heart of Paris. To preserve the beauty of the room, CellArt played with old techniques of hiding precious items behind innocent looking library walls. Slide the bookcase out to reveal your rare vintages perfectly preserved with invisible refrigeration systems and hardware paired with discreet extra clear thermal glass. Remarkable engineering allows this wine shelf to delicately float out of the wall and hover above the floor whilst holding the weight of 196 bottles. We've watched this scene dozens of times in the movies but, until now, never truly brought to life.
Photo Credit: CellArt
With each project designed to fit seamlessly into its environment, no two wine spaces are the same. Colors can be matched to existing interior decor, a favourite car, or a brick of lego - there are no limits. Here, the British racing green of the client's favorite vintage DB5 convertible combines with pure solid English Oak to create both a modern and classic feel.
Photo Credit: CellArt
A sequence of portrait and landscape armoires for accessories play with the geometry of the herringbone floor and provide depth and perspective to what was once an empty corridor. One drawer for reds, one drawer for whites, one drawer for champagnes. All perfectly sealed with independently cooled zones.
Photo Credit: CellArt
For a true feat of engineering, how about a steel slide-out wall storage cabinet which emerges from a hidden wall compartment on hydraulics carrying up to an incredible 39 chilled magnums?
“Working with small spaces presents us with an opportunity to put our design and engineering skills to the test. They allow us to think outside the box and creatively go where we have previously perceived there to be boundaries.” says Jonathan Primeau, Founder of CellArt, “We are pushed to totally rethink how we protect the wine from influences that hasten its deterioration, whilst preserving and adding to the art and richness of the space.”
Often, the smaller the space the greater its importance and value. Each bespoke CellArt creation is not only a masterpiece in luxury, but a respectful homage to its surroundings and an experience that gradually reveals itself over time. And while many of us may have chosen the buzz of urban life over space, for CellArt, it’s this very lack of space that allows them to grow.
