Old Doors Wine Bar

Not for sale. Dimensions: Back height, 74.5 inches; Shelf height, 31.5 inches; Width, 30 inches; Depth 14.25 inches; Weight, unknown but very heavy. This is one of those upcycling projects that, as it was coming together, I knew I had to keep for myself, given how much effort was involved and how much I like it. I’m really proud of it overall—especially the mosaic work—and we needed a good place to store wine. It can hold 27 bottles horizontally, plus 12 hanging glasses and a removable cheese tray. It’s made mainly from three old doors and free second-hand slate.

The Story

The main structural elements of this piece are three old doors, all found in alleys of my Glover Park neighborhood of D.C. The back is a full door that was originally painted red. I removed the hardware, then used paint stripper on what would be the front side and this revealed an interesting red stain underneath that I liked a lot, so I left it like that. I also removed the three glass panels but kept the two dividing stiles, thinking of some kind of triptych artwork to fill those spaces. The two side pieces are panels cut from another old door, originally dark blue. I stripped the paint on one side and sanded it down to raw wood, then stained it with Minwax Sedona Red so the outside would closely match the main door. Rather than do all that same work on the other side of the two panels, which would face inside the storage area and not be so visible, I painted them with a color of paint I’ve used on several other projects, appropriately called Chianti. The third door used in this project was a yellow and purple screen door, featuring four square lower panels. I removed the screens, trimmed the outer frame edges to my needed dimensions, stripped it, and stained it Sedona Red. I used new pine lumber from The Home Depot to create all the shelves, also staining them the same color. I used some ¾-inch square pine, also from The Home Depot, to divide spaces for 27 individual wine bottles. I stained them Ebony, distressed them slightly with sandpaper, and nailed them into place. I assembled all these components using long wood screws that I recessed, covering the heads with premade wood plugs. All these structural elements were finished off with Minwax water-based satin Polycrylic. In the quadrant designated for wine glasses, I created the rails to hang them out of oak T-molding (from Home Depot), which I sanded and finished to match the wine dividers. 

For the shelf atop the wine storage area, I used my wet saw to cut down a large piece of slate I got for free from a neighbor. (When you see something interesting sitting out in someone’s back yard for a long time, it often pays to ask if they mean to get rid of it.) I mounted it inside a frame that matches the other distressed ebony pieces. I gave the slate a couple coats of Minwax water-based satin Polycrylic to protect it from dust and wine spills. I filled the perimeter gap with black sanded grout. With some vertical space available below the wine glasses, I figured a good way to fill it was with a removable tray that might be used to serve cheese. I used more of the same slate and followed the same basic design as on the top shelf but did not coat it with polycrylic as it’s not a food-grade protectant. I added a couple handles from The Home Depot. 

The main design feature obviously is the mosaic triptych of stylized grapevines, which just came from my imagination. Each panel is 7x28 inches. I glued the tile (using Weldbond) directly to three pieces of Feathercore Backer Board that I got from Maryland Mosaics and cut to size with a utility knife. These I glued (with Liquid Nails) to three pieces of underlayment, which I wood-glued onto a larger rectangle piece of underlayment (originally new from The Home Depot, but leftover from other projects). The whole thing is held in place with wood screws into the back of the door. Except for the brown tile representing the soil, all the tile is authentic stained glass, each of which has a lot of color variation and which came in squares ranging from ¾ to 1 inch. The vines/stems are from one color and all the leaves are from a second color. Once I glued the grape clusters and plants in place, I knew the background (field) tile had to be black to make those bright colors really pop. And whereas the vines and leaves display the smoother, shinier side of the tile, for the background I displayed the textured side for less shine and more contrast. I got the round tiles to represent the grapes from Maryland Mosaics, but all the other tile is from Mosaic Art Supply (thanks to a gift certificate from my wife). I arranged the field tile in a running bond pattern that parallels the winding vertical vines upward to accentuate their structure. I thought a field of more random shapes, which is common in mosaics, would be too busy and distracting. I also happen to like minimal, tight grout lines. I used black grout (Onyx, from The Tile Shop) for all but the red grape clusters. Using dry grout as a test, I found that having black between the grapes made them look too much like separate, two-dimensional items, as opposed to three-dimensional items with other similar items right up behind them, which you can’t see through. I decided it called for a nearly matching red grout. When I Googled red sanded grout, literally the first result that came up was a product called Wine Red grout from a placed called Grout360. I figured that was a sign from Dionysus, so I ordered a pound.

Related Items: Compact Metal Wine Bar Cart with Reclaimed Wood Shelves; Refinished Wooden Wine Racks; Wall-Mounted Headboard from Reclaimed Old Five-Panel Door; Natural Reclaimed Wooden Door Hall Tree.