“The homeowner wanted a lower-level lounge that would showcase his passion; he’s a wine enthusiast,” says project designer Allie Mann. The homeowner approached Case with the request for a remodeled basement that would not only showcase his extensive wine collection, but also continue the contemporary design from upstairs.
Once the ball got rolling, it took Mann, her team, and the homeowner a year and a half to design the space. They went back and forth on finishes, whether to include a bar (they didn’t), where to put the feature wall with the TV, and how to light the space without compromising the homeowner’s vision.
That vision spread halfway across the country and past the United States’ northern border. To create the wine cellar, Mann and her team coordinated with Canadian manufacturer Vin de Garde for the wine rack hardware, Case’s cabinet manufacturer in Minnesota, and their dealer for the exotic wood that was to be another feature in the space. Picking and procuring the wood proved to be an intense process, and part of the reason for the lengthy design timeline.
“The homeowner knew that he really wanted something that was really going to pop in the space. And so we went through several other selections before we settled on Figured Sapele,” Mann says. “I had to go through three different lots and samples of the correct Figured Sapele, because the lot of wood that was allocated to us had expired."
