Unexpected idea for a wine rack

As seen in This Old House as a diy

As seen in Cottage Living Sept. 2007 issue



My kitchen with clay pipes



Several years ago I was given about 12 old clay drainage pipes and I really wanted to use them as a wine rack, but had no space at the time.  So instead of holding onto them, I sold them to a client. Of course, I regretted it after the fact.  I kept seeing picture after picture of them used for what I also had intended to use them for.  Even when I watched Giada de Laurentiis' show I would have great envy, they appear in the background in the cabinets and looked so cool(love her show).

When we moved to our present home, I made sure that I had a spot for them when we got around to redoing our kitchen.  I did come across some at a store but they wanted $12 for just one of them, which was ridiculous. When we started working on our kitchen and designing the space,  I planned a spot above my fridge and carefully measured the space.  When we were all done with the kitchen, I only had one lone clay pipe that I "borrowed" from my Mom.  Just FYI, the one thing with the pipes is they only hold smaller bottles of wine, which is certainly fine.

Well sometimes you just get lucky.   Later we were having our basement waterproofed and and while they were digging the hole for the sump pump they found the old clay drainage system.  As a result - I got my wine rack, small as it is.  I didn't have the nerve to ask them to keep digging so they could pull me out a few more.  In a lot of older homes you will find the pipes under the ground around the perimeter and our house is about 60 years old.  But I was happy with the ones they got and best of all, they were free (well if you don't count all the money we spent on the work they did). 

I am happy now with the 5 that I have, with the one space I leave open for the random larger bottle, although it kind of throws me off a bit. I may have to rent a jack hammer next time my husband goes out of town and dig up the rest of them.