Planning you own wedding is a huge event and lots of decisions must be made. It is actually a process, as you discuss your ideas with a wedding planner or your bridal party or your associates. Thinking of a vineyard wedding, a wine themed wedding or a Tuscany wedding?

Once you’ve decided on your wedding theme, you can focus with clarity and confidence in your decision making.

Imagine your own customized oak wine barrel for your envelope gifts OR as your guest book OR both!

OR do you want to make your own wine with your oak barrel after the wedding? Then, order an oak barrel, not the wedding barrel, with your desired logo, text and font and make your own wine after your big day! Our oak wedding barrel has a “back door” to retrieve envelope gifts and a slot in the top body center to place envelope gifts.

Are you looking for centerpieces for your reception? You could use our smaller oak barrels, 1, 2, 3 or 5 liters, complete with stand, spigot and bung for décor with grapes, grape vines, grape leaves or flowers the colors (burgundy, ruby, purple, pink, off white, gold, yellow) of wines to complete the vineyard look.

You could OR could not customize these smaller barrels to suit your décor style.

Consider a wood mini barrel as décor, a wedding favor or a place card holder. This mini barrel is for décor only and does not hold liquids. Stand, spigot and bung are not detachable.

Our stave candle holders make perfect centerpieces for banquet tables, the shorter version for smaller tables.

Available gifts for the groom’s best man and ushers include stainless steel flasks, bootleg kits, barrel banks, barrel mugs and small 1 liter open barrels.

Available gifts for the Maid of Honor, Matron of Honor and bridesmaids include small oak barrels, wine barrel banks, barrel mugs and wine signs.

Cheers!

Wine Rack Plans – Material List

1. wood. the amount will vary based on the shape and size of the wine rack plans you choose to make. with a board 3/4″ x 6″ x 39″ (20 x 150 x 1000mm) you can make two racks that hold 6 bottles each.

2. finishing oil or just use paint with primer

3. mounting screws (length and type vary dependent on the wall you are mounting to). refer to the wine rack design consideration section at the end of this plan for more details.

Tool List -table saw – drill press and 1 1/2″ diameter drill bit – bandsaw – jigsaw or scrollsaw – sandpaper – drum sanding attachment for drill press or spindle sander – optional router with rounder bit.

Mounting The Wine Rack

To utilize these wine rack plans for your wall mounted wine rack design, you need to firmly fasten it to the wall or other rigid surface. Finding wall studs would be ideal, but using toggle bolts is as good. If you have plaster, or brick walls, use the appropriate fasteners. If you want to hide the screw heads (nails will probably not be strong enough) you should drill a counterbore to recess the screw head below the surface of the wood; you can cover these holes with plugs later on.

Layout

There are many wine rack plans – wine rack dimensions – layouts – that you can employ to build wine rack differently to maximize the bottle-holding capacity to your wall space. You can arrange several of these racks in parallel orientation or in contrasting angles. See the images on the margin for some options: use your imagination.

Wine Rack Design Consideration

This wine rack is very versatile and can handle several alterations and customizations.

Dimensions:

Thickness: We use a standard board for our wall wine rack, and stability is not an issue as long as it is safely fastened to your wall. We would not recommend you use thinner stock, but thick stock is acceptable. You might need to test the thickness by drilling a hole in some scrap wood and testing how the bottles react.

Width: The distance between the center line of the holes and the wall should be at least 2″ so that most standard size wine bottles will fit. You use larger dimensions to handle larger size wine bottle diameters. Using wider boards is not at all necessary and very wasteful.

Length:You can increase or decrease on the length that we used. Make sure that you have enough width so you can mount the wine rack to the wall.

Distance between holes: Place your holes 6″ apart. I have tested many different wine rack dimensions for these wine rack plans, and discovered that 6″ was the best by far.

Materials: Try using cherry wood because you might have some left over to make a diy wine rack. Just about all types of wood are suitable. Only use wood because it is very tough and strong and will be best for the job, yet soft enough so that you will not have to worry about scratching or breaking the wine glass bottles.

Shape: When you are choosing your pattern, keep in mind that you may want to minimize the interior radius to the size of your smallest sanding drum. If you can’t get into those spaces with a power sanding device, the sanding step will be a lot more time-consuming. Please understand that you can use a simple rectangular piece for this project; it would be much easier to make but will use unnecessary material. The wave pattern shown in the margin may be attractive, but since it is not symmetrical, the opposing piece of wood would not have a matching pattern, so there would be waste.

Finishing: Now that your Wine Rack Plans have all come together nicely, there are just a few more things to do.

With all of your pieces sanded, they are ready for a finish. Try using a stain and follow with a polyurethane. I like the antique oil which is an oil/varnish blend consisting of mineral spirits, oil, and a spar varnish. After painting it on with a brush and waiting for about 5 to 10 minutes, I wiped off all the excess with a very clean rag, then I just let it dry overnight and repeated the exact process three more times to make it richer. Hope this  helps you make that beautiful wall wine rack from scratch with these easy to follow Wine Rack Plans. Good luck!

Cheers!

When many of us ponder our fathers and the roles they played in our early life, we often think of them as providers, as disciplinarians and perhaps as wise men.

Yet according to recent studies on fatherhood, the relationship people have with their father extends far beyond the stereotypical man who provides financial support, sets rules of conduct and gives advice. Research shows that fathers  offer many other kinds of social and emotional support that’s critical to the quality of bonds children form later in life.

For example, a research group from Rider University found that girls with good communication and a high level of trust with their fathers also had significantly better communication and trust with their boyfriends. And two researchers from Central Michigan University discovered that college students who gave their father a high rating for quality of parenting, quality of relationship, being a good role model and being available to them as children and teens were more likely to have higher self-esteem and share their parent’s values than their peers with poorly rated dads.

Father’s Day is a good time to be reminded that there’s a young person in your life who needs and wants your influence. Here are four ways to be more influential in your child’s life and strengthen your bond, without costing you a dime.

Make a special date — just the two of you.

Ask your son or daughter out to dinner. Or better yet, tell them you’ve set aside a special time for the two of you, and ask your child to select the activity. If you give them the responsibility of making the decision, it’s often best. Playing video games is a good thing to do together, but not for your special time. It’s preferable to leave the house so that you have an experience together that’s fresh and out of the ordinary.

Schedule a few moments of togetherness every day.

If you live with your child, the easiest way to converge at least once a day is to have dinner together. If dinner is too difficult because of your work or their after-school activity schedules, make it breakfast. The idea is to spend at least five to 10 minutes every day “checking in” with them. Start a tradition of discussing the best/funniest/strangest/most interesting thing that happened that day. Reading a story before bed together or driving them to school are other easy ways to make regular father-child time. If you live apart, you can call or Skype them before bed. I knew one father who called his son every night and told him stories about growing up in Ghana. Even though they lived in different states, father and son remained very close.

Make sure they feel valued and noticed.

Guess what? Kids don’t care so much about what you do with them. They just want to feel loved, noticed and valued. I’ve had female clients complain that they go to countless Little League games and band concerts to support their kids, with little thanks. But when Dad’s on the bleachers or in the audience, their kids are beside themselves with excitement. As a psychologist and a mother, I’ve observed that children especially crave affective affirmation from their fathers. “Affective affirmation” is defined as small gestures, words or actions that convey the message that you support, value, notice and care about the other person. Some simple ways to do this: Send them a “hello” text in the middle of the day. Tuck a note into their lunchbox. Hug them. Or sit down and watch “their” TV show. Small gestures are as good as big ones.

Model healthy relationship behaviors.

Your child learns about relationships from watching you and incorporating your behaviors. Most of the time, what you do in response to stressful personal situations or how you treat others is more important than what you say. Do you fight fairly? Are you a good listener? Do you have an open mind, or are you instantly judgmental? Are you able to talk about your feelings in a way that isn’t explosive or hurtful? The way you behave and communicate with others has a profound influence on adult children’s relationship styles.

Are you passionate about wines? Making your own wines? Tasting new wines? Want to learn more about wine making? Do you enjoy hand crafted wood products? Have you considered the reinvention of a used wine barrel? Do you appreciate products that speak directly to wine tasting decor? Original, handcrafted, beautiful oak products are functional art! We offer you more wine themed gifts than anywhere else online! Big or small, 10 barrels or 1 barrel, new or used, we’ve got something for every wine enthusiast out there. We welcome your questions and comments. Cheers!

Cheers!

Winedivine