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Building Your Own Wine Room
Step 5:  Frame an Opening for the Cooler

This is really a simple step, and not necessary, of course, if you aren't installing a cooler.  But it does take some planning.

As mentioned up front, it is hardly ideal to have the cooler the first thing your guests see when they walk into your wine room.  If your door is opposite a long wall, you would like them to see all the bottles of wine (nicely displayed on VintageView wine racks, we hope!), uninterrupted by the cooler, especially if the cooler doesn't happen to fit neatly between columns of wine racks.  So consider your options carefully before framing out for the cooler.

Once you've decided where it will go, you need to frame the space.  This means you need a 2x4 crosswise above the opening (no more than 6" down from the ceiling) and a 2x4 crosswise at the bottom of the opening.  This lower 2x4 will support most of the weight of the cooler, so install it well!  You may wish to put a second 2x4 below the first, perhaps at right angles, for extra strength (or on top of the horizontal one, as shown below, if you have built out the thickness of the wall).

Of course blowing the size of the opening has major consequences, so remember the fundamental carpenter's rule:  Measure once, cut twice; measure twice, cut once.  In our case this means that you must select your cooler prior to framing, study the installation instructions carefully (Breezaire cooler installation instructions are accessible from the Bracksco website Coolers page), measure out the exact size of the opening -- twice -- and frame accordingly.  Bracksco uses, recommends, and only sells Breezaire coolers -- made in the USA.

And now, let's continue with Step 6:  Install or reroute electrical wiring for lighting and cooler.

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