Built-in wine rack - other uses?

[SuddenlyOld]

Hi, bit of a creative block here - our new house has a built-in wine rack in the kitchen but we don't drink wine or spirits. Or pop or bottles of anything really. What else could I use it for? Or can I remove the shelves and leave the sides?

Example attached

utensils? We have a pot on the side full of various utensils and I often think how much better they would be somewhere else but don't have a spare drawer.

Or simply ornamental so put in some small plants or ornaments at the front of each one?

But I'm sure more creative types will be along with better suggestions!

Cling film
Foil

Well not to drip feed but I should mention we have a dog who likes to eat things, especially stuff he can steal. I think without him I might have used it to store rolled up tablecloths and the like. But...

Tea towels or hand towels? Or re-usable bags if your dog won't chew them?

Does anyone know if the inside can be removed? If so I could use it to store dog things and other dog-safe things. I don't know how they're put together though, eg is the inside bit a separate piece?

Without a door it's going to get dusty too which reduces my options.

The shopping bag storage is a good one 👍

Those bags for life just get left behind the door atm

We used ours as a squash rack.

Doggy toys?

Spares of . . . Olive oil, other cooking oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, anything that comes in a bottle? I buy all of these in 750ml or half litre bottles which should fit in well.

Only you would know if the inside can be removed! Look or feel for screws or plugs underneath the shelves. If there are any, you should be able to take out what you don’t want.

as it is the end of a run, it looks as it you have a separate end piece, so a fitter should be able to take the whole unit out and replace it with another 300 unit, though I don’t know if you could match it to your existing units. In which case an open shelf unit, or wire / wicker baskets would do better.

We keep orange juice, blackcurrant juice etc in ours. And my umbrella 🏖️.

If you can get the horizontal shelves out then storage for chopping boards and trays

How about using it as a spice rack/for bottles of olive oil, balsamic vinegar etc

The dog is the problem. Can you get a door fitted to the unit? Then you could store so many things in it. Cling film, tin foil, bin liners, umbrellas, unopened bottles of anything, reusable drinks bottles, carrier/reusable bags, fire extinguisher, carving knife, the list is endless.

The wine rack will likely be one unit
https://youtube.com/shorts/-lduqxdIeQE?si=kIVwP2Lma2ZqKgEQ

This ^ should show you 1 way of making an outer box and the shelf space for the wine.

Your problem would be how the wine shelf is secured into the outer box. And that it is likely covered chipboard which will be damaged if you are not careful If you are going to try remove it start on the shelf second from the top (less visable) and try cut the X out leaving about 3 cms of the side connected to the outer box. And then carefully pull that bit straight out and carefully cut untill you find the screws etc to remove the rest of the shelf and fill the pulled out chipboard holes with wood filler

If you look at how your bench was constructed you may be able to work out how the outer box was fitted And if there was any filler spaces which could be used as and just unscrew the fill unit and get a new unit made up to fit the space.

next problem if the space used for the rack will likely not be a standard size so you will have a problem getting doors to fit.

Google said:
Based on the dimensions of a standard wine bottle a height of 30.5 cm and diameter of 7.6-8.1 cm

So size of the opening
18 mm wooden wall
85 mm bottle space
18 mm wall
85 mm bottle space
18 mm wall
224 mm

So you are looking to match your door style and paint fade in your kitchen

Long way to say keep a few of the shelves in place and add baskets

Some excellent ideas thanks. Baskets are a good idea, then I can keep anything in it without worrying about reaching to the back. Plus less dusty.

And yeah, as pp said, the dog is the problem 😭😭

We removed ours and used the space for a slimline bin. I only have a small kitchen and the only other place for the bin was freestanding so this worked well for us!

I'd use it for reusable bottles if I had that space free because I swear they breed! We use ours for wine but I'm never sure it's great for the bottles because of the temp extremes really

I stuff tea towels and used plastic bags in there

Rolling pin 😉

Sounds like dismantling it is your best option

Bottles of water, resuable drinks bottles, soft drinks

Drinking bottles storage

I'm hoping to get drawers made for mine to store miscellaneous items such as pens, chalk markers, etc.