Wine - Inspiration in a bottle!

I've been known to enjoy a good glass of wine every now and then, and I love the decor inspired by wine!

The first goodie I want to share with you is my glass hurricane. I've filled it with all those corks I've saved over the past few years (yes, it's taken me a while to save these!) I added in a candle, and voila! Instant centerpiece for my dining room table. I've also at times tied a thick brown ribbon around it to dress it up a little, and you can add a tealight into the top of the pillar candle once it burns down a little bit so that you don't have wax spilling over onto your corks and your candle lasts a whole lot longer!

The inspiration board I've put together below is just a little collection of things I found that I love, and I know all of you fellow wine lovers out there just can't live without!
At the top left, the Grammercy Wine Butler by Willow House is perfect to show off any vintage. The handle at the top makes it easy to carry two bottles at once, and the sexy figure eight shape looks great standing alone or in a row.  The Pottery Barn Wine Bottle Chandelier is the ultimate wine lover's conversation piece! It's made of iron and features a rasped finish (gotta love that texture!) The green glass wine bottles are repurposed (thank you PB for being even a little bit 'green') and have corks. Check out the close up of the top at the website and you can see the great detail!

Just below that are the ever beautiful and classy Carrigan Wine Stoppers which are a must have for anyone! These are great to have around the house for a special dinner party, and are also great to give as gifts! The Beaumont Container from Willow House is extremely versatile - use it for plants, or, since it's food safe, serve baguettes in it on a buffet! Since I kill all plants that enter my home, I'll just use it to chill a nice chardonnay! Then, we can enjoy said chardonnay in the lovely Emerson Stemware. Oh, and I love that the Beaumont Container has those convenient handles on the sides!

Now, for a product I fell in love with a few years ago after seeing it installed and researching it for a class in school. CORK! Cork flooring is just all around a win/win for the homeowner or business owner who chooses to install it, and for the environment! To see the full array of photos for this project, visit Globus Cork at http://www.corkfloor.com/ or click here.  A little more info, from their website,

The cork oak tree is not destroyed and then replanted but rather the bark is trimmed from the tree every 9 years, leaving the tree and the forest undamaged. Its not unusual to have a 200 year old tree still producing cork bark. Cork flooring is actually made from the waste of the cork wine stopper manufacturing process so cork flooring is a recycled product. All pigments, varnishes and adhesives that Globus Cork uses in producing its tiles are water-based, solvent-free and have no VOCs.

Not to mention that cork is inherently durable, is soft underfoot, so it's cushion helps reduce stress on the knees and back from standing on it all day, and it has natural sound and vibration reduction qualities. It is a natural thermal insulator, and is also fire resistant because of a waxy substance within the cork called Suberin. I highly recommend this for anyone who is looking into building a new home or is working on a renovation!

Now, for a fave photo from Pottery Barn. This cozy wine cellar with rich, warm colors and natural materials is from a page right out of my dream home! I love the stone and the rustic wood! So much texture! The rug is gorgeous and that door - TO DIE FOR... seriously! I love it! Note the awesome designers who chose dining chairs with nailhead trim to mimic the metal rivets on the door. And, for all you party people out there, the tealights in the built-ins make a world of difference in the lighting, don't they? What's not to love? Watch for a post in the near future where I put some sort of breadstick in a container where it stands up... I've seen this all over the place, and it looks great and adds height to the table.

Pottery Barn Wine Cellar