Ok – this has nothing to do with cooking, but I’m including it here for a couple of reasons.
- It’s about wine, and good wine is important. For cooking.
- I made it and I think it’s cool.
The floor plan of the Jayco 145 RB travel trailer doesn’t leave much room for, well… anything really. It’s a tiny little box, and yet it somehow manages to pack in all the important features for weekend warriors. Of all the trailers this size, this one has a comparatively enormous amount of counter space, as well as a fridge, microwave, air conditioner, furnace, shower, flush toilet and tons of storage.
That said, there is one small corner that isn’t being fully utilized… the gap between the stereo and the overhead storage closest. So I decided to build a wine rack to fill the space.
The advantage of this design is that we are only drilling holes in the cabinets – we aren’t trying to mount anything to the roof or sidewalls. I really didn’t want to risk drilling anything into an external wall that could result in water leaks, or worse….
Ingredients
- 1/4″ aluminum rod – about 8′ in total, cut into appropriate lengths
- 5/8″ brad hole tee nuts
- 1/2″ #6 screws
- 1/4″ black heat shrink tubing
- Small wicker basket
Method
Cut the aluminum rod into appropriate lengths. Wrap each segment in the black heat shrink tubing. Not only will this make it look better than dirty unpolished aluminum (or steel), it also gives a little grip to prevent the wine bottles from slipping. I didn’t bother actually heat-shrinking it, because it fit so snugly over the aluminum, I didn’t feel it was necessary.
Mount the tee nuts and insert the rods. Screw the tee nuts to the walls. You may need a right angle screwdriver to maneuver around the basket and other hardware, since it is almost impossible to get a standard screwdriver in there.
The basket is basically a storage area for wallets, sunglasses etc. Just thread the rods through the gaps in the wickerwork to mount it. I could have easily made a four – or even six – bottle rack, but we needed somewhere to empty our pockets. The trailer may well have a large counter top, but it still only has a finite amount of space, and the less clutter that sits on it, the better. The basket is also mounted at a jaunty angle so that we can see into it easily. If it was mounted perfectly level we would have to feel around inside it for our stuff, since it’s roughly around eye-level.
It would probably be a good idea to cap off the screws that poke through into the storage cabinet, so you don’t accidentally tear your clothes on them. A quick squirt of silicon gel on each screw point inside the cupboard would probably be sufficient. Or use nuts and bolts instead of screws on this side.
Also, if you plan on driving with wine in the rack, I would strongly suggest a couple of Velcro straps to prevent the bottles from bouncing out.