How to Make a Wine Glass Holder

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Wine bottles are one of those things that many people enjoy displaying.

Perhaps it is a symbol of richness or just an expression of taste.

What ever the case may be, properly displaying a bottle of wine on a rack or a bottle holding a pair of wine glasses can give a somewhat boring looking object some style.

We have all seen some kind of wine rack and some kind of wine glass rack.

They come in all sorts of designs for every personal taste in style and serve a purpose to prevent the wine from going bad.

Some are within cabinets and others are mounted to a wall.

There are racks that are super simple in design, while others are very elaborate.

Most wine enthusiasts will tell you that there is a right way and a wrong way to store a wine bottle.

Have you ever noticed that most wine racks have the bottles stored on their side?

There is a reason for that…to keep the cork wet so it doesn’t dry out.

However, if you are storing a bottle for a short time, the wine will not go bad super quickly and it will be perfectly safe to store it vertically.

Not all wine bottles need to be stored on the side, such as those with a screw on cap.

Check out how to store wine bottles here.

There are wine bottles that look super cool, whether they are rich looking, have a cool glass color, or just an all around nice design.

So why not display your favorite wine bottle along with a couple nice looking wine glasses together on the counter or table?

You could be getting ready for an in house dinner date with your loved one or a picnic outside and get the display ready with a couple tea light candles or mood lighting.

A cool display with a simple or elaborate wood board will do the trick and this is something you can make yourself with a couple simple tools and a little bit of time.

What tools do you need?

If you will be sticking with a very simple design, such as using a single board with no contrasting strips of other wood species, you may only need some very basic tools:

• 5/8″ Diameter Hole Saw or Forstner Bit (Paid Link)
• 1-1/4″ Diameter Hole Saw or Forstner Bit (Paid Link)
• Hand drill or drill press
• Electric sander with various grits of sandpaper (Course to fine grit)
• Saw – I prefer a band saw, but you certainly can use a hand saw if that is all you have available.
• Wood of your choice (3-1/2″ wide x 3/4″ thick x 12″ long). I used Purple Heart and Zebra Wood from this assortment (Paid Link). I like to have it a little longer than what the template needs to allow for a little waste.

If you are going to go a little more fancy, you will need a few extra tools on hand:

• Jointer (Paid Link) – This is very helpful for getting perfectly straight edges on the boards where they butt up together at the glue joints
• 2 or 3 pipe clamps or bar clamps
• Masking or painters tape – To cover the tops of the pipes or bars on the clamps so you can clean the glue off easily
• Wood glue – I prefer TiteBond III

The miscellaneous supplies:

• Printer and paper to print the template. Download the PDF template here. Be sure to print it full size on 8.5″x11″ (Letter) with no scaling.
• Spray adhesive (Paid Link)
• Scissors
• Some kind of wood finish – I like cutting board oil, such as Walrus Oil. You could also use stain if your wood needs it to change its appearance or use a simple lacquer to keep the natural look of the wood. You almost can’t go wrong here, so find something you think you will like.

Optional and not absolutely necessary tools:

• Router and table with a 1/8″ round over bit.
• Anti-slip mat (Paid Link) – This is helpful when sanding to keep the wood in place.
• Planer (Paid Link) – This would be nice if you are making a large batch of wine glass holders from a long board.
• Round file if you don’t have a router.

This list was much larger than I anticipated, but it really depends on how complex you want to make this project and the available tools you have, so don’t let this list scare you off. Much of this can be done with simple hand tools if that is all you have access to.

Lets Get Started!

I am going to break this up into two sets of instructions: Basic and Advanced.

The basic instructions will be for a single board project, meaning one wood species with no glue-ups.

The advanced instructions will be for those who want to use multiple wood species in their project and will require some gluing. I give it the title advanced only because it has some extra steps involved, not that it is really that much more complicated, but because it has a couple critical steps you should follow to get a good quality glued joint.

Either way, both projects are considered beginner level in the woodworking world, so take your pick and go with it.

Where I list a figure number at the end of a step, please refer to the images at the bottom of this article. This helped me in keeping the number of images down, therefore keeping the loading speed of this site optimal.

Basic

This is the simplest of the simple and should be a project you could complete within a couple hours.

1. Download, print, and cut out the template if you want to use this same design I am showing you here. If not, draw out your own design using approximately the same dimensions and hole diameters I have provided you in that template. These dimensions work and there is no need to reinvent the wheel, unless if of course you want to.
2. Use spray adhesive and lightly spray the back of the template and then press it into place on your selected wood. (Figure 2)
3. Drill the holes using the hole saws or forstner bits. (Figure 3)
4. Use your saw to cut out the profile. (Figure 4)
5. Sand down the edges to get rid of the rough saw marks and start sanding the faces, starting with the course grit and moving down to the finer grits. This can be done by hand, but go for the electric sander if you have one available. (Figure 5)
6. If you want to round up the edges of the holes and the outer edges, use the router table. If you don’t have a router table, you can use a round file, although it will be more work, but still doable. (Figures 6 and 7)
7. Remove the dust and make sure the wood is clean. I like to use forced air from the air compressor. Add your favorite wood finish and let it dry. (Figure 8)

Advanced

This will require a little more effort and time to complete, but it is still an easy project. The biggest difference is making your board first then proceeding with the steps above.

1. Cut your wood into strips to the widths you want for your design. The template I provided has three strips. The final board width you will want for this project is 3-1/2″ wide so that it works with the provided template. When cutting the strips, be sure to take into account the thickness of the saw blade when making the cuts.
2. I recommend running the cut edges through the Jointer if you don’t believe the edges are in a straight line or if they are rough. Sometimes you can get nice clean lines on the table saw, but not so much on the band saw. It really depends on your blades.
3. Get your clamps ready with cardboard or paper beneath them to catch the dripping glue when you clamp everything together.
4. Use a good wood glue and apply to at least one edge of each board, except for the last board. Make sure the glue covers the entire surface.
5. Place the boards into the clamp and clamp them snugly. (Figure 1)
6. Let the glue dry for a few hours or however long the glue manufacturer recommends.
7. You may want to scrape off the glue drips some time before they completely dry, but not when they are still so soft to where the board comes apart because the glue hasn’t set long enough. If you don’t get to it in time, then use a scraper or sand them all off.
8. Once your board is done and ready, move onto steps 1 through 7 on the Basic instructions above.

So there you have it. A pretty simple project you can make for yourself or as a gift.

This is a great project to use up some of that scrap wood you might have laying around and makes for a great project for the day!

You can dream up a different design yourself or wait until I share more templates for other designs. They will be available in the near future, so please keep an eye out for them.

If you know how to do woodturning, maybe consider making a wine bottle stopper to go with this project. I have made quite a few over the years, but I think the shown below is one of my favorites because of the type of wood.

Head on over to “Wood Characteristics – Lignum Vitae” to read about this special wood.