How to Turn Your Living Room Into a Cozy Wine Bar

We Have Gem Wine at Home

Welcome back to Room Recipe, a column on À La Carte where we stare at an image of a room we love for a very long time, then break down its “ingredients” into specific items and themes. The goal is never to copy, but instead to get to the bottom of why certain rooms just *work* and to understand how we can translate that inspiration into real life.

I’ve been having people over a lot more lately, partly because everyone I know seems to be in a bit of a slump and partly because I love an excuse to dip into my collection of glassware and table linens. Now that the sun’s out and our heavy knits are stashed away, I think we’ll be spending more of our time on the patio of an actual wine bar, but in the meantime I’ve been attempting to replicate the experience of one by turning my apartment into Bar LaBelle (which should totally be a real thing—if anyone wants to fund it, I’ll give you my number).

I was poking around in my saved photos this week and came across a photo of the now-closed Gem Wine in NYC. Gem has recently been reimagined into an all-day café/homewares shop experience called Gem Home (I haven’t been yet), but its former iteration was in the shape of a cozy, warmly lit wine bar on the Lower East Side with a light nautical theme. I love—LOVE—the design of this space: its many wood tones, the ticking-striped banquet, the dried flower bundles hanging from the wall, even the fish sconces… It’s all just very up my alley.

It turns out that my two favorite places to happy hour—Sam’s Place and Barra Santos here in LA—share Gem’s collected, interior-of-a-ship aesthetic, too. And because three makes a pattern, it’s worth noting that I should consider implementing some of it into Bar LaBelle, too.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• Mid-toned wood furniture, ideally vintage

• A little bit of rattan

• Curtain lampshades

• Something fish-shaped

• Red ticking stripe textiles

• Small, midcentury oil paintings

• Nautical touches

• A Shaker peg rack

• Wooden art objects

• Table lamps

• A plaster head bust

• Dried monobloom flowers like hydrangeas or mustard yarrow

STEP ONE:

Start with your wood furniture. Don’t be afraid to mix and match woods, but stick to mid-tones—not too light, not too dark. For your largest pieces, like sofas, armchairs, or dining tables, look for right angles and flat sides. (Searching “1970s Swedish” or “midcentury pine” on sites like 1stDibs, Etsy, Ebay, and Chairish usually yields good results.) Add in smaller pieces of furniture, like dining chairs, barstools, or a bar cart, that bring some texture and curves into the mix—details like rounded chairbacks, rush seats, and iron chair legs will break up all the larger wood surfaces. If you’re using dining chairs, don’t be afraid to mix styles. As long as they're pretty similar in color and silhouette they’ll still work together well.

1950s Arthur Umanoff Wicker High Chair, 1stDibs, $1,500; Sven Larsson Sofa Table in Solid Pine, 1stDibs, $2,500; Paul Nagel Teak Barcart, Etsy, $355; Pair of Swedish Lounge Chairs, 1stDibs, $8,900; German Oak Chest of Drawers by Mustring Möbel, Etsy, $653; Field Stool, Sundays, $310; Swedish Pine Coffee Table, Nickey Kehoe, $3,400; Pair of "Banana Chairs" By Tom Dixon for Cappellini, 1stDibs, $2,434

STEP TWO:

Think about your lighting options from all angles. The key to making things glowy is to keep the light low but shining from multiple sources: overhead pendant lights, wall sconces, and most importantly, table lamps. Because the furniture is simple in design, the light fixtures can have some playful details. Ceramic bases, curtain shades, and nautical touches will bring a lot of personality to the table.

Courbe Green Ceramic Table Lamp by Athena Calderone, Crate & Barrel, $299; Checked Cotton Pendant Lamp Shade, Shoppe Amber Interiors, $600; 1970s Markslöjd Sweden Pine Sconce, Chairish, $700; Curtain Lamp by Analuisa Corrigan, Claude Home, $2,350; Dippa Pendant Light, Dekorfine, $149; 1970s Swedish Pine Table Lamp by GB Solbackens Svarveri, Etsy, $950; Cotton Hanging Lamp, Etsy, $116+; Striped Rattan Shade Table Lamp, Vakker Lighting, $268

STEP THREE:

Don’t overcrowd a surface with tchotchkes, but do feel free to embrace art objects and textiles that inject a little humor into the space. Start with a Shaker peg rack—you can hang just one on its own or multiple, side-by-side, across a whole wall (or around an entire room, which is my dream for my dining room). Hang baskets, dried flowers, and small framed paintings from the pegs, being careful to space things out. You can be a little on-the-nose with the sea references, if you’d like; a model ship, a large boat painting, and fish-shaped objects are fair game when used intentionally and sparingly. Add in a touch of something in a red ticking stripe pattern. A pillow, seat cushion, or napkins will add just a bit of softness to the room.

Custom Shaker Peg Rail, Etsy, $41+; Sailing Boat Art Deco Sculpture, 1stDibs, $1,840; Boat Sketch III, Pure Salt, $244; Red Stripe Cloth Napkins, Etsy, $16+; Wooden Oval Mirror Frame with Dots, Etsy, $500; Rare Antique Hand Carved Wooden Horse, Etsy, $263; Sailboat Charcoal Sketch, Etsy, $9+; Liberté Terracotta Head Vase, Bucatini, $68

STEP FOUR:

Garnish the room with wine bar accoutrements. Glassware, novelty bottle openers, and snack vessels are essential for both flavor and presentation. Serve warm and cozy with your favorite chilled wine of choice—tinned fish optional.

Palmer Natural Wine Bottle Holder, Hudson & Vine, $66; Stemmed Glass, Nickey Kehoe, $16; Mid-Century French Ceramic Fish Platter, ABASK, $375; Peter Wine Coaster, Porta, $140; Camacha Natural Wicker Glass Flask by House of Capricorn, Moda Operandi, $94; Brass Captain Bottle Opener, Nickey Kehoe, $50; Vintage Brass Corkscrew, Lostine, $195; Ouessant Wine Glass Set of 6, Hawkins New York, $71

There you have it: a room fit for a ship captain (or a gaggle of wine sailors). If you’re in NYC, stop by Gem Home and pick up some goodies straight from the source, or if you’re in LA, I’ll see you on one of our many wine bar patios this summer.

x

Ali

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