If you enjoy fine wine, where do you keep those special bottles you want to savor later?

In a closet, an unused room or stacked in boxes in a corner of the basement?

All decent solutions, but they lack a certain element of panache and charm.

You can throw a lot of money at your cellar -- investing in custom-made racks, temperature-controlled wine cabinets and fancy artwork. Or you can get creative like Jack and Carol McElroy of Pasco.

When the McElroys built their present home in 1998, they planned to enclose a corner of the basement, making a cellar to store their wine collection. What they hadn't planned were the innovative and inexpensive racks they built after a chance comment from their house's designer, Dave Farmer of Papi Designs.

The McElroys had bought plain, rustic wood lattice intending to put it up on the walls of the wine cellar for decoration. But when Farmer spotted it leaning against the walls, he complimented them on their "wine rack" idea.

"It was a great idea. Until then it hadn't occurred to me that the lattice would make great wine bottle storage," he said.

Following another suggestion, this one from their house painter, the McElroys painted the walls and ceiling of the room black.

The painter explained it was a popular look in California and with addition of white plastic lattice fastened flush against the drywall, gives the illusion of a suspended ceiling, he said.

On one of the uninsulated cement walls, Jack and Carol McElroy fastened sheets of lattice to the exposed studs. Using 2-by-4s, they made a frame about six inches out from the same wall and attached more lattice and covered the seams where two sheets of lattice joined with thin, rough wood lath.

Liking the rustic look, they left it unpainted and added more wood lattice to the other walls.

McElroy estimates the cedar lattice storage wall cost about $50 to build.

A bargain compared to the redwood wine racks he'd bought several years earlier.

"Those two cost me over $100 each back in 1995 and they don't hold half what the lattice storage wall does," he said.

"I think the cedar lattice is just as nice, and it's readily available. You can buy it at any lumber store," he said.

Besides the attraction of the wine, the cellar is a comfortable room to visit despite its lack of heating and air conditioning. Its location underground and the insulation in the ceiling, two interior walls and door allow only a moderate variation in temperature during the course of a year.

"It fluctuates slowly from 55 degrees in winter to 70 degrees at the end of summer," he said.

The McElroys are proud to show off their cellar.

They added a small table and chairs, Carol decorated it with knickknacks and mementos and hung faux grape vines from the ceiling lattice.

"Actually when someone comes over, we usually head for there," he said.

* Reporter Loretto J. Hulse can be reached at 582-1513 or via e-mail at lhulse@tricityherald.com.