What We Do

Specialty rooms are where details separate pros from amateurs.

A wine cellar at the wrong humidity cooks the corks. A cigar room with the wrong humidor doesn't age cigars — it dries them. A safe room without proper ventilation is a box you can't breathe in. These aren't rooms you learn by building one — they need specific design up front or they don't work.

We design wine cellars with split cooling systems, cigar lounges with dedicated ventilation and humidification, safe rooms to FEMA-adjacent specs, and gallery spaces with museum-grade UV filtration and track lighting. Each one is its own small engineering problem.

We're not afraid to tell you when a request doesn't match your basement's realities. Sometimes a wine cellar needs to move 10 feet left to hit the right temperature pocket. We'd rather tell you that at site visit than at framing.

Scope

What we handle under one roof.

Wine Cellar

Insulated envelope, vapor barrier, split cooling unit, racks sized to your collection, tasting-bar integration.

Cigar Lounge

Dedicated exhaust ventilation, humidification systems, walk-in humidor construction, proper finishes.

Safe Room

Reinforced walls, secured door, independent ventilation, communications rough-in, discreet placement.

Gallery & Display

Museum-grade UV-filtered lighting, stable humidity, archival-safe finishes, security integration.

Tasting Room

Adjacent to wine cellar — bar height, proper lighting, display shelving, acoustic comfort.

Showcase Room

Cars, collections, instruments, memorabilia — whatever you're displaying, built around it.

Local Context

Bergen County has the basements for this.

Older Bergen County homes — especially in Tenafly, Ridgewood, and Englewood — have basements with fieldstone foundations and cold, stable temperature baselines ideal for wine storage. Newer homes need more active cooling but have the ceiling height for walk-in builds. Either way, we design to what your specific basement offers before we quote.

Questions

Straight answers.

What temperature does a wine cellar need?

55°F and 60–70% RH is the gold standard. We design the envelope and cooling to hold it year-round. Insulation and vapor barrier are more important than the cooling unit — skimp on either and the unit runs constantly and fails early.

How big a wine cellar can you build?

Anywhere from a 30-bottle reach-in to a 2,000-bottle walk-in with tasting area. Ceiling height matters most — 7'6"+ gives real rack flexibility.

Can you build a safe room that looks like something else?

Yes — most homeowners want theirs to look like a closet, pantry, or part of a mechanical room from the outside. We design to disguise without compromising the structure.

Is a cigar room just a ventilated room?

No. Proper cigar lounges have dedicated exhaust to outside (not just through the main HVAC), humidification to 65–70% RH, and finishes that won't absorb smoke. Done wrong, the smell bleeds into the rest of the house.

How much does a wine cellar cost?

30-bottle built-in: low five figures. 200-bottle walk-in with cooling and racking: mid five figures. 1,000+ bottles with tasting area and full display: higher. Site visit gets you a specific number.

Got an unusual ask? Let's talk.

Free site visit · Written fixed-price quote · Workmanship warranty.

(201) 555-0100

Other Services

Specialty Rooms.