Inside a Modern, Remodeled Basement That Doubles as a Wine Cellar

After a long search for a home to suit their modern taste, John and Kim Gifford found this 1959 Falls Church house, which had been remodeled in 2004 with an understated, contemporary aesthetic. The basement, however, remained an afterthought. To bring it in line with the rest of the house, the Giffords worked for more than a year with Case Design’s Allie Mann, who opened up the choppy layout by removing interior walls and widening the stairway to let in more natural light. Next came the fun part: To store the Giffords’ wine collection while satisfying their love of modern design, Mann built a climate-controlled vault encased in a glass box. Its metal pegs give the bottles a floating effect.

Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.

Sapele wood appears as an accent behind a TV, around support columns, and as an accent wall. Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.

A wine vault floats about 230 bottles on metal racks made by the Canadian company Vin De Garde. Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.

The lowest of three shelves was made double width to accommodate a laptop and to function as a desk space. Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.

This article appears in our August 2015 issue of Washingtonian.

Michelle Thomas