400 Bottles of Beer Wall

Sixty-four square feet of rack with precision notches for hanging bottles by the neck.

My client wanted a rack to hold a wall of beer. A corporate logo would be painted on huge grid of bottles, which would then be dramatically and variably backlit. The rack therefore needed to have a very narrow profile and a largely open back. 

Initial Sketch
288 Bottle Version

These drawings show the first two iterations of this design. It started out at 256 bottles, went through 288 but I soon understood that the client wanted maximal bottle density. We ended up at 400 bottles in eight feet high and wide.

My first idea for retainers were little mushroom-shaped tabs that registered into slots across the opening of the bottle notches.
The revised design groups a half-row of retainers in a strip that’s easier to install and harder to lose.
I sketched out a cut diagram to determine how to break up the sheet goods.

I planned to make four eight food high bays, each holding ten shelves of ten bottles each. The case of each bay and the shelf supports would be made of ½″ plywood.

Here you can see the template I used to make sure the shelves were square and consistent from unit to unit.
The beer bottle you see here is an empty I was using to sanity-check the spacing. I didn’t photograph the drinking step.
Testing the joint between the halves of each shelf.
Assembly station.
400 Bottles of Beer in the Wall.