Cigar Storage

Cigar Cabinets and Humidor Tables

Three drawn starting points and a full-height cabinet, all of them bespoke. The capacities below are the honest ones — what the piece actually holds in boxes and singles, not the number a catalogue would print.

Every maker quotes a capacity, and every quoted capacity assumes cigars packed like pencils in a tin. We give two numbers. The nominal figure is the volume calculation, which is the one the trade uses. The real figure is what fits once you allow for trays with sides, boxes stood up, air moving round the stack and the fact that nobody fills a humidor to the lid. Order against the real number.

The Stonham — a writing table that holds cigars

Writing-table-height cigar table with a flush glazed bay in the top, a hygrometer in the front rail and drawers either side — The Stonham — 1200 × 600 × 745 high, with the sealed bay let flush into the top.

A side table or desk with a sealed, cedar-lined bay let into the top under flush glass, a hygrometer set into the front rail and drawers either side for cutters, lighters and the rest of it. Twenty-five nominal, eighteen real, in one layer with no tray to lift out. Passive humidification in the plenum, changed twice a year.

Drawing of a cigar table showing front elevation and plan of the glazed lid, cedar-lined bay and service plenum — The drawing it is made from: internal bay 420 × 300 × 55, one layer, one humidity pack in the plenum.

The Helmingham — a low table beside a chair

Low cigar table with the hinged glazed lid raised, showing cedar trays of cigars, an ashtray well and a cutter well — The Helmingham — lid up on its strut, with the ashtray and cutter wells outside the seal.

Coffee-table height, with a hinged glazed lid on a strut so the whole bay opens and everything in it is visible at once. A hundred nominal, sixty-five real, across two removable cedar trays. The ashtray well and the cutter well sit outside the seal in the top, so using them does not open the humidified volume.

Drawing of a low cigar table with hinged glazed lid, two cedar trays, ashtray and cutter well — 1100 × 600 × 440 high. Sealed bay 880 × 430 × 70 — twenty-six and a half litres.

The Framlingham — display over working storage

Low cigar cabinet with a sloped glazed display top over glazed doors and sliding cedar trays — The Framlingham — a display bay over a cabinet, sealed as two separate volumes.

A glass-topped table cannot sensibly hold a hundred and fifty cigars; the volume gets too deep to control and you end up moving four trays to reach the bottom one. So the Framlingham splits vertically. A shallow glazed display bay sits over a cedar-lined cabinet with sliding trays and standing room for factory boxes, and the two are sealed as independent volumes with a vapour break between them. The display bay runs passively. The cabinet below is actively humidified with a rear plenum and a twenty millimetre air gap at every level, so air moves round the stack rather than past the front of it.

A hundred and fifty nominal, a hundred real. The doors are glazed or solid panel, and a three-point lock draws the door squarely onto its seal rather than relying on the catch alone.

Drawing of a cigar cabinet with a glazed display bay over a cedar-lined cabinet with trays and factory boxes — Twenty-one litres above, a hundred and twenty below, with a vapour break between the two.

Full-height cabinets

Oak cigar cabinet with glazed doors and lit cedar trays, standing in a panelled library beside a stone fireplace — Sliding cedar trays behind the doors, lay-flat drawers below, and a hygrometer in the frieze.

Above those three there is the cabinet proper: a glazed upper section on a drawer base, lit inside, with sliding cedar trays and standing room for boxes behind the doors and lay-flat drawers underneath. This is the piece for a collection that is genuinely being laid down rather than smoked through in a season, and it is where active humidification earns its place. Oak, cherry, walnut or hand-painted, with the glazing bars and mouldings drawn to the room.

The two details that decide whether it works

Enlarged section showing the laminated glass lid, silicone bulb seal, floating cedar lining and vented service void — Section through the lid and rebate: glass, seal, floating lining, and the service void kept outside the sealed volume.

The first is the seal and the lining. A silicone bulb in a machined groove compresses evenly and stays flexible for years; a self-adhesive foam strip does neither. The lining floats on slip battens with no continuous glue line, so twelve millimetres of solid cedar can take up and give back moisture without splitting the carcase apart. And the exterior finish is fully cured and the carcase ventilated for weeks — not days — before the piece is closed up for the first time, because solvent trapped in a sealed cedar box goes into the cigars.

Detail of the pierced brass grille with the passive humidity-pack caddy and the active humidifier caddy behind it — The service plenum: one machined pocket, one brass grille, and either a passive caddy or an electronic unit behind it.

The second is where the humidification lives. Every piece gets the same machined pocket behind the same pierced brass grille, so the decision between passive packs and an electronic unit is made at order stage and can be changed later without touching the carcase. Passive packs are sized on the rated capacity of the box, not on how many cigars are in it — a cabinet rated at a hundred needs its full complement even when it is holding thirty. Where a unit is fitted, it takes distilled water only, and that goes on the handover card in bold.

Before it leaves us

Every piece is seasoned in the workshop before handover: a fortnight on high-humidity packs to bring the cedar up, then the running packs fitted and the piece held and logged until it is steady. A humidor delivered dry, with a note telling the client to season it themselves, is a humidor that will be blamed for the first box of cigars it ruins.

Commission a piece

Tell us how many cigars, whether they are boxes or singles, and what the room is. We will come back with a drawing and a price rather than a brochure.

Start a conversation

Walk-in cigar rooms · Ventilation and filtration · Timber · Prices and lead times

Questions we are asked

How many cigars does each piece hold?

The Stonham holds twenty-five nominal and eighteen real, in one layer with no tray to lift out. The Helmingham holds a hundred nominal and sixty-five real across two removable cedar trays. The Framlingham holds a hundred and fifty nominal and a hundred real. Order against the real number.

Why do you quote two capacities?

Every maker quotes a capacity, and every quoted capacity assumes cigars packed like pencils in a tin. The nominal figure is the volume calculation, which is the one the trade uses. The real figure is what fits once you allow for trays with sides, boxes stood up, air moving round the stack and the fact that nobody fills a humidor to the lid.

What size is the Helmingham?

1100 × 600 × 440 high, with a sealed bay of 880 × 430 × 70 — twenty-six and a half litres. The ashtray well and the cutter well sit outside the seal in the top, so using them does not open the humidified volume.

Why does the Framlingham split into two sealed volumes?

A glass-topped table cannot sensibly hold a hundred and fifty cigars; the volume gets too deep to control and you end up moving four trays to reach the bottom one. So a shallow glazed display bay sits over a cedar-lined cabinet, sealed as independent volumes with a vapour break between them. The display bay runs passively and the cabinet below is actively humidified.

Humidity, seasoning and holding sixty-eight — the fortnight after a new cabinet arrives matters as much as the joinery.

Cedar, and what it actually does — why it is never sealed, and why it has to be free to move.