Edge-lit acrylic panels for a private vodka tasting room—where the challenge isn't the cold, it's making light behave at -18°C.
The Challenge
The owners of the Vancouver Canucks wanted a walk-in vodka tasting freezer for their private collection. The brief: dramatic LED-lit acrylic panels that would showcase premium bottles while surviving freezer temperatures. Standard LED solutions fog up, crack, or dim when the temperature drops that far.
The Approach
Designed and fabricated custom edge-lit acrylic panels at Peregrine Retail Design. The key was thermal management—selecting LED strips rated for extreme cold and engineering mounting systems that account for acrylic contraction. Each panel edge-lights from hidden channels, creating that ethereal glow without visible hardware.
The fabrication required precision CNC work on thick acrylic sheets, careful routing for LED channels, and custom diffusion techniques to eliminate hot spots. Tested each panel through freeze cycles before installation to verify no cracking or delamination.
Outcome
The freezer is now a showpiece—bottles glow like artifacts in a museum, and the panels have survived years of freeze-thaw cycles from door openings. The edge-lighting technique has since informed other cold-environment projects.
