Man Cave
A man cave is essentially a space where a man can go to relax, spend time doing a favorite hobby, or hang out with friends. It can be part of the home (more often than not, it’s the basement) or a separate structure near the home. This illustrious space has been popularized in books, movies, and music, and has become every man’s dream. And since you’re here, we assume you’d like to design one for yourself, so let’s see how this can be done.
How to Create Your Man Cave?
While designing a man cave seems like a challenging task, following the steps we’ll elaborate on below can make this process rather enjoyable. Let’s see how you can set up the man cave of your dreams.
Find the Right Spot
The most important aspect of the man cave is the privacy it provides so you can get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and spend some time on your own. Therefore, your man cave needs to be located in a secluded part of your home where you can be as noisy as you want when watching the game or jamming on your favorite instrument, and where people won’t constantly walk by and disturb your alone time.
Depending on how big your home is, this can be the garage, the basement, a separate room in your apartment, or even a part of the office if you’re the only one who uses it. Even if you only have one small corner in your home, make sure that you make the most of it to make this space your own.
The Design and Theme
Picking a theme for your man cave will truly show your personality and preferences. So, don’t immediately go with the standard options, such as making the room look like a sports bar, but rather focus on your interests, hobbies, and passions, and go from there.
Maybe you have a favorite sports team and you want to focus the design on that specific team, or you enjoy making art and you decide to turn this space into an art studio. Whatever option you go with, make sure that it fits your passions and your overall vision for the space. Once you’ve chosen the design, you can move on to choosing paint, furniture, and decoration that goes well with your design.
In general, man caves have a rustic design and use a lot of wood as an element for paneling, furniture, or decoration. There aren’t a lot of vibrant colors in these spaces, as dark grey, brown, black, burgundy, forest green, and similar colors usually dominate to create the right mood.
Choose Appropriate Decorations
The decoration in the man cave should be tied to the design and theme you’re going with. So, if you want to turn this room into a board game room, you can include a large open cabinet where you’ll showcase all your different board games. For the literary aficionado, this can mean a large bookcase and a cozy chair with a reading light next to it, whereas musicians will prefer a place to store their instruments, an interesting bar, and a place to store music records.
Think About Your Budget
Last but not least, while you’re still in the planning stage, think about how much money you have to spend on this project before you even start. This will determine how much you can spend for each stage, what you need to buy, and what furniture or decoration you can repurpose. Using our budget estimator will be a huge help when planning the man cave budget.
Man Cave Essentials
Now that you know the main things to focus on when creating the ultimate man cave, let’s see what elements this room shouldn’t do without.
Seating Area
The basic element of each man cave is a designated seating area where you have a large comfortable couch. In addition, you can also add small ottomans to have a space where you can rest your legs if you have a group of friends sitting on the couch. And what’s a man cave without a throne for the man? This is often a lounge chair or a massage chair where you can sit back and enjoy while watching a game, spending time with friends, or just decompressing after a stressful day.
Large Sized TV
Another key part of every man cave is the large TV that’s across your seating area where you can watch your favorite TV show, watch a game, or play games.
Games
Depending on your hobbies and preferences, you can add a number of different games to your man cave, such as video games, board games, but also a pool table, foosball table, arcade games, and so on.
Sound System and Soundproofing
To make the best out of this room, it’s a great idea to soundproof it. This will prevent the others in your household from being disturbed by potential loud noises that will come out of your man cave while you’re watching the latest game on TV, or for noises from the rest of the home to enter your sacred space. You can add a good sound system so you can play your favorite music, or simply connect your surround sound system so you have a better experience while watching movies.
Bar Area and Cigar Lounge
Another common area in the man cave is the bar area. There you can display your favorite collection of alcohol and use it to host a boy’s night in the comfort of your own home. Think about the overall design of the room when choosing what to include in the bar area, and make this space as unique and tailor-made to suit your preference as the rest of this room.
Furniture
Last but not least, you should consider what type of furniture to bring into your space. Make sure that the furniture you end up choosing is both functional and stylish to make your man cave a sensation among your friends. You can choose to include vintage pieces and reuse some of your own furniture, or make a contemporary room with a lot of sophisticated furniture pieces. Whatever you choose, make sure that it’s comfortable and suits your personal style.
Final Thoughts
Creating a man cave is a special experience that will help you define your personal style by designing this specific room. It can be anything you need it to be, a sports bar, a gaming room, a literary corner, or even a music studio. You just need to dive deep and figure out what you need this space to represent and start creating it. We hope this article helps you create the man cave that puts all other man caves to shame.