Photo by Flickr user Albert Leung.
Every man needs a space to hideaway from the responsibilities and pressure of daily life. A testosterone-filled room to retreat from the world in. A place where you can relax with a cold drink in one hand and a remote in the other, flipping channels back and forth between Sports Center and ESPN. Every man needs a man cave, and if you don’t already have one, the time to start building yours is now. These do-it-yourself tips will guide you while you transform that old shed, barn, or garage into the ultimate man cave.
1. Find the Right Space
The perfect space can be anything from an old shed or barn to a spare room or garage. If you don’t have extra space lying around waiting to be transformed, you can build your own or hire someone to build one for you. Building it yourself is a great option because it allows you to choose the size of your space.
2. Walls and Floors
Picking the right paint is an important step when creating your perfect space. Warm colors, such as shades of beige or light browns, will make your cave feel comfortable and inviting. These are great colors if your room is meant for watching movies and relaxing. But if you are creating a space for poker games and playing pool, a splash of color – such as painting an accent wall – can be a great way to liven up your room.
If you’re planning to have a lot of foot traffic in and out of your room, you’ll want to stick to darker colored carpets, as lighter colors are much harder to keep clean. You might even consider hardwood floors. Not only do they look beautiful, but they are also easy to maintain.
3. Pick a Theme
Are you the world’s biggest Red Sox fan and would love a baseball-inspired environment that you can watch the games in? Or maybe you have an object such as a pool table, jukebox, or trophy case that you want to make the focal point of the room. The easiest way to start creating the theme for your space is to find one idea or object to focus on and let the rest fall into place around it.
4. Furniture and Accessories
Make sure you utilize the space properly. Picking the right furniture should depend on the main use of your man cave. If the purpose is for watching games, then a flat screen and plenty of comfortable places to sit should be your focus. If the purpose is to have a drink and play games with your buddies, then space for a bar, bar stools, and pool table is a must.
The possibilities for accessorizing your cave are endless. You can spend your time finding the right artwork for your walls at any number of stores. Perhaps you prefer to do your shopping online and would rather have that “free drinks tomorrow” sign that you want to hang above your bar shipped to your house. Or if you are more of a do-it-yourself creative type, you could spend some time at the junk yard finding random bits and pieces that, with a little work, can be turned into unique additions to your space.
Take your time when you are decorating your cave of all caves. Once you spend some time in there, you’ll get a feel of what you need to make it unique. Make sure to keep all your receipts when shopping for your room, especially your big ticket items. After spending a little time in there you might realize that you really don’t love to play pool and should have bought that overstuffed couch instead. However you envision your perfect hideaway to be, take your time and follow the right steps, and building your ultimate cave will be a piece of cake.
