Man Cave
By Jo Phillips
Important Steps For Building Your New Man Cave.
A popular choice for renovating a room, building an extension, or even a separate structure detached from the house, is to turn it into a man cave. This can be used for a number of different purposes, too. For example, it can be used to separate the rest of the household from the entertainment side of things and keep the rest of your home fresh and uncluttered. You could restrict entry to your children, keeping this as a sort of adults-only haven, or even allowing the kids to use it as their own game room, getting them out from under your feet. Whatever your desires are for your man cave, there are a few important steps to follow when creating this space. We’ve created this handy little guide to help guide you in designing this area.
Decide On A Location
The first thing you need to decide is where your man cave is going to be located. You might be gutting and renovating your unused garage space, redecorating a spare living room, or converting a basement into your new man cave. Perhaps this won’t be a simple home renovation project, and instead, you’re planning to build a whole new structure on your property. Whatever it is that you’re deciding on, make sure that you understand the costs related to your choice. A brand-new structure is going to require significantly more work than converting a room, but it could have a lot more benefits, including added privacy and more control over the size and space of the room.
Complete Any Foundational Work
Your first steps in terms of construction and renovation are going to be to complete any foundational work that needs doing. If you’re simply converting a room, then you’re likely only going to have to tear up the old carpets or floorboards and lay down a fresh floor. If possible, avoid sticking with the old floor in the room unless it is fairly new, as a new carpet or wooden flooring can really freshen the room up. However, if you’re building a new structure, you’re going to want to do some proper groundwork and prepare the space to lay some concrete foundations. It’s possible to do this yourself, but make sure you’re certain you know what you’re doing before starting a project like this.
Choose A Theme For The Room
As part of this process, you’ll want to have a good idea as to what theme your man cave will have, and that will help to influence everything from your choice of technology to the lighting and even the colours of your walls and furniture. This should be a constant consideration throughout the project, and ideally, you’ll have a good idea before you start of what the place will look like. There are many things you can put in a man cave, and having a look at those options will help to inspire you when you have to decide on an overall theme. Perhaps you’re looking to create a cinema vibe to enjoy TV and films with your other movie-buff pals? Or maybe you want your own bar, creating a tavern or a sophisticated VIP space. Get a good idea as to what you want from this space and allow that theme to blossom into something great.
Install Essential Utilities
Before you begin to bring furniture into this space, however, you want to ensure you’ve installed all of the essential utilities in the room. For a start, you might want access to water if you intend to have a bar area, and you’re definitely going to want electrical wiring throughout the room for light switches and plug sockets. It’s very important that you do this before anything else, as you’ll have a much harder time trying to do it around furniture and other obstacles. You may have to lay cable under floorboards and carpets, too, so be conscious of this before you do your floors as well. This would be the best time to install permanent tech devices, such as mounting TVs on the wall, putting up neon lights around your bar area, and installing your smart lighting and speakers.
Decorate Your Man Cave
Next, you’ll want to decorate. This is arguably the fun part of the project, yet it will still include a lot of hard work. Walls need to be painted, furniture needs to be brought in, and everything needs the be put in the right places. There are many tips you can find on decorating a man cave, but ultimately it needs to suit the intended feel of the room. If you want a place where you can relax and unwind with your friends, you likely want to steer clear of bright and loud colours. Whereas, if you want a more upbeat, party atmosphere, muted notes and natural shades might not be the way forward. The décor in your man cave is going to have to align with your intended theme, of course. If you’re trying to create a casino room, for example, you’ll want to get yourself some roulette and poker tables and some classy or extravagant furniture to go with it.