How To Build a Man Cave [Step by step guide]

You want that cool man cave but aren’t too sure about how to go about it? This post will help you plan and decide everything you need to. Some things are obvious, some aren’t. Here is everything you need to know to go from planning to enjoying your own man cave.

Here’s a summary of the steps covered below;

• Think & Plan
  • How much space do you have?
  • What do you want to do in your man cave?
  • What kind of atmosphere do you want?
  • How many people do you plan on hosting?
  • Which objects do you want to fit in?
• Action
  • Give your room a make over (structural changes, paint, etc.)
  • Place furniture and other essential items
  • Re-assess your space. Got any space left? Get some non-essentials if you want.
  • Decorate. (Posters, Signs, etc.)
  • Enjoy

Creating your man cave: A step by step guide

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Here is a step by step guide to follow so you can build up your man cave.

First things first: Think!

In my opinion you should think about the following things before you start doing anything;

• Available space
• Activities
• Atmosphere
• How many people?
• Objects

Let’s take a deeper look into these four things so you can make the right decisions for your man cave.

Before I start, it’s your room and your decision. You can do whatever you like. If you’re not so sure about what you want or need, read this article and hopefully you’ll be able to make better decisions to get the man cave you want.

Preparations

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1. How much space do you have?

First off, you need to know how much space you’ve got available. This plays a large role in what you can do with it. So, get out your tape measure and measure the space.

This will help you decide what you want to do exactly and also limit what you can do. If you don’t have the space for what you want to do, change your plan or space. Here are some tips about what to do with small spaces.

Read this article about how much space you need for certain activities.

2. What do you want to do?

The first thing you need to think about is pretty obvious but it has to be listed here.

Before you do anything you have to know what your purpose is with your room. If you don’t know what you want to do there, it’s difficult to decide what you should do.

I’ve outlined quite a few popular activities people engage in in their man caves in this article. (LINK) but, you know yourself best so you probably don’t need me to tell you what you want to do.

Things you want to do can be things you are already familiar with and just want more personal space for but also interests and hobbies you want to develop in the future.

Want to hang out more with friends? Start playing an instrument? Start meditating? Expand your east Indian book collection? It doesn’t matter, as long as you plan ahead.

It’s better to plan well from the beginning and make everything work instead of trying to do something that wasn’t going to work from the start.

Keep in mind

• Not all spaces are suitable for every activity. Trying to fit a project car and all necessary tools in a spare bedroom isn’t going to go well. Read this article for more information about which rooms are good to convert into man caves.
• Space is limited for most people. If you can’t fit everything you would like to in your man cave. Make a priority list. What do you really want to do and what would you like to do?

Want to know what popular activities and purposes of man caves are? Read this article to find out.

3. Atmosphere

A lot of times guys want to create a man cave that has an atmosphere that they really like. Often, the rest of the house has to be decorated in a way that is acceptable for “everyone”. What that often means is that the wife decides what the house looks like.

What do you like?

So when these guys can decide what to do with a room by themselves, they usually want something different.

What that is, is different for everyone but often you see that guys like a classic look. Like an old English pub or an old garage. They want it to look like a place where a man can feel at home. A place that looks like a place where masculine men want to go.

There are more options of course. Maybe you want big monitors and flashy gaming hardware. A big desk and comfortable gaming chair with a fridge in arm’s reach so you can be utterly comfortable while gaming.

Again, decide what you want and go with that. Mixing a gaming setup with a classic atmosphere isn’t impossible of course. But in that case you might want to skip the gaming PC with colorful LEDs everywhere because that will just look tacky in that situation.

Also, if the space is already built in a certain style, it’s difficult to completely change that. If you’ve got a house with ultra-modern architecture, it’s not going to be easy to convert the atmosphere completely to a classic one.

What type of man wants his own man cave? Read this article to find out.

4. How many people?

Another important thing to think about is how many people you would like to accommodate in your man cave.

Many men love their man cave because it’s a place they can finally be alone for a little bit. Others want to be able to have all their friends over for a drink and have a good time that way.

If you’ve created your man cave in a way that accommodates multiple people comfortably you can still easily be there alone of course. If you’ve done it the other way around and just planned for yourself and have no place for anyone else to comfortably sit, you’ve got a problem if you want to do that.

5. Which items do you need?

Necessities

When overthinking the previous points, you’ll doubtlessly have stumbled on some things you absolutely need in your man cave. This largely depends on your purpose with the room. A gamer has different requirements than someone who wants to work on cars.

I’d say there are some necessities for everyone though.

• Enough seating for everyone you plan to be there.
• Enough room for all those people to put their drinks down.

Sentimental value

Are there some objects you absolutely want to have in your man cave? Many men have some things in storage that they wouldn’t mind having to look at all the time if they could.

Something with sentimental value that you can’t put on display anywhere else is perfect to put in your man cave.

Cool to have

Once you’ve got all the previous things figured out, you should know how much space you’ve got left. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of things in mind you would like to have in here. It’s different for everyone.

Some things that are nice to have for everyone are:

• A fridge
• A toilet. (in a separate space of course!) Don’t underestimate how nice it is to have a toilet somewhere close. Especially if you’re having a drink with a couple of other guys that would have to make their way through the house otherwise.
• Things you want to have but can’t put anywhere else in the house.

Which steps should you take?

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Now the first stage is over, it’s time to start taking some action. Where to start? Don’t worry, here are all the steps from start to finish.

1.     Give the room a make over

You know what atmosphere you want and the room is empty. This is your chance to give your room a major make over. Change colors, textures etc. If you wan’t to change anything structural, do that first. This is your chance to really make or break your man cave. Plan carefully and enjoy the rewards later.

If you want to know how to turn your garage into a man cave, click here.

2.     Put your essential and sentimental items in your man cave.

You’re on your way to creating the man cave you want. The next step is to put in the things you think are essential and maybe the sentimental items if you have any. Take this opportunity to clean out the garage, maybe you find something cool you forgot about.

4.     Get some cool toys

Once you put in these things, see how much space you’ve got left. Once you put things in a room it always looks very different so maybe you will change your mind about how many other things you have space for. This step is where you can really get some cool stuff. Things that you couldn’t justify putting anywhere else. Kegerator, humidor, slot car race track etc. Go wild!!

5.     Decorate

Once you’ve got all the bigger toys and things in your man cave, it might need some decorating to finish it off. I’ve written some articles about decoration ideas for guys with certain interests. Make sure to check if there is anything for your interests, you might get some good inspiration. Click here to find the articles.

6.     Enjoy

You made it!! Now enjoy the fruits of your labor and use your man cave. Invite some friends over, have some drinks, have a good time and enjoy!!

Good luck!! Make sure to check if there are some other interesting articles for you on this site!! If you’re looking for more decorations ideas. Click here.