Man Cave. In the Living Room.
There must be something about men and their personal spaces. Every man has his. It’s the one spot his wife won’t poke at or hang around when he’s not around. For some men, the spaces are enormous. Other men can’t quite live that large. My husband is one of them.
His first man cave was in the utility closet in the kitchen of our 450 square foot apartment in the US. The desk fit right between the water heater and furnace. He had to get off of his chair and close the door so that I could open the silverware drawer. Every other woman kept their dishwashers and dryers in her closet. Not me. That’s where my husband went.
He never had to clean it up. He could work late at night without bothering me. Best of all, he was just an arm’s reach from the cookies when they came out of the oven.
But German houses don’t have closets. We’d already put our bikes in the only alcove in the apartment. Little did we know, finding Martin a space of his own was going to be our hardest task in the entire remodel of our house, including the kitchen.
It was great reading all of your guesses about this last corner of our living room. Bookcases, a bar (ooh), a closet… all of those would have been so lovely. When you live in a small space, though, everything you have in your house has to accommodate all the people who live there. Drats.
I guess this is where I get all lovely dovey and report: a happy husband is better than any of those other great uses of this space. So here you have it. When I showed you this:
We were building this:
Our man cave.
The dirt on what you see: The front three panels are hinged together and screwed to the brown wall. The wall is solid concrete and rebar, so don’t worry. Those panels aren’t going anywhere. Martin just has to fold the frosted glass panels together against the wall to reveal his desk. You can see the beige of his chair right above the couch arm rest.
All I have to do is close the panels back up when he’s not looking.
The entire desk was inspired by a scrap piece of hardwood we found marked waaaay down. The folding panels were inspired by my grandmother’s love of music and hate of organized sheet music.
Martin is still moving in. The very last box in the house has finally been unpacked.
So no big screen TVs and leather couches in this man cave. No pictures of busty German maidens carrying mugs of beer here (I think). Still it’s the man’s space. Do you have one of those at your house? I’d love to swap stories.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 am
I am VERY impressed! You built this from scratch? I bet if you could find a factory you could mass produce these and become rich and famous. I’d love to see a photo with the doors open!
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
Wow. I need to see a picture with the door open, too. How much space is between that and the yellow sofa?
We have a man cave in our house. We have a spare bedroom that my husband has taken over. He painted the walls a deep blue, added three bookcases, a desk and computer, and a bunch of crazy art pieces. Voila! He can go there to play his music loud, do his work (he’s a teacher), and he is not bothered by the kids playing in the rest of the house. It works for everyone. He just doesn’t know how lucky he is.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
That. Is. Awesome. M has always had a man cave (that’s what we call it too). He planned on using our spare bedroom, but I took over that for our guest/home school room so he was relegated to the upstairs “Maid’s Quarters” (a leftover from the 50′s and 60′s when officers had maids-I wish!). It’s about a 12×11 room with a small dormer window and a teeny-tiny closet. A lot of people use them to house guests when they come for extended visits (there are bathrooms in the hall the maid’s quarters are on). M keeps all of his musical equipment (waaaay too much IMO), a desk and random other man stuff. I so love not having all that-dare I say it?-junk in the house. He doesn’t have to keep it clean, but he does! If only he kept the house we actually lived in clean. Your man cave is awesome, and once again I’m blown away by your skills, but doesn’t he feel trapped in there? I’d feel claustrophobic. Can you post a pic with the doors open?
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 am
Well done! I’m glad to see you were able to come up with a creative way to get Martin his space.
As for my own husband, his man cave has gotten smaller and smaller. He had his own apartment back in the day. Then he had the spare room after we were married. But sadly, with the birth of our second child that became another baby room. Now his ‘man cave’ is his desk in the living room. And because it’s accessible, the kids do mess it up.
Although the kids mess up ‘my’ space too. And sleep in our bed some nights. We’ve really just given up on the idea of having private space of our own for the time being.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 am
You gotta take what you can get, right?
DH doesn’t really have a man cave right now. I guess our office is sorta a mancave, but even that has my influences in it. But this summer, we plan on cleaning out and organizing our basement and at that point, we’ll hopefully be able to carve out a cave for him. :)
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
We have man space, but it’s filled with clutter! So he spends his time in his chair in the livingroom with his laptop ;)
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
My Martin doesn’t have a “man cave”. He has his computer desk in the living room, but that’s it. I’ve taken over, you know. He gets his private time after the baby and I have gone to sleep at about 8:30-9. Maybe one day he can have his own cave, but for now, uh-uh.
Tell your Martin his space is very nice. He can nerd around in there all he wants. :-)
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
As the only man here, I think I speak on behalf of the men. All I can say is VERY NICE. I wish I had a small room like that. I remember our first apartment, I had the same kind of area as your husband. It was actually the corner of the living room where I was allowed to have my desk – no walls though. Now with the kids going back and forth I would be happy with even that.
Also, nice job on the construction!
March 24th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Wow! That is really interesting. No man caves in this house. I too would like to see just how the doors fold back. Awesome job!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Very cool.. no man caves here either, just a lot of estrogen…. :)
March 24th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Okay, I’ll take a deep breath and try to crack open his space for all of you. It’s basically a desk with a chair tucked in behind the doors. He has room to pull out the chair and sit comfortably.
Love all of your space descriptions, too. Mom in High Heels, it sounds like your guy takes the prize for the biggest space… and the cleanest. wow! I’m just glad we don’t have one of those nasty basement spaces with a pinball machine or something crazy!
Katie
March 25th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Thanks for joining in on the party! Jen
March 26th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Wow’ what a great man cave in such a small space and it adds some charm to the place. Very nicely done.
Have a happy day
Kris
March 27th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
This rocks. I can totally see the redneck version of this: a large refrigerator box with a desk inside. :-)
Seriously though… our Man Cave is in the formal entry of our house (off the unused formal living room). All I need now is a folding screen….
April 1st, 2009 at 9:29 pm
very creative ideas!….we don’t have a man cave in our house either because he chose to make his man cave the garage…he has his cars out there, his computer (which he also uses as a TV to watch shows and movies on), his stereo, his tools and workbench….oh yeah and a mini fridge for his beer. I am sruprised he hasn’t taken the wine fridge out there too! lol It’s funny though….the man cave is enough of a staple that everyone is familiar with it but what about a woman’s space?….we tend to want to carve out little places for ourselves too….to read, do a Bible study, or whatever….for me it’s my art studio but I have also carved out some space of my own on my side of the bedroom as well.
July 28th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Great work!
January 27th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
There are four of us in about 1000 sf. I’ve been encouraging my husband to make the garage into a man cave but now that I think about he does have one in the corner of the living room. He has a low-slung massage chair with his computer on some wooden cubes so it has the kicked back posture he likes. He pulls out one of the cubes to put his mouse pad and sunflower seeds on and he can see the tv. All together it is about 3′ x 5′. The kids do come sit on his lap at times and I do remove the objects that accumulate to the “dumping ground.” Our hall has a little nook in it that we were able to set some cabinets in to make “cubbies” or “dumping ground.” His is FILLED with old receipts, scribbled post-its and random work reading materials but it is his so I don’t nag.