Everyone needs to have time and a place to unwind. People need to have a space they call their own that expresses their true selves. For men, that space is probably going to look different than if the space is only for women. (See Hide-away for Her Using Shipping Containers to read more about spaces designed exclusively for women). Consequentially, man caves were born.
Man caves are spaces designed for the exclusive use of males to relax, play and watch sports, enjoy hobbies, hang out with other male friends, and have private quiet time away from day to day obligations.
To make a perfect man cave, let’s consider what goes into one, what other people have put into theirs, and an example of how shipping containers can be great building blocks to create your own man cave.
Critical Components of a Complete Man Cave
In order to create the perfect man cave for you, first make a list of activities you want to enjoy in your man cave. What furniture and game equipment will you need to make these activities more fun for you?
12 Great Ingredients of a Perfect Man Cave:
- Pool table
- Darts. A great game to play while between events.
- Arcade games. If you don’t have room for a floor model, get a refurbished wall mounted machine. More about this below in our example design discussion.
- Trophies, collectables.
- Plenty of sitting. Recliners are almost a must.
- Flat screen TV. This is not only to watch your favorite football game. But, also to connect to a game console.
- Refreshments are close at hand. With that, a refrigerator to keep the beer ready is critical. Some man caves have liquor served from bars and kegs of beer pouring out through refrigerator doors.
- Restroom to freshen up. A must if you and your visitors will be drinking from the bar.
- Good ventilation especially have a restroom and if you will be smoking cigars in the man cave.
- Design the man cave to be shared with a select group of other men
- A floor that is easy to clean up. Easy to vacuum and mop after having the guys over during a rowdy game night.
- Outdoor spaces. How about a BBQ grille? What man doesn’t enjoy cooking a steak or burger on game day? Have a pregame tailgate party in your own backyard.
After making your list of things you want to do and have in your man cave, it is time to put it all together in a design.
Let’s take a look at how each of these features can be used to make a great man cave for someone.
Designing Your Man Cave
This space is all for you. The only people who will be allowed in it and participate in whatever activities there is of your own choice.
Inside the Man Cave
The Sports Lounge will be the heart of the man cave.
The Pool Table
If you want a billiards table in your man cave, be sure to give enough room for the table and for the people to get around it for any angle of shot.
The sizes and clearances of pool tables is important. It was the driving force that dictated the need to use two 20 foot shipping containers side by side for the proper floor space to play pool in our design of the man cave.
Billiards, or pool tables, come is various sizes:
- English (Snooker) tables are 6’-9” x 12’-9”
- Standard Billiards, or Pool tables are 5’-9” x 10’-0”, 5’-3” x 9’-9”, or 4’-9” x 8’-9”
- Junior Pool tables are 4’-3” x 7’-9” or 3’-9” x 6’-9”
- Standard cues are 57”, 48” and 43” long. So, allow at least 5’-0” around the table, if possible, so nothing interferes with the game.
The pool table that is shown in this design is the smaller standard pool table. Even using the smallest regulation pool table leaves end clearances a little smaller than preferred.
Pool tables are about 30” high, the same height as a dining and a poker table. Having a smaller pool table also allows the table to be doubled as a dining or poker table when a table top of placed over the playing surface.
Bringing large items like a pool table into a shipping container building is a little different than bringing them into a stick built (with stud walls) buildings. You cannot bring large equipment into the space and then build the walls around them.
The container building already has walls and only has the one set of doors at the end of the container. All large equipment will need to be brought through these doors unless additional openings are cut into the shipping container walls
Darts
Darts are a pub favorite for good reasons. Playing the game requires skill and practice. The more you play, the better you get.
It is also a great game to play while getting your guests to interact – even if they are socially shy. It can be used to start up conversations and bond friendships
Arcade Games
Vintage pinball machines are becoming more popular. Why not have one or two in your man cave? Most pinball machines take up a lot of floor space. So do other table games like shuffle board, ping pong, foosball, and air hockey.If you have enough room for more table type of arcade games, you might consider the all-in-one multi-game table from Wayfair.com.
Here is a link to that multi-game table: https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/md-sports-12-in-1-48-multi-game-table-mdsp1019.html?piid=
Since there was not enough room to put an arcade table on the floor, I put a Pachinko machine on the wall near the bar. You can buy a rebuilt Pachinko machine on Craigslist for around $300.
If you are not sure what a Pachinko machine looks like, here is the Wikipedia link about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko
Trophies and Collectables
The man cave is a good place to show off your sports collectables. This design has a couple of autographed and framed sports jerseys hung up on the wall.
Maybe you won the fantasy football season and received a trophy for it or for some other achievement, show it off in your man cave.
Autographed balls, bronzed running shoes, helmets, and banners can be used to decorate the walls and display cases. Use the logos of your favorite sports teams as wall murals. Place spot lights on them to really highlight these as focal points
Plenty of Seating
Recliners are almost a must-have in a man cave. Two, and if you have enough room, up to six recliners would be the best type of seating near the flat screen TV.
Have them upholstered in leather or in a fabric of your favorite team’s colors. Some have the team’s logo embroidered into the seats.
If you need more seating, then use a flip top ottoman that can double as a tray top, ottoman, or another place to sit. Here is my product review of the flip top ottoman.
Flat Screen TV
Put a flat screen TV in the center of your man cave so people can watch the game while at the bar or playing a game of pool, darts, or arcade games.
If you have room, put several flat screen TV’s in your man cave so you can catch other simultaneous games at one place. Your man cave can be the command center of sports viewing.
Connect your TV’s to a surround sound speaker system. Place the speakers in all corners of the man cave. Wouldn’t it be cool to hear the hit of the ball on one end of the man cave and then hear the cheers of the roaring fans at the stadium when the ball is caught near the other end of your man cave?
Refreshments Close at Hand
This design has a bar. You will need a place to keep your beverages cold. The bar would be the spot for that.
If it is a wet bar, meaning it has a sink, you will need to get piping to your man cave. Permits will usually be required before any plumbing work is done.
Put some bar stools around the bar so your guests can “belly up” to the bar and toast to their favorite team.
Restroom
If your shipping container man cave is not near an existing restroom or toilet (like in a nearby house), then you will want to build a restroom in your man cave.
This, too, will require permits in most municipalities.
At the very least, the restroom will need a lavatory (sink) and a water closet (toilet).
You might also want to have a storage closet for paper towels and cleaners.
The restroom in this design is placed near the operative doors of the shipping container so supplies for the restroom and bar can be easily brought into the man cave from outdoors.
Good Ventilation
A restroom will need a toilet exhaust fan.
If you are going to smoke in your man cave, it is important that you have proper ventilation to exhaust the smoke and supply clean air at the rooms.
Air that is conditioned to maintain the temperature and humidity in an interior space will also rely on proper insulation at the floors, walls, and roof. Closed cell expanding spray on foam insulation is often the best solution because it does not use much of the depth of the floor, wall, roof cavities but gives terrific R-values (insulation values).
The design will need to be looked at a little closer in order to obtain the needed R-values at the operative shipping container doors and at the stone wall behind the flat screen TV.
Enough Open Spaces
Give enough room for men to stand and move around.
Even though the sizes of the spaces are limited to the sizes of the shipping container, you can open up walls with proper structural supports to give more of an open and adaptable space.
Pick Your Finishes Wisely
This design has a wood floor in the sports lounge and bar that continues to the outdoors. It will give a sense that the shipping container is larger than it really is.
The toilet will have ceramic floor and full height tile on the walls.
It is wise to choose finishes that are easy to clean. Not all visitors are going to be careful not to spill their refreshment. So, don’t pick finishes that will stain and ruin easily.
Paint the walls a color that will complement the colors of your favorite sports teams or will not pick a color scheme that will act as a neutral back drop to the decorations you have to show off.
Bringing the Inside of Your Man Cave to the Outdoors
There is a large wooden deck that extends from the folding glass doors of the shipping container man cave to the half basketball court.
The wooden deck is complete with a natural gas BBQ grille and a large shaded wooden table and chairs. Although the inside of the man cave is to be used by the man of the house and his male visitors, the deck can be shared with the entire family for outdoor dining.
A winding stairs leads up to the wooden roof deck. For safety sake, be sure to have a guardrail at least 42” high around the roof deck. Insulation can be placed under the deck in order to give the proper R-value while allowing the raw corrugated metal ceiling inside the man cave to be exposed
Rooftop Playground
What would you like to do on a roof deck? How about having a four hole putting green built up there?
At the roof, you can bring your buddies up to play a round of putting challenges while keeping score on the enlarged score card from a premier Master’s Pro Golf Course mounted on the wall.
There is a little more room on the roof deck to place chairs if you wish to hang out up there and get a tan during the summer months.
Have fun with your design of your man cave. Be the first to have a man cave with a fireman’s pole as this one does.
Cost of a Man Cave
The cost of this design can vary depending on the age of the shipping containers, finishes, doors, fixtures, amount of decking, type of stairs, and what equipment and millwork is selected to be installed.
But, as a starting ball park preliminary estimate, this man cave design would cost around $90,000 US to build.
If that is way over your budget, no problem. Just use one shipping container that has been at sea a while, don’t build a roof deck or lower deck (that will reduce the cost of needing a stair and a playful fireman’s pole) or a restroom or wet bar. Eliminate the stone wall, pool table, basketball court, and the large folding glass wall too.
The cost could be reduced down to around $25,000 easily.
Get Started Designing and Building Your Man Cave
Start by making a list of what you want in your man cave.
Then, start designing it. All your buddies will be jealous that you have such a cool place to hang out and do what you want to do.
Man Cave Design Ideas from Famous Men in History
Here’s a list of things that men you probably heard about had in their personal getaways. Maybe you can get some additional inspiration from them:
- Mark Twain had a billiards room that also had a fireplace.
- Thomas Edison had a room where he would take daily naps.
- Theodore Roosevelt had a game room where he hung stuffed animal heads as trophies and talking points of his various exotic hunting trips.
- Ernest Hemingway used a carriage house in Key West, Florida to drink scotch, smoke cigars, and write about men being men
- Frederick Douglass had a room in his Washington D.C. house where he could spend hours reading and writing.
- Thomas Jefferson had a space next to his bed so he could roll out of bed after a nap and start writing things that inspired him, and ultimately, inspired a new nation.
To see photos of these and other famous men’s man caves, go to http://artofmanliness.com/2010/07/27/famous-man-caves/
Credits
I designed and drew the man cave found in this article with the Sketch up Pro software. It is a user friendly CADD software that you can learn very quickly.
Sketchup has a lot of pre-drawn images available for users and I used several of them from the Sketchup Warehouse including:
- 20’ HiCube by GTvehicle
- 2d tree by MSR08081984
- 2326#1 and faucet by Kohler Co. and XYZ Visualizations
- 3D Trees by Landscape Designer
- 4 Burner BBQ by David J.
- Background by agaeti
- Basketball by agaeti
- Basketball backstop by Sparky
- Dallas Cowboys Logo by Ryan
- Flat Screen TV by emichael
- Folding Glass Patio Doors by Justin
- Framed Jersey by sium pondok gede
- Guardrail by joshgarno
- Handrail by David L.
- Home bar by Arturo B.
- Patio Set by Ivan, BillyElNino
- Pedestal Sink by Alienpostie
- Pool Billiard Table Light by hombre
- Pool Cue Rack by formaggio’s
- Pool Table by Guy M.
- Putting Green by arqsport
- Sky dome by anonymous
- Stairs by Lily
- Tall grass by Daniel C.
- The Pachinko Game by Comugi
