Your hideout, your haven, your home inside your home. Your man cave is the space where you unwind and develop your best ideas, or focus on thinking of nothing at all. Your favorite space should be comfortable and inviting, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style and design.
For the man who craves sophistication as much as relaxation (or for his partner who abhors the adolescent gaming room look), a modern contemporary man cave design is a must.
Modloft is your go-to for modern contemporary design and innovative style ideas.
Our designers work tirelessly to create pieces of furniture that work to help elevate your spaces while still remaining functional. Whether you’re leveling up your space or creating a man cave from scratch, we’ve got the seven must-haves for making sure your cigar-and-whiskey room is as classy as possible.
Before You Get Started
Even if you’re just refreshing your room, there are some ideas to consider that can help take your man cave drab to fab. Many times, the man cave is the last room in the house to be designed, decorated, and furnished. The result? A room filled with college dorm leftovers, an outdated television, or even unfinished drywall. It’s not a good look, and it definitely doesn’t ooze finesse.
To make the most out of your space, consider these starting points:
- Finish incomplete projects. Your unfinished basement was going to be the ultimate for Superbowl parties and college game days, but as it stands, it amounts to a concrete floor and unfinished walls.
Make the investment to finish your room if there is carpentry, drywall, or plumbing that has been left unfinished. You’ll get more use from the room and spend more time in it if it has been properly finished off, so it feels like an actual room and not a fixer-upper.
If you’re on a budget crunch, consider using unfinished areas (like an interior basement wall made of brick or exposed pipes in the ceiling) as a stylistic tool you can design around instead of cover up. - Fresh paint. The walls of your space should be a color that helps you relax and makes the room feel open and airy. Look for neutral colors that don’t detract from the media or gaming tables you may have in the space or overpower the room and make it feel smaller.
- Layout. Decide your room’s layout before you buy or rearrange your furniture. You can sketch your design on paper or use an online tool, but determining where the major pieces of your room, like gaming tables, media consoles, recliners, should sit can help you keep your room sleek and clutter-free.
- Purpose. Maybe your man cave is where you want to practice yoga. Maybe you want a quiet place to read a book or catch up on market trends away from the family.
No matter how you plan to use your man cave, your design should accentuate the purpose. For example, if you’re searching for inner peace through yoga and meditation, housing a pool table in the center of the room where you’d be able to practice crane pose may not be the best decision.
7 Must-Haves for a Sophisticated Man Cave
Your man cave may be home to gaming chairs and video game consoles, or recliners and projection monitors. No matter what activities you’ll enjoy in your man cave, there are some essentials that are absolutely universal. Here are seven must-haves for a man cave that is sophisticated, functional, and inviting.
1. Statement Furniture
What separates a man cave from the family living room? A little bit of the user’s personal interests and design.
In other words, if you love to shoot pool, you’re probably going to find yourself making space for a pool table. It’s impossible not to build a room around a sizable piece of furniture that makes that much of a statement, so work with it, not against it.
You don’t have to compromise your style in terms of gaming tables or other iconic furniture pieces like poker tables or media consoles. Seek out contemporary pieces that are well-built with the true enthusiast in mind.
Modloft offers a gaming table that’s both functional and versatile. Adding benches to either side can convert the table from a game of ping pong to the perfect spot for a game of Cards Against Humanity.
2. Comfortable Seating
When it comes to man caves, seating is key. Your relaxation is the ultimate priority, but at Modloft, we understand you don’t want to (and shouldn’t have to) sacrifice aesthetic appeal in the name of comfort.
Your man cave’s sofa has to be comfortable, but notably more fashionable than a room full of garage sale or salvage store finds. The solution? We love a sturdy, leather sofa with plenty of seating and room to stretch out after a long day.
Reclining options work well for larger spaces, but a sofa that has a distinctly upscaled mid-modern look creates a more polished space and also keeps your room outfitted in cleaner lines.
3. The Perfect Side Table
You may be accustomed to the simple symmetry and contemporary appeal of Swedish design (a nice way of saying you assembled most of the furniture in your home with a hex key), but now that you’re graduating to a more mature room, that particle board side table just doesn’t work.
You can still choose simplistic design, but invest in quality pieces of furniture that will last more than a year and have a more useful and functional design.
Your man cave depends on side tables for keeping drinks just within reach, of course, but if you select a more versatile side table, you can consider using it for whiskey, charcuterie, the morning paper, or even your 10:00 p.m. dinner after a grueling day.
4. Bookcases
Want to ensure class and sophistication in your man cave? A cultivated selection of reading material is a must. Coffee table books, historical novels, or pictorial volumes of places you’ve been or would like to go make the man cave a place for indulging in culture, history, and the arts (or at least it can make it look like one).
A modern bookcase can help fill in empty wall space and showcase your collection of literature. If your man cave doubles as an at-home office, a bookcase can help you neatly organize and store supplies, files, and other work essentials.
5. Beverages
Be it whiskey, brandy, wine, or gin, we’re firm believers your drink of choice should never be farther than a few feet away. Your man cave doesn’t need to house an entire bar to be effective. A simple bar cart or beverage server will keep the drinks you need close by and eliminate repeated trips to and from the kitchen.
We love a great spirits server with a modern twist. It’s elegant, sophisticated, and a conversation starter. Whether or not that conversation is with yourself or someone else is completely your choice.
6. Your Own Art
Your man cave has walls that need to be styled, but you’ve grown past pictures of Hollywood icons and neon beer signs.
Opt for something with meaning that also accentuates your modern style. A favorite work of art framed in steel, theatre tickets and the playbill from your trip to New York, or a concert poster that has special meaning will bring you joy when you see it and keep your design flowing properly.
Don’t have any real memorabilia to hang yet? No worries, you’ve got a lot of life ahead of you to begin a collection. In the meantime, opt for a mirror to really open up your space, create light, and make the room feel larger.
7. Media
Sure, you can watch most of your favorite sporting events on your tablet, but to really be immersed in whatever you’re watching, you’re going to want a bigger, better projection. Your man cave needs great media and your television or projection selection matters in terms of picture quality and overall entertainment.
Keep the modern contemporary look of your entire home flowing coherently through your man cave by using media storage that is both functional and tasteful. You can use the additional storage space in your media unit for cards, poker chips, board games, or vintage VHS tapes to impress your friends.
The Takeaway
Your man cave should grow along with you, and if you’re ready to keep it a bit more upscale, you can easily achieve that look by upgrading your current digs and using modern furniture that is simplistically designed, understated, and functional.
Create a space that is versatile, comfortable, and full of personal style, and you’ll find yourself (and others) spending more time in your upgraded space.
Sources:
Online Room Planner - Design Your Room | Plan Your Room
How to Finish, Frame, and Insulate a Basement | Family Handyman