When you hear the two words “man cave”, what do you imagine yours to be? I’ve always joked about having a man cave but I haven’t really given it much thought in terms of what I would like in it. After doing a quick search online of a typical man cave, I would say that mine fits the definition that it’ll be a retreat of my interests and hobbies but it doesn’t fit what most other people have in their idea of man caves.
My man cave would probably be more of a tech center/lab and workshop. I have a few tech oriented hobbies and I love to build things as well so the ideal location would probably be a space off of the garage or even a loft type area above and overlooking my dream garage, with multiple exotic and luxurious cars as well.
Tech Center
The tech area of my man cave isn’t typical of most man caves you’ll hear about. I imagine an area that’s partially a server room with a “command center” style workstation with multiple monitors. I would have a half-height rackmount cage to house various equipment and servers. The entire house’s network wiring would centrally be wired to this location as well, of course.
Laboratory
A tech lab would be the next area with an electronics lab type workbench that includes equipment such as a benchtop power supply, oscilloscope, meters, wave generators, soldering station, and so on. I like to build my own electronic devices and there are times when I see a simple electronic device on the market and think to myself that I’ll just build one for myself instead of buying it. It’s not so much about the cost of the item on the market. It’s more about wanting to design and build it for myself and, of course, adding in my own tweaks to the design.
Workshop
The workshop area would be more of a typical garage workshop housing my tools and a heavy duty workbench. Equipment such as a drill press, scroll saw, circular saws, etc., would be a part of this area. It would seem odd that this type of area would be in the same room as my command center area since you wouldn’t want dust and any other debris floating around but I think I can make it work with a good built-in vacuum and air filtration setup.
Entertainment
One of the typical additions to most man caves that you hear about is the entertainment and bar area. I would definitely include a sitting area with a large flat screen TV and surround sound system. If I need a break from a project I’m working on, it would be nice to have a seat and put on a movie or such. However, a bar is out of the question. I’m not much of a drinker and if I do drink any type of alcohol, it’ll be wine. But my wine wet bar would be more a part of the entertainment room of the house instead of my man cave. Can you imagine a bar setup next to my tech lab and workshop area? Definitely an odd setup that won’t be happening and I wouldn’t want to be drinking and working on a project at the same time.
My man cave definitely doesn’t fit what most people think about what’s in a man cave but I’ll definitely enjoy it all the same.