Types of Man Caves

Though by no means exhaustive, the following list provides a high level overview of the different types of man caves we have come to recognize over the years. Chances are your man cave, or your vision of what you would like your man cave to become, is a hybrid of two or more of these types of rooms.

• Entertainment Room: The quintessential guy space, Entertainment Rooms are what generally comes to mind when most people think of man caves. With staples such as comfortable couches, recliners and a ginormous TV, Entertainment Rooms teeter between lively gathering spaces (e.g. for the game on Saturday or Sunday afternoon) to second bedrooms (e.g. the rest of the week when I guy can’t keep his eyes open more than a few hours after getting home from work).
• Game Room (Traditional): The classic man cave in every sense, Traditional Game Rooms contain one or more of the following: a billiards table, a dart board, a pinball machine, bumper pool, a ping pong table and/or a poker table. Traditional Game Rooms are designed to be social in nature, where friends gather to unwind and blow off steam, yet be competitive without breaking a sweat.
• Game Room (Modern): With continued advancements in video games (e.g. Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox) a new type man cave has emerged in the past decade. Modern Game Rooms are man spaces solely dedicated to all that is gaming, be it video, online and other types of virtual games. Here, you will are likely to find gaming-specific chairs where one can sit comfortably for hours, tons of bandwidth for online game competitions, high-end gaming computers, gigantic TVs, unbelievable sound systems, a myriad of game consoles, and a few stale Cheetos in peculiar places.
• Office/Den/Study: Likely not the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of a man cave, Office, Den and Studies are not known a places for camaraderie or male bonding. Instead, Offices, Dens and Studies provide solitude for guys to work, read or focus on solving the world’s problems. David McCullough and the late William F. Buckley are known to have had personal offices on their properties that were separated from their homes (an ideal man cave if you ask us). Generally, Offices, Dens and Studies include volumes of books, a personal computer or a typewriter, a basic radio, a sturdy desk, a leather reading chair, a comfortable desk chair and sometimes a small TV set to keep an eyes on the day’s financial news or catch sports scores.
• Garage: Always a man’s domain, Garages are for storing cars, motorcycles, boats, bicycles and another types of personal motorized vehicle (e.g. Segways, golf carts and ATVs). Garages include storage racks, freezers and occasionally a workshop for men to change the oil or restore a classic. Unfortunately, Garages tend not to have heat, are poorly lit, have oil-stained floors and usually have to accommodate everything your wife does not want in the house.
• Workshop: Workshops are man caves are dedicated to building and fixing things, and honoring the tools that make building and fixing things possible. Here, you will find table saws, drills, wood, an abundance of hand tools, supplies and a usually a few ambitious projects that were started but never completed. Norm Abrams’ New Yankee Workshop is what every guy should aim for.
• Open Air Man Cave: Any space outside that a guy can call his own. Most often, an Open Air man caves is a deck or patio where a guy can test his culinary skills on the grill. However, there are other types of open air man caves. For example, an area to play bags or horseshoes, a basketball court, a place to garden or a lawn to do yard work, or if you’re lucky enough, a putting green to practice your short game.
• Exercise Room: A space for guys to stay in shape, burn calories or let off some aggression by working out. An exercise room might contain a bench press, free weights, a mirror, a treadmill, a radio or small TV, multi-use workout machines or a rarely used Ab Roller. Any guy that has a sauna or steam room attached to his exercise room gets bonus points.
• Hunting Lodge: A place to gather after a long day of hunting or fishing.  Hunting lodges allow guys to escape city or suburban life to relax, to play cards, to drink, to eat the day’s catch/kill and to embellish on past hunting expeditions. Generally, hunting lodges include a kitchen, bar, living room with comfortable furniture, taxidermied animals mounted on the wall, gun racks, mud rooms and, of course, sleeping quarters.
• Wine Cellar: A temperature controlled room for serious connoisseurs. A Wine Cellar will include customized storage racks for wine bottles, benches/chairs for relaxing, a wine bottle opener or two, a tasting table and glasses for every conceivable type of wine. Like Specialty Rooms (see below), Wine Cellars are for guys with a particular passion for vino.
• Sound Room: Otherwise known as a recording studio, Sound Rooms provide a space where guys are free to jam without prompting the neighbors to call the police. The key ingredient to good sound room is “sound proofing” or a way to muzzle even the most badass electric guitar riff. Besides instruments, sound rooms will contain lounge furniture, dark walls, concert posters, albums, recording equipment and usually an old Persian rug or two.
• Cigar Room: Another rare man cave is a Cigar Room or smoking lounge. These spaces are for serious aficionados and contain humidors, cigar cutters, necessary ventilation, comfortable lounge chairs, appropriate lighting, complementary libations (brandy or scotch), and usually a few illegal Cuban cigars to help maintain an edge over the law.
• Bar: Rarely will you find a man cave that is a just a bar. Come to think of it, we’re not sure this has ever existed. Instead, bars tend to be ubiquitously integrated into nearly every other type of man caves, sans exercise rooms and garages. In an Office, for example, a bar might consists of a mini-refrigerator, a small sink and a few choice bourbons, whereas in an entertainment room, a bar could be fully stocked with libations, a kegerator and plenty of space for friends to congregate.
• Specialty Rooms: These are man caves that fall outside the aforementioned categories but are nonetheless distinctively guy spaces. For instance, a specialty room might a room dedicated to a hobby (e.g. a miniature train set or Star Wars collection), a room for video golf, a basketball court, bowling alley, a batting cage or, the ultimate, a room dedicated to your car collection (think Jay Leno’s garage). At Man Cave Essentials, we envy any guy that has a specialty room!

Have we missed anything? If so, feel free to send us an email. Also, we’d love to profile man caves on our weblog (Coming Soon) so, if you have a space that you are particularly proud of and would like to share it with the world, please get in touch with us.