We need our space – a place to unwind

My husband loves vintage motorbikes and has two, one which he has restored to a point where he can use it and another which requires a love of vintage motorbikes to see the potential or even the fact that it is a motorbike.

Both of these bikes live in our garage which my husband calls his “man cave”. I’ve rolled my eyes at this on many occasions until recently when I was faced with doing some DIY and managed to put my hands on everything I needed with amazing ease and efficiency, making what was a chore into a rather satisfying experience.

There are huge benefits to having a man cave in a home, this is the space where things like motorbikes, old electrical stuff, fitness equipment, tools, paint etc can be coralled in the house without driving everyone else mad. It’s not a notion to be sniffed at. Once we had to design a treadmill into a newly refurbished, open-plan kitchen dining space complete with flat screen carefully positioned for viewing while jogging – not an easy thing to blend into a beautiful interior but it would have worked wonderfully well in a man cave setting.

We have clients with three boys who fully understand the need for such a space. When I first visited their home I was blown away by their play room, which was the most organised child space I’d ever seen. I was told that a simple rule, “No tidy. No telly” was all it took to get the little Lego fanatics to create order that even the most organised mother would be proud to take credit for. Lego pieces were ordered and stored away by shape and size.

Now that the boys were bigger our clients wanted to convert their attic into a "Make room" – inspired by the Make shop which is run by the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin. The Make shop is a collaborative workshop space where you can learn everything from cross-stitching to DIY robotics, origami and 3D printing. Tools, materials and guidance are provided to allow you to get making. Our clients wanted to create an equally creative space for their boys. The attic was simply kitted out with workbenches, plenty of shelving and lots of storage. The floors were covered in a heavy duty lino to handle any spills and anything else that goes along with making and experimenting.

Refuge

In case you think the focus is too heavy on the messier side of the male environment, there is no rule that the man cave has to be a stripped-back utilitarian space. We had other clients who wanted a more comfortable space for the man of the house to escape to. We turned a spare bedroom into a relaxing study with wood burning stove, a TV for watching sport, plenty of book shelves and a really comfortable sofa to recline and relax.

We all need our own space – a place where we can unwind and recharge. And women are often well catered for in this respect as we tend to be the main decision makers when it comes to the decor and layout of our homes. According to psychiatrist and author Scott Haltzman, it is important for a man to have a place to call his own and some psychologists claim that a man cave can provide refuge from stressful surroundings and be beneficial to a relationship.