The Man Room provides men an in-house getaway

Gary Carnivele
Special to FineLife Home
Photos by Ryan Lely

Certain cringe-inducing items are familiar to every wife. The glossy coffee tables and wall clocks were once part of majestic trees. The over-priced sports memorabilia that became trapped in plastic cubes and cheap frames. The stuffed wildlife is not of the plush, cuddly variety. All this and even the bachelor-pad furniture too large to be secreted away need a place to live. Just not in areas of the house where unsuspecting guests might actually see them. This is precisely why every man needs a man room.
The concept of the man room or manspace or man cave may very well be as ancient as architecture itself. In cinematic costume dramas, the men of the British privileged class living in sprawling country homes have their drawing rooms, libraries and dens. Middle-class suburban TV dads have their basements, workshops and tricked out garages. If art does indeed imitate life, a room of his own is what the man of the house truly covets.
“The typical man room is a den in the sense that it is less an office and more a bear’s den or a lion’s lair,” explained Don Gross of Don Gross Design Associates in Sonoma, who is designing more and more rooms primarily for the men only. “The space should serve the man of the house as a place to close off the rest of the world where he can be surrounded by the things that reflect his interests and offer him.”
To determine how to decorate a man room, Gross said he would initially take notice of what the client reads. The books and magazines read by the client reveal what his true passion is. Gross said that the decorating scheme usually grows around the things that the homeowner needs to have around him that gives him a sense of territory.
In many a man room, the focus of attention is that big-as-possible flat screen television surrounded by all the gadgets needed to support and enhance its performance. That dark monolith that dominates a room like that black thing at the beginning and end of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is often the manly focus. Everything else pales in comparison.
“Often in a man room, we designers are faced with decorating around big focal points not found in other rooms in the home like a giant television, pool table, bar or even a fuss ball table,” said Daryle Baldwin, who along with husband Dean owns Alioto and Baldwin Interiors in Sonoma. “Sometimes a man room presents itself when rooms are being re-decorated, like our current project where a guest house has been re-purposed as a place where men gravitate to play pool and watch football.”
“The color palette is often in the tans and browns because most men lean towards the dirty, earthy shades. Most men prefer the darker, dusty colors rather than bright shades,” said Gross, who has 30 years of decorating experience. “The heavy furniture and dark woods, like walnut, typically used in a man room is often what would be found in traditional gentlemen’s clubs.
Gross recently finished a five-year design project of an 8,000-square-foot Glen Ellen house that includes a man room loft perched above the kitchen and main living space. Both male and female homeowners worked with Gross to create designs of their respective private spaces. Hers is something of a cocoon while his is more of a command post with an impressive view of both the interior and the beautiful countryside.
“The man room is best situated in a part of the house or, better yet, in a structure apart from the main house where a man is allowed his very own space and where he can retreat,” added Baldwin. “That said, I’ve found that many men are proud about what they helped to create and are excited about entertaining their friends in their space. A party to watch the big game is the perfect opportunity to do so.”

Resources
Alioto and Baldwin Interiors, 644 Third St. W. Sonoma; 707.996.4546;
www.aliotobaldwin.com

Don Gross Design Associates, 19404 Hwy. 12, Sonoma; 707.933.8601