Photo courtesy GarageTown USA

Whether you go high-brow or testosterone-heavy, an all-male room is all the rage.

To enter the fifth bedroom in Tim Nordahl’s Ahwatukee Foothills home is to enter a place where boys can be boys. A 50-inch flat-screen TV – flanked by two smaller TVs – pipes in a steady stream of sports programming. Feet are welcome on the coffee table, but don’t think about snaking Nordahl’s seat on the sofa. “I’ve got a spot on the couch everyone knows is mine. I have a satellite package with all the NFL games, and the guys come over on Sundays and we watch three games at a time,” Nordahl says.

The décor? Autographed USC Trojan Heisman jerseys (think Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, O.J. Simpson) line the walls. Display cabinets showcase a Joe DiMaggio-signed baseball, a Michael Jordan-autographed photo and a game-worn Arizona State University football helmet from ASU’s classic 19-0 upset of Nebraska in 1996. “I found a player’s helmet on the field and picked it up. He’s probably still looking for it,” Nordahl says. The shutters are drawn, both to protect his autographed stuff and to optimize TV viewing.

Welcome to the man cave.

Photo courtesy The Hart Studio

Nordahl is among the growing ranks of guys claiming space in the house as their own, a room in which to be rude and crude, or simply find solitude. Man caves have come a long way since Archie Bunker was relegated to a well-worn recliner parked in front of the tube. In fact, it’s an idea whose time has come, says Jason Cameron, co-host of the DIY Network show Man Caves. “Normally, the guy, just to keep his sanity, agrees with everything the wife wants. Whether it’s our trophies, sports collections, cigars – we can’t have that in the house because our better half won’t allow it. But there has always been a need for guys to have their own space.”

RESOURCES
GarageTown USA
920 E. Javelina Ave., Ste. 1, Mesa
480-926-2844 • garagetown.com

The Hart Studio
15551 N. Greenway-Hayden Loop, Ste. 155, Scottsdale
480-294-6063 • thehartstudio.com

Nancy Slane
3165 S. Alma School Road, Ste. 29, Chandler
480-857-4885 • nancyslaneinteriordesign.com

Rowland Companies
8324 E. Hartford Drive, Ste. 200, Scottsdale
480-477-8300 • rowlandcompanies.com

Photo courtesy Rowland Companies

Over-the-Top Options
Guy Loisi, managing partner of Rowland Luxury Homes, has a Valley client who went to great lengths and expense to construct an over-the-top and under-the-radar man cave.

The client enters through a hidden entryway and proceeds to a fingerprint scanner and combination lock that opens a $10,000 steel vault door. “You go down into a subterranean area of the house, past a wine cellar with a sitting area where you can smoke cigars, and then into a full-length shooting range,” Loisi says.

With higher-end homes, the sky’s the limit when it comes to building the ultimate man cave. “It’s not just pool tables anymore. We’ve done everything from custom pinball machines, full-size electric dart boards, hockey games, big screen TVs, beer tappers and bathrooms,” he says.

Loisi and Paul Alessio, managing partner of Rowland Companies Construction Group’s western region, realize most men will have dialed-down visions and budgets for their man caves. Still, a fourth bedroom or converted garage may be ample room to house a high-tech toy room or a tribute to sports or hot rods. “Man caves are much more sophisticated than in the old days.... Interior decorators are part of the process, implementing design so that it flows with the rest of the house,” Alessio says.

Still, not all designers are hip to the trend. “We all hate it,” says Chandler interior designer Nancy Slane, noting she has been forced into the role of mediator more than once. “With younger couples, the man will say, ‘I still have to have my space for my guys and my beer.’ It causes a lot of problems. I’ve had wives tell me, ‘Please, if he wants this, tell him it won’t work.’”

Slane recommends asking these questions before designing a man cave:

• What’s the main purpose? “I will find out exactly what he wants to do with it. Some people want it all – the pool table, mini-fridge, sofa, TVs. Some people just want the big-screen TV and the remote.”

• What’s your style? Do you want college posters? Rich woods and books? “If the wife wants Tuscan and you want a college theme, you must have a space with a door that closes,” she says.

• What’s your budget? “If money and space are no object, you can have a bowling alley, a shooting range, an indoor basketball court.... You could build a room you’d never have to leave. You could actually send your husband to live in there,” Slane says.

The Good Ol’ Garage
If making a man cave inside the house threatens to unravel your bonds of matrimony, consider the good ol’ garage. Add a leather sofa, a high-capacity ventilation fan, cable TV and a dart board, and you’ll be smoking stogies and watching the game in no time.

If your on-site garage isn’t big enough, try GarageTown USA, which sells private, individually owned garage “condominiums.” Todd Lipton owns a GarageTown storage unit in Chandler. “This is my beefed-up man cave. It’s kind of a place for me to get away,” he says. He plunked down $132,000 to own the unit, where he stores a 31-foot-long RV, a sports car, an off-road vehicle, an ATV and a motorcycle. He invites buddies over to “tinker with the toys” or watch TV in the unit’s carpeted mezzanine level, with suede and leather seating, surround sound and a flat-screen TV.

Home Office Haven
Looking for something more high-brow? Consider turning the home office into a “mantuary.” Loisi’s home boasts a man cave that the kids call “Command Central.” It’s an off-limits-to-kids zone where he can work, decompress or watch TV. “It has definitely improved my home life. It’s not so cumbersome to sit at my kitchen table if I have to bring work home.”

Martin Rodriguez, president of The Hart Studio in Scottsdale, recently designed a room for a Valley business owner who wanted to incorporate his traditional taste with a demanding workload. “He wanted it to function as an office but didn’t want it to look like an office,” Rodriguez says.

The result is a masculine, functional room with a private sitting area, extensive library, a bar and a fireplace. “He wanted it to have a very men’s club kind of feel,” Rodriguez says, adding that paneled walls, wood floors, leather furniture and plantation shutters met his wife’s desires for it to blend with the rest of the home. Many of the room’s functional business props are concealed, like a drop-down plasma TV and hidden file cabinets.

“The concept of a man cave is not new,” he says. “With the onset of HGTV and DIY shows, it has just become more acceptable.”