Posted By Ibropalic on Jun 1, 2015 | 1 comment

Man Cave Ideas on a Budget – How to turn any basement into a man cave for less then $100 dollars

After scouring the web for the best man cave DIY ideas on a budget we came across a Redditor who goes by the username of Kelhans.

For $107 dollars he turned a shabby looking basement into a rustic man cave retreat. This is by far the best diy man cave that we have come cross and the best part is that anybody can pull it of. Lets take a look at the step by step process

Man Caves On a Budget

This is what the basement looked like in the beginning. Dirty, Damp, broken ceiling, pipes and a strange looking disco ball. Let’s ignore the disco fever for now.

Save on Material wherever you can

He drove around and stumbled upon some old wood creates. The wood was pine and dimensions where 1″ x 8 x 12′. Best part of using wood creates left behind by companies is that most of the time they are free. In this case they were; You can easily stock up on firewood for the winter if you have a pickup and drive around industrial parks. If you ask politely most companies will be glad to get rid of them. Easy way to stock up on wood for DIY man cave projects.

Don’t skip on the extra steps, Kelhans shows some interior design skills here, most people would have sanded or painted right away. Kelhans shows some strong handyman skills here. He uses a draw knife to make each board look like it was hand cut. Using a drawing knife always adds that rustic feel wood and can make the interior design of a man cave or any other room visually appealing with a comfortable vibe which is what we really look for in a man cave.

After ripping out the drywall, measuring and cutting the boards the walls go up. He adjusted for a fireplace, cut out space for plumbing pipes and outlets he made sure that all the boards where in place. There was one problem, which was adjusting for all the air ducts and other support beams. The only solution would be to install a secondary fake ceiling. More on that later…

The window you see back there is intended for storage however, he will make it look like a fake window with a outdoor mountain scenery. Kelhans is really going for a rustic cabin type feel, you can go with any man cave idea you chose. The extra storage is good foresight on his part, as the room itself is very compact.

Here is a look at the fireplace, these bricks were free, he found them outside the house, I’m sure that you wouldn’t have much trouble finding a similar set. Again the cost thus far is still $0 we found the wood and the bricks for free.

He did have to purchase a support beam for the fake room. It will be tilted upwards to give it again the cabin look and feel which should also hide the air ducks fairly well. The wood beam was aged and stained afterwards to give it a sharp contract and to add to the cabin man cave feel.

Time for the Wood Flooring

Again Kelhans is strick with his budget, these have been found at local businesses. Perfect for flooring, you would be amazed at how much wood can be reclaimed when we keep an eye out for it. Man Cave Shelving is already starting to be built and the appropriate man cave decor is following suit.

Things are starting to come together nicely, note how the fireplace has been covered up with and decoration is starting to come back. Remember the vent Ducks and other support beans that were giving him trouble in the beginning. Take a look at how he took on that problem.

He added faux columns that hide the vent ducks. Afterwards the door went in and it was time to decorate this man cave. Drum roll please…….

Here is the finished product

Now you may be wondering how does all this cost only $100, well my fellow man cave dwellers, most of the furniture in this room has been handmade by utilizing pallets and wood that people just throw away and we find on the sidewalk. Remember that a man cave is what we really make of it, we all need that space to call our own, and that place of our own only becomes special when we have worked and sweated for it, only then it means something. This doesn’t have to be manual diy labor, for Kelhans that is his thing, for many of us it will be the little details that go into crafting our man cave.

A look at the details of this amazing man cave

Remember that fake window storage that we saw earlier.

This is so cool, it really gives this small space a big outdoor mountain view feel. Note the attention to detail with all the man cave accessories, every single peace is aged, rustic, bucks, rope, guns, nothing is out of place, and everything inside the room makes sense. A job well done, this man cave is definitely Dude Living approved.

The fireplace is fake, but it looks very real. The burn marks on the floor were put in, real ashes where brought in. The light behind the wood makes it look like the coals are glowing. Again brlliant idea and the attention to detail is really what makes this place stand out.

A big Thank you to Kelhans for sharing his DIY project. If you have undertaken a man cave project we would love to share it with our growing audience.

Photo Credit / Imigur Kelhanes