Media Room/Man Cave House Tour

Everyone should have one...if they have a man that resides there...don't you think? Our Man Cave is also our media room. It's in the basement...no windows, 50" plasma with surround sound equals great movie watching. In fact, I only go to the movie theater once a year...because of this room. It is also the room my hubby has his collections in...and there are many. He's into political memorabilia, war (especially WWII), old typewriters, old adding machines, Mission furniture design, and I could go on and on.


Before we start the tour I have to scare you with a before picture.  This teal room was what it looked like when we moved in. Beautiful right? NOT

Before

See, in 1997 when the built-in media center was first put in, TV's were not so big, in general. Behind this built-in is an alcove were the fireplace is built up on the main floor livingroom. So we asked our young and cute, handy dandy handyman to come over and remove it. He then put in a free standing electric fireplace that we already had and made it look built-in. We then hung the Plasma TV above it. Here is what it looks like now before we got those awesome Masonic Columns as seen above.

Here's the really good part. Our existing fireplace was 1/2 inch smaller than the opening=perfect! And when we bought it on a radio auction, we didn't know that the moldings on it exactly matched our built-in wall to wall bookcase, but look!

Fireplace moldings

Bookcase moldings

Now that's kismet don't you think?  I painted the TV wall a brown color called Portabella by Sherwin Williams. The other three walls are Practical Beige by SW.

To the left is the foyer, to the right is my sewing/craft room.

There is a foyer at the base of the stairwell, it is hubby's Timewell museum area. He grew up in a tiny town called, Timewell, IL and he has made it his hobby to collect all memorabilia from there.

The town saying is on the wall...Time in Timewell is Time Well Spent.

Postcards of the town.

The family bank in this town, still operating today after 100 years.

Everything in this room is from Timewell, school desk, lightening rod, crock, old bottles, etc.

One of our many pillar collection in the corner. Foyer off to the right.

 I bought this old oak mission bookcase for $11 at a farm auction 14 years before I knew my hubby! We also target shoot with my son.

This child's rocker was found under hubby's grandmother's porch. Dated over 100 years ago.

This cabinet was custom made using antique Hoosier doors and holds the electronics.

Here's that $5 checkboard coffee table that I did an older post on.

This room has a doorway into my sewing/craft room so when I am in there, I can just turn on the TV and watch it from that room. Convenient.
Another interesting story~One day hubby brings home a 'surprise'. It's an antique Barrister bookcase that looked like this...

He excitedly said, "Isn't it wonderful, they were going to throw it away and I saved it...all YOU have to do is strip it!" Well, four layers of paint (yellow, green, blue and beige) later and lots of elbow grease, it now looks like this.

Hubby found a guy on eBay that bought the actual blueprints from The Globe-Wernicke Co., the original maker of this late 1800's bookcase, and this eBay guy was able to replicate the missing glass and oak doors. And they look original.  Each part of this bookcase is separate then stacked on top of one another to whatever height. It was first intended for use by lawyers but the convenience of purchasing any quantity in a few different styles made it attractive for home use and people started to buy these for their home libraries. Oops sorry, I didn't mean to give you a history lesson. Anyway, I told hubby to wait at lease 5 more years before he brings me home a 'surprise' like this again. I have to forget all the work that went into this first.

Terry

I am linking up to these parties:
Sunday Showcase
Re Party
Met. Monday 
Show off your Cottage
Amaze Me Monday
Make It for Monday
Motivate me Monday 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Masterpiece Monday
Piece of Work Wednesday 
Boring To Better 
ReStore It Wednesday
Power Of Paint Party 
Transformation Thursday 
Under $100 Party
Frugal Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Saturday Nite Special
Every Room In The House @ A Joyful Cottage