apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Interesting, men get a big room with oversized furniture, and women get the bathroom...Hmm..

Funny, I've always preferred "men's rooms" - big comfortable furniture, rich colors, huge fireplaces, big bookcases, and, hell, taxidermy - to supposed "women's rooms" - light colors, delicate furniture, florals. But I be all woman.

I always thought men got the man room while we women got...the rest of the home. :-)

Unfortunately, this theory is not quite working on my boyfriend.

This is too funny! My boyfriend is moving in with me on the condition that my office converts to his "man cave" where he can work on his computer, alternate his flat screen between ESPN and Discovery, and enjoy some solitude. Hence my need for a "Modern Desk Armoire" on the Chicago page.

Since my "man room" consists of a hall closet coverted into a desk, I would really relish such a place. Mine would be lined with book shelves. The furniture would be leather and cloth, the style nothing later than deco, and an earth-toned color scheme. There would be a stereo with my whole CD collection on a MacBook, there would be plenty of DVDs of English mystery shows, Operas, and great "man" films like Lawrence of Arabia (did you ever notice that there are no women in the whole movie? [except the restored version which shows a few women at Hawda's camp]). All my books would be there, and I would buy more...and have online OED access. If I only lived in Omaha I might afford such a place.

Ironically I get the "man room" in my relationship. When my boyfriend and I are done with grad school, I get the basement for my television, old coffee table, all my family and friend framed photos, my ugly lamp, and whatever comfortable couch I can find from the salvation army. Oh, a girl can dream... :)

And I'd happily live in Usbek's "man room," even though my doctor, my mother, and my husband all concur that I'm female. And at least some of them would have checked.

This whole notion of gender-themed decorating has always struck me as a little weird... but then, there's nothing pastel or floral in our home, nor ruffles, nor delicate chairs, and the husband's 1:12-scale hockey figures are right there on the living room shelves (one seems to be protecting the collected works of Czeslaw Milocz).

I love private masculine spaces. It reminds me of my grandfather's study. Dark green walls, a large mahogany desk. Pipes on a pipe rack. A small marble bar containing his siphon and scotch. A big leather easy chair facing a TV tucked away in a book case with a small table next to it (just big enough for that glass of scotch, a pipe, and a dish of walnuts).

I always loved the kind of library that, say, a doctor's home in a 30's film would show. It would always have those great double doors in wood that you just knew weighed a ton.