the hunter collector

From Habitat magazine - issue 20

Forage in style to discover your inner man cave.

Got a hunter collector in the house who needs a special place to, well, just be? Man caves are usually relegated to the basement, garage or shed so use rough textures to your advantage. Stain the plywood or timber walls in Resene Treehouse using the Resene Colorwood stains range, and give your floor a grunty concrete look in Resene Friar Grey. For accessories, start with a comfy throne, like this beaten-looking leather armchair. We’ve used crates as shelving and as a coffee table, leaving some raw and painting others in green camouflage colours. Then it’s open season on leather, antique toys, sports gear and stacks of magazines.

Great crates

For a quick and easy shelving unit, simply stack crates on top of each other. We’ve used a couple of solid pine bookcases on the bottom for extra stability, and you can also nail the crates together to make them sturdier. Lay some on their long sides and some on their short sides, then fill them with your collections, magazines and books.

Accessories: Chelsea armchair in Cigar leather from Halo (www.halo-nz.co.nz). Truck, bird, brown bottle, pale bottle, dark green bottles with duck head stoppers, enamel mug, from Flotsam & Jetsam (www.flotsamandjetsam.co.nz; 09 361 3831). Springbok cushion, reindeer hide, antler, from Indie Home Collective (09 524 6971). Cardboard radio, from Allium (as above). Old wooden crates from Trees Co (www.treesfurniture.co.nz; 09 529 9933). Mdf and plywood from Mitre 10 MEGA (www.mitre10.co.nz).