Although you may have many homes in your life, your bachelor pad may be the only one you can decorate to please no one but yourself. Bachelor pads offer a unique opportunity to have everything you ever wanted to have in your home. The sky is the limit, and there are no rules. If you love to play pool and always eat from a frozen dinner tray on the couch, you can put a pool table in the dining room if you want to.
Bachelor pad decor is as variable as the bachelors who call them home, but several rules of thumb can make your home more user-friendly, comfortable and fun to live in.
Tips for the perfect bachelor pad
1. Include what you really want and eliminate anything you don’t like or won’t use. Don’t spend money on a professional range if you don’t cook. On the other hand, if you are a gourmet chef, go ahead and hang a pot rack or have that cutting board inset installed in your counter.
2. Unless you have a housekeeping service or love the country cottage look, keep things uncluttered. Relaxing, clean lines are easy to live with and maintain. If you eliminate the silk plants, drapes, knickknacks and ornate furniture, you will also eliminate most of your dust.
3. Always choose the simplest option. If you have to choose between the fancy ruffled shower curtain with floral tiebacks, designer hooks and liner and a single waterproof curtain that hangs from your shower rod, go with the simplest option. It will be easier to install, easier to clean and easier to use. Besides, flounces and ruffles look pretty bad once they start to show even a little dirt or wear. Your simple one-piece curtain won’t look nearly as bad nearly as soon, and once it starts showing too much wear, you can replace it with another one.
4. Look for furnishings that double as on-the-spot storage, such as a footlocker that doubles as a coffee table. If the things you need are stowed near where you use them, it will be easier to access them and to put them back away later.
5. Look for items that express who you are. Too many single men furnish their homes with items that were too big to fit in the dumpster behind the apartment complex. Don’t waste this opportunity. Create the man cave that your friends with partners dream about every night in their pink canopy beds.
If you have any other bachelor pad decorating ideas, we’d love to hear them. How’s yours looking?
