Butch and Wendi Mock drew on their racing background as an inspiration for the hot-rod garage.   Butch and Wendi Mock with children Darin (6) and Lauren (9)   The bar recalls the era of the 50s.

Darin Mock had his sixth birthday party at a diner last month. But don’t envision a bunch of 6-year-olds eating apple pie at a cheap restaurant - Darin had his birthday party at the Hot Rod Garage, which happens to be located at his house in Huntersville.

Darin’s parents, Butch and Wendi, created the Hot Rod Garage when they built a new house two years ago. Butch, a former NASCAR team owner and a self-admitted gearhead, designed the Hot Rod Garage to not only house his hot rods but to also feature a diner space that he could enjoy with this family and friends.

The Mocks are not alone in creating an individualized space in their home for entertaining. As more people opt to entertain at home, entertainment spaces are becoming more creative and unique.

The doo-whop diner
Duane Johns, who co-owns Advanced Renovations, a company focused on custom projects for homes in Charlotte and the Lake Norman area, says he is seeing customers take a more personal approach with their homes. “It’s neat to see this trend in that people are starting to do things that they really want,” says Johns. “It’s refreshing to see people really kind of take their true wants and put that into the fold.”

With the Mocks, the impetus for the Hot Rod Garage had its roots in practicality. When Butch sold his race-car team, he no longer had a place to store his hot rods (he has a 1932 Hi Boy, a 1933 Ford Vicky and a 1970 Z28 Camaro, along with Darin’s 1969 GT 350 Shelby Mustang). “I lived on the lake for 16 years. I just had a three-car garage out there,” says Butch. “When I had the race team, obviously I had a big, large race shop, so I had a place to store my toys, so to speak. Having these areas built was kind of a motivation to build a new house.”

Throughout the 1,200-square-foot garage, Butch displays photos and trophies from his racing career and has continued the motorsports/hot rod theme in the dining area with an added 1950s twist. Taking a cue from the red color of his hot rods, the custom bar in the Mock’s diner is ruby red. Butch hired Hands-On Woodworking Inc. in Cornelius to make the bar, which features a red, wraparound, high-gloss laminate with a silver-and-white stripe down the middle. The black step at the bottom of the bar is complemented by the floor’s black-and-white tile.

“I did a lot of research on how I wanted it to look and took them [Hands-On Woodworking] numerous pictures,” says Butch. “It [the bar] has a big V-8 logo in the middle of it, which is the same style logo that Ford used back in ‘32 and ‘33. I took that logo and had a local company dye-cut it. ...It’s in the center of the bar, so sometimes we call it the V-8 grill.”

Butch says that he and his family, including Darin and 9-year-old daughter Lauren, eat in the diner a couple of times a week. “The kids love to eat out there,” he says. “It’s got a grill, sink, hot dog rollers, French fryers and a milkshake blender and all that stuff. ...It’s got a flat griddle, too, where you can make grilled cheese sandwiches or hamburgers.”

When the family isn’t eating out there, they watch doo whop videos on the diner’s TV. Though the Mocks don’t have a jukebox in their diner, Butch says there might be one in the future.

The man cave
Alan and Heather Boyer are another couple who took the personal approach in designing their entertainment space. After the couple had triplets, they considered looking for a larger house. However, they loved their friends in Birkdale, so instead of moving, they opted to expand their Huntersville home. In addition to renovating the kitchen, master bath and living room, the couple also added a 30-by-20-foot entertainment space with a sports pub feel.

“It’s been named the man cave,” says Alan. “The contractor and every guy that comes through it has referred to it as the man cave.”

An avid sports fan with strong allegiances to the Boston Red Sox and the University of Virginia Cavaliers, Alan previously used his home’s bonus room to display his sports memorabilia. He soon outgrew the space and began designing the man cave.

“The inspiration behind it was a couple of bars, one in Charlottesville, Va., and there’s a couple in Boston that we like. I travel a lot so I’m constantly in bars, and I was always trying to pick up different little ideas,” explains Alan. “We went through some magazines and came up with some ideas and met with some contractors and put the ideas on paper.”

The Boyers worked with Johns at Advanced Renovations and Heidi Milbredt at International Kitchen & Bath in Davidson. The result is a two-level space featuring a large, full-service custom bar made of maple (complete with a fly-top cooler that will hold up to seven cases of beer, a two-tap kegerator, a large icemaker and a sink) and a smaller bar that sits over the media area, which is punctuated with a 65-inch TV. There’s also a 32-inch plasma TV behind the full-service bar.

“What I tried to do is create literally a sports bar atmosphere in one part of the room and just a total media atmosphere in the second part,” says Alan. “This is literally going to be the man room. This is going to be for the guys that come over and hang out watch games, drink beer, spend Saturdays watching college football, spend Sundays watching NFL football, spend weeknights watching the Red Sox.”

“I think what I like about it [the man cave] is that it was unique in that it was really kind of built the way Alan wanted to see it,” says Johns. “We really themed this room the way he wanted it to feel.”