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Though Jared Padalecki‘s 10,600-sq.-ft. Austin home boasts a guesthouse, home theater and wine cellar, the actor’s favorite space is his home office.

“This is my first stop when I get home,” the Supernatural star, 32, tells PEOPLE in the new issue (on newsstands Friday). “When I come here, I pour myself a little bourbon, grab my guitar, and I’m free of my worldly responsibilities.”

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To decorate the office in his Texas lodge—which he shares with wife and costar Genevieve Cortese Padalecki and their two sons Thomas, 3, and Shepherd, 1—Padalecki used meaningful memorabilia like copies of his sons’ footprints.

“I surround myself with things that make me happy,” he says. “Like my People’s Choice Awards, a red cap that was a prop from Flight of the Phoenix, and pictures of my family and trips that Gen and I have been on.”

But despite being surrounded by family treasures, this is the one place the CW star comes to be alone.

“This is his space,” says Genevieve. “It’s so much his space when I came home the other day all the things that were mine were left outside the door—so I took the hint.”