HGTV's Jasmine Roth Shows You The Basics Of Building A 'Secret' Room In Your House
Despite what you may think, secret rooms aren't just for kids. Sure, having a concealed room to play in is super cool to an 8-year-old, but anyone at any age can experience the thrill that comes with having a place hidden behind a bookcase or through an unsuspecting door. And if there's anyone who knows about building secret rooms, it's HGTV's Jasmine Roth. She has transformed a few unoccupied areas in her home to create some of the coolest hideaways for her kids, as well as a special place for her and her husband to relax.
According to Statista, the average home has three bedrooms, which doesn't leave much space for a "fun" room, especially if you have multiple children or absolutely need a guest room. This is what makes transforming unused spaces into hidden rooms so great. You get to have those fun places without sacrificing space. The key to building a secret room is to take advantage of places in your home you wouldn't expect could function as such, like an extra closet or an awkward nook. Once you figure out which space you're going to use, then comes the fun part — watching your vision come to life. To help you get started, take a look at the different ways Roth created secret rooms and her home.
Transforming unused spaces
Take a look around your home. See any space that isn't being used? Maybe you have an empty closet underneath the staircase (if you're a fan of "Harry Potter," you know exactly what we're talking about). This space is typically used for storage, but what if we told you that you could transform it into a secret room? Most homeowners don't really consider this anything besides a place to put their Christmas decorations, vacuum, or boxes of old clothes they've been meaning to donate. But with a little imagination, it can be so much more.
Jasmine Roth designed her secret playroom in a closet that wasn't being used. Inside, she painted the walls a different color than the rest of the basement to really make it feel like its own room. She added a rug and a string of stars for décor, as well as coat hooks and storage bins for functionality. Rugs make the space cozier, plus they offer cushioning if your little one should fall, and storage bins give your kids a place to put their toys.
Say you have a nook tucked away in your basement; you could easily transform that unused space by painting it and adding new flooring. If the other areas of the basement have hardwood floors, you could choose carpet for the nook to differentiate the two spaces. Close it off with a disguised door, and this unoccupied area is now a secret room.
Building your own secret room
If you can't find any unused spaces in your home, you can always build your own. To get started, you first need to choose its purpose. You could transform it into a playroom, or perhaps, a quiet place for you to relax and enjoy. Jasmine Roth and her husband chose to create a speakeasy in their home, which she coined "the room you'll never see in my house" (via Jasmine Roth). It's a cool addition to their home that's only accessible through a hidden door, which they've disguised as a bookcase.
Roth used a similar trick while building a secret playroom for her kids. She decided to use a large cabinet to hide its entrance, which she did by cutting out the bottom back panel. This allows her children to crawl through to their playroom. When deciding how to disguise the entrance to your secret room, you might consider cabinets and bookshelves. Both are great options because they're practical. You can use them for additional storage in addition to concealing the hidden space.