Lyndsay Lamb Proves Adding This Jenny Marrs-Inspired Feature Will Elevate Your Space
Every creative being is inspired by other creative beings. Even the ones you see on TV. That's why HGTV's Lyndsay Lamb didn't hesitate to take a little design inspiration from her fellow HGTV stars Jenny and David Marrs, the wife and husband host duo of the network's "Fixer to Fabulous." Lamb incorporated one of the Marrs' most magically mysterious signature design elements into one of the homes she renovated on her show "Unsellable Houses." What she designed to appear as a bookcase/bar shelf was actually a hidden passageway.
'I've always wanted to pull a @jennymarrs & @dave.marrs and have a hidden passage in one of our Unsellables. On last night's episode, my dream came true!..This custom bookcase actually opens to reveal a SECRET ROOM," Lamb wrote in an old Instagram post.
You would have absolutely no idea that the built-in bookcase is actually a door. It's completely undetectable. The only giveaway is that the room on the other side has a window. So, if you're inside the home and don't see the window, that is a giveaway. But you'd have no idea from just looking on the inside. These hidden passageway rooms have become more and more popular in recent years as a way to add a little whimsy and fun to your home. These features, however, actually originated in older homes. Because of the intrigue created on social media, many are looking to find out how to detect if you have any hidden rooms.
How to create Lyndsay Lamb's inspired hidden door look
If you haven't found any hidden rooms in your home you can still follow the basics of building a secret room in your house to create one. Lyndsay Lamb started with a room that was already "a little hidden away," and decided to completely hide it away to create an interesting selling point that potential homebuyers wouldn't be able to get out of their heads.
Recreating the look that Lamb had built is actually fairly simple. All you have to do is remove the original door to a room and place an insert, referred to as a hide-away door or Murphy door, in its place. These doors typically have molding around them to make the shelf look seamless with the wall, instead of a door that swings inward toward the hidden room. The molding is really the key to this hidden look.
Lamb had hers built custom by Closet Creations Inc. A simple one with just shelving can cost you $745 from MurphyDoor.com. To make that look a little nicer and to add storage, you can add some doors over the front of the shelf at the bottom to create cabinets. You can find for cabinets that would work for $208 from Wayfair, but you'll have to paint them to match the bookshelf unless you buy one that already has doors on it which can cost you close to $2,000 from a company like Hide-a-Way Doors.