How to Make a Secret Room Under the Stairs
When we were finishing our basement, the one thing my kids wanted, and the little kid in me wanted to give them, was a secret room under the stairs. It was in our basement renovation plan from the beginning, so drywalling that space was important. I’m sure we gave the two men who were drywalling our basement a huge headache when we requested it, but they knocked it out of the park. They commented that it was not easy, but it was exactly what we wanted.
So, this is our secret room under the stairs. I painted the walls a lavender color and added a graphic to the ceiling with a stencil. This just added a touch of “fancy”.
The stencil was an easy DIY project. I grabbed a stencil brush like the one below from Amazon and ordered a stencil off the internet (similar to the one below).
I taped the stencil onto the ceiling to hold it in place. One tip I would give regarding stenciling is the less paint on the brush the better. When I dipped the stencil brush into the paint, I tried to get only a small amount of paint on the brush and then blotted it on a paper plate. You don’t want a lot of excess paint on the brush or it will bleed under the stencil.
Instead of brushing the paint on the stencil, you using a blotting motion. So you’re pressing the end of the brush into the stencil, instead of using a sweeping motion like you do when you normally paint.
Now that we had our little space under the stairs we needed to add the “secret”. I found this little hutch at a thrift store that perfectly fit over the opening. But…. it was an eyesore!
I sanded off all the stickers and repainted the hutch. It was an experiment, and I never really loved the final paint finish, but it worked with the color in our basement.
We attached the hutch to the wall with hinges which were screwed into the molding and through the 2×4 framing. We also added wheels to the hutch so you could open it like a door.
When the hutch was shut you would never know there was anything behind it. The final product was pretty cool.
We decided as a family that if anyone ever broke in our house, we would all go hide under the stairs and pull the hutch shut. They would never find us! It was also a very comfy tornado shelter. We loaded it up with pillows and a rug. We sold that house, and our secret room under the stairs was probably one of the hardest things to leave.
I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for stopping by!
