The new Netflix show “How To Build a Sex Room” has caused quite a stir, for good reason: As exciting as the latest fixer-upper farmhouse can be, it doesn’t hold a candle to the wild, whips and chains filled renovations pulled off by home improvement “sexpert” Melanie Rose.
Yet as titillating as Rose’s creations could be, we were surprised to see that many of her makeovers were so subtle they showed how to make your home sexier without revealing your true purpose, and without making you look like you’d memorized Fifty Shades of Grey.
“When people hear the words ‘sex room,’ they concentrate on the word ‘sex,’ and that connotes dirty, disgusting,” says Rose. “But sex rooms are not disgusting. A sex room could be anything from a sumptuous bedroom to a dungeon under the stairs. When I design them, they can be beautiful. They can be works of art.”
And that’s good news for the many of us who might like to inject a tad more sensuality into certain areas of our abodes—all without creeping out our kids, guests, and random neighbors who might pop by unannounced.
To get a look at just how discreet or even hidden-in-plain-sight a sex room can be, check out some of these ingenious design ideas from the show. You will be titillated!
How to Make Your Home Sexier Without Kids or In-laws Knowing
1. Create a secret room—and door
When Rose visits many families with young kids, she sees that the living room, kitchen, and even the parent’s bedroom are all full of toys.
“Unfortunately, they give their entire house over to their children,” says Rose. “Parents end up with no space for intimacy or privacy, and it’s my opinion that young parents are the most in need of a sex room.”
For them, she creates one of the most cunning sex rooms of all. This couple has a humongous basement, so she walls off part of it with drywall, inserting what looks like a relatively boring floor-to-ceiling bookcase.
What the kids don’t know is that the bookcase opens up to the most sumptuous adult playroom.
Says the husband of the couple’s toddler son: “He could be 16 years old, and he still won’t know that we have this sexual paradise behind the bookshelf in the basement.”
2. Add subtle upgrades to the bedroom
The bedroom is an obvious place to turn into a sex room, but the effects don’t have to be dark and dungeonesque. This is made clear in another episode, when a fairly buttoned-up husband and wife tell Rose, “We want a romance room—we don’t need a sex dungeon.”
So Rose rearranges their primary suite so it has a very sensual ambiance, but not one that would give the in-laws or the housekeeper pause. She does this with simple fixes like moving the bed so it’s the first thing you see when you walk into the room.
“Make sure the bed is front and center. I want it to call to my clients the minute they enter the room,” Rose emphasizes. “You should see that and want to gravitate toward that. ‘Oh, my God, the bed! Oh, my God, I want to fall into bed!’ It’s a trick used in hotel rooms all the time.”
3. Hide the ‘exercise equipment’
Rose playfully refers to erotic paraphernalia as “exercise equipment,” and says it can be discreetly tucked away so no one knows it exists, or, in many cases, what it’s used for.
For example, it’s easy to explore “power dynamics” with accoutrements affixed to the head and foot of the bed, that can be easily tucked into the bed frame and hidden under the comforter.
Other ideas: Does that bar cart in your media lounge have a lock and key? No one needs to know that there’s more than liquor inside. And that vase of fluffy ostrich feathers on the bedside table? They’re not just for decoration, either.
4. Pay attention to colors and textures
In addition to having the right “exercise equipment,” Rose makes sure any sex room has “a sensual ambiance.” In one client’s room, she explains, “I’m using lots of soft lighting and textures they’ll want to feel on their skin.”
That includes fluffy, soft pillows, a furry rug, a sumptuous throw, a velvety chaise lounge, and candles that shed a soft glow. Rose also hangs romantic art with a sexy red and black color scheme; some photos feature the couple themselves.
All of these things are expected in a bedroom but can be uniquely and privately enjoyed by its owners. As Rose explains, “Sex rooms can be both beautiful and erotic.”
5. Create a multipurpose media lounge
For yet another couple, Rose creates an intimate media lounge, mounting a picture-frame TV on one wall that, in addition to showing regular old “Seinfeld” reruns, can also be programmed to show something to help set the mood, such as great works of art, erotic photos, or even a racy video if that’s the direction the evening is going.
Across from this visual eye candy, Rose places a cushy sectional made from what looks like extraordinarily soft suede. It also features butter-soft throw pillows that you can’t help but want to touch. These small details help turn a typical TV room into something else, should the mood strike.
The original version of How to Make Your Home Sexier, called How To Build a Sex Room So No One Knows It’s Even There appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.