Budget Friendly Children’s Room: How to Create a Hidden Room Behind an Armoire

This past month, we took an existing closet from our bedroom, walled it off and created an opening to it in Sylvia’s room (she previously had no closet). Just for fun, I placed an armoire in front of the door opening. I took part of the back off of the armoire and now she can enter through the furniture to access her fun secret hide-out/closet! You can read about the first part of this project here.

We wrapped it up last weekend and it’s been in near constant use ever since it first became “livable.” She reads in there, has talks with her best friend there and watches some tv on her iPad in there as well as stores her clothes in one part of the area (oh yeah, this was meant to be a closet). I think she’s got a few years of enjoying it like this and then we’ll move the armoire and set it up as a “normal” closet. For now, it’s pretty fabulous and it’s very budget friendly. Nothing here (as you will see) was a splurge. My philosophy was to make it work for right now, but not at the expense of having to undo much of anything when she outgrows it.

create a hidden space in childs room — Here’s the new floor plan

wardrobe in front of secret nook — Here’s the Craigslist armoire that conceals the entrance to the secret nook.

“She did not shut it properly because she knew that it is very silly to shut oneself into a wardrobe, even if it is not a magic one.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

wardrobe entrance for children — Smaller people only….also, once she’s inside the room, you would never know she’s there.

Here’s how to do it: If you have a closet with a door in your child’s room, just take off the door and store it somewhere for a while. Then, get an armoire off of Craigslist or wherever you choose to get fine armoires (thrift and consignment stores also have a lot of these), take the back off and slide it in front of the doorway. Make sure the armoire is either anchored to the wall or completely secure. If it wobbles when you or your child gets in – fix it before you go any further. Also, we’ve found Amazon’s Echo to be really helpful in order to turn on the light (it’s dark in there) before going through the wardrobe. It’s also handy to be able to turn it off once you’re back outside.

entering through a wardrobe — Entering through the wardrobe. The piece is so old that it’s held together mostly by dowel work and this large piece of newly added plywood…It would have been nice to have made a bigger opening, but the wardrobe wanted to fall apart without it. It’s kind of fun to walk through actually! It’s a little Meow Wolf if you know what I mean.

If I had the time and inclination, it would be fun to wallpaper the back part of this or paint it a fun color….you can see that I just slapped white paint up onto the back of the plywood and we pinned up some photos.