Jennifer Garner built a Harry Potter room for her son under the stairs

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I love watching Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel. Some of those crazy expensive houses that they highlight are to die for. I’m absolutely one of those people who loves looking at real estate listings for fun while d-cking around on the Internet during downtime. I really like when AD does the celebrity home tours. I can trace this back all the way to Mariah Carey’s 2002 MTV Cribs tour! That one was so iconic. Remember when she showed off her insane bathroom only to then confess to having only used the shower one time because she couldn’t figure out all of the knobs to turn it off? Absolute diva.

Anyway, Jennifer Garner did an AD tour last week for her custom-designed Los Angeles mansion. It’s absolutely gorgeous and although it’s super fancy, it’s also pretty down-to-earth. The video is around 11 minutes long and shows off a stunning living room with giant doors that open up to extend it out into a giant patio, a crazy “slumber party” room with a bunch of bunk beds for when her kids have friends over, and a Harry Potter-themed reading nook/office for her 12-year-old son, Samuel, which is, appropriately, in a space underneath the staircase.

Jennifer Garner opened up her gorgeous Los Angeles home for an Architectural Digest tour and it did not disappoint. From a Harry Potter-themed office for her son to an unofficial slumber party room, Garner’s home both centered on her children while simultaneously showcasing stunning design.

Garner, who built her home with designers Steve and Brooke Giannetti, walked fans through the modest mansion.

“I’m such a private person about my home and here I’ve just taken you through the entire house, and really it’s for a couple of reasons,” the actor said in the Architectural Digest video.

“I’ve never built anything all by myself before, and I’m so proud of it. I’m filled with gratitude every time I walk into my house, that I get to live here, that I’m so lucky to have my kids here. It’s unlike me, and yet I’m so happy to have shared it with you.”

Garner shares her three kids — Violet, 18, and… Fin, 15, and son Samuel, 12 — with ex-husband Ben Affleck. Throughout the tour, she mentions her kids’ activities in the home.

While showcasing the living room area — which featured an entire back wall of large sliding glass doors that open to create an indoor-outdoor space — Garner jokes that sometimes she has to look away when damp teens come inside from the pool.

“The only problem is, if my kids are having their class pool party here or something, it’s very hard to keep wet kids out of the house,” she jokes. “I have to really just stand guard and say, ‘Get away.’ I’ll look over, and there will be two wet teenagers playing the piano, and I’m just like, ‘OK, don’t look, don’t look.’”

Garner adds that she’s “so happy” with her cozy home, which she said makes you “feel like (you’re) inside a treehouse.”

“You know how you just imagine it, and then some day you have a perfect moment where it actually comes true? That is a, like, (chef’s kiss) kind of moment,” she says.

She showed off several gathering areas inside the home, including a gorgeous blue library/TV room, a study area with a giant fish tank and reading nook as well as a slumber party room with several bunk beds.

Garner also revealed her son’s Harry Potter-themed “office,” which, fittingly, is a small room under the staircase. Noting Garner and her kids are huge fans of the series — which opens on an 11-year-old Potter who lives in “a cupboard under the stairs” — they decided to make the room similarly magical. Painted a dark blue with darks and other fantastical elements, Garner says the room is meant to be a “little spot for him to come in and dream.”

“Mostly he hides from me and eats candy but I can’t blame him,” she jokes. “I’d do the same thing.”

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Jen’s house is so nice! It really fits her personality. I love the Harry Potter office nook! That’s so clever. That outdoor deck and pool area is incredible, too. I also love that Jen confesses to keeping her children’s toys from when they were younger easily accessible because once in a while, as “big kids,” they’ll still pull those old toys out and play with them. That is so relatable because it’s so true! You know Jen Garner is that mom who takes Uno or some puzzle out on the weekends for them to do together while talking about life. At the end of the tour, she explains that she’s “so proud” of her house because she’s never built anything by herself before. I’m a big Jen fan going back to her Alias days and I’m really happy that she’s successful and not an a-hole about it.

Here’s Jen’s Architectural Digest home tour if you’re interested in watching it: