Netflix’s upcoming series “How To Build a Sex Room” doesn’t require viewers to guess about its subject matter. It’s all there in the title!

Throughout the years, we’ve seen more homeowners construct dedicated “intimacy rooms”—like sex rooms or BDSM basements—inside their homes, but this is the first time this trend has been packaged in the form of a renovation reality show.

So we jumped at the chance to sit down with luxury interior designer and series host Melanie Rose, aka the “Mary Poppins” of sex rooms, to learn more about her racy new show and the work she does. It turns out, there’s a lot more to her job than simply working whips and chains into home decor.

Let’s cut to the chase: What exactly is the kind of home improvement you specialize in for homeowners?

As an interior designer for homeowners, I actually design sex rooms.

How did that become your specialty?

I didn’t start out designing sex rooms. I was an average interior designer for 15 years or so. You know, kitchens, bathrooms, anything that needed remodeling.

And then I was approached by a client of mine—who I’d worked with for four or five years—who actually asked if I’d ever designed a sex room before. And I was like, no! I hadn’t thought about a sex room. You kidding me?!

So before committing, I researched this in Google. And it couldn’t find anybody that was actually a designated sex room designer.

And so what I did was I just looked at those types of rooms in general. And they were all dungeons and dirty. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ That’s why people can’t get that image out of their mind.

The concept is very off-putting to some people.

Yes, it can be. People are like, ‘Oh, it’s got to do with kink, it’s got to do with BDSM, it’s so dirty, it’s disgusting.’ And I’m like, ‘No, it doesn’t have to be dirty. It can be really beautiful. It can be luxurious. It can be high-end. So that’s how I sort of, like, fell into that.

And then from there, I found more and more clients through word of mouth.

You have a lot of frank conversations with your clients about their sex lives. Did you always have a knack for those intimate chats?

It just came naturally. You know, ‘subtle’ is not in my vocabulary and, really, neither is ‘no.’ I love working with people, and when they can be open, it makes it easier to help them and demystify talking about sex and sex rooms.

If someone wants to design a sex room or space for intimacy in their home, what’s one of the first things you’d tell them?

First of all, don’t go in there and start changing out wallpapers and painting and stuff. Plan it out. Yes, the sole purpose of the room is sex, but it can also be a fantasy room. What kind of fantasy do you want to express in there? What do you want to feel and experience when you step into that room? What arouses you, right? And then go from there.

Lighting is one of the keys. It sets a mood and an ambiance. It’s good to have dimmers and those lights that do the color spectrum.

On the show, you work with your general contractor, Mike. What did he think when Netflix approached him about doing this type of construction?

He was all in for it! It’s not the regular construction, you know—not like building out a kitchen or a bathroom. So there are a lot of different and interesting elements that are going into that room. And there are construction challenges. For example, don’t try to put a sex swing in the ceiling without putting it in a ceiling joist. It’s never going to work.

What is the most requested things in sex rooms that you design?

Sex swings. So boring. I need to work on finding a really beautiful sex swing that I can customize for a client. I like people to bring me fantasies and experiences that challenge me. I always love a challenge.

“How To Build a Sex Room” premieres on Netflix on Friday.

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