How I Met Your Mother: 10 Hidden Details About Barney’s Apartment You Never Noticed

How I Met Your Mother was arguably one of the big sitcoms of this generation. A more modern interpretation of Friends, the series followed the lives of five 30-something-year-old friends – Ted, Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin – as a much older Ted from the future narrated the stories that led to how he met his kids’ mother.

One of the funniest but most controversial characters was Barney, who was a commitment-phobe who treated women poorly, using them only for one night stands. He was shallow, materialistic, and wealthy, though no one really understood what he did for a living.

He lived on his own in a swanky New York City apartment that wasn’t just totally high-tech but also had tons of features specifically to aid in his nightly trysts.

10 It Has Two Bedrooms

While you might initially think that, being the consummate bachelor, Barney’s place has only one bedroom, this isn’t the case. It’s actually a two-bedroom apartment.

However, the second bedroom is actually occupied. Not by a human but rather by his suits! The second bedroom is filled with Barney’s presumably hundreds of suits, essentially serving as a really oversized walk-in closet. Given how fond Barney is of suits, however, and how many he owns, it makes sense that he bought a two-bedroom because otherwise, he’d have nowhere to put them!

9 He Has Two 300” Flat-Screen TVs

Barney has two massive flat-screen televisions in his apartment. The first is on the wall in the living room and the second is in the bedroom.

Barney doesn’t seem to be the type to watch a lot of television so it’s a wonder why he felt the need for such large screens. The real reason is probably just for bragging rights and cool factor – Barney’s apartment is the apartment that any single man would love to have. He claims to have ordered the screens from Japan and had to have them shipped over in a tugboat.

8 The Toilet Seat Doesn’t Stay Down

Perhaps just to exert his masculinity, Barney had a toilet installed that has a seat that purposely doesn’t go down. The joke is that women always bug men to put the toilet seat down when they’re done urinating and men almost never actually do it.

This is Barney’s house which means boys rule and it goes by his decisions. This means the toilet seat physically won’t stay down unless you apply continuous pressure to it. Sorry, ladies. You might just have to squat.

7 There’s a Massive Stormtrooper

OK, it was hard not to notice this design choice in the apartment, but did you know why it’s there? You might think Barney bought it and placed it smack-dab in his living room to turn women off from wanting to hang around after their one-night stand. But that isn’t the reason.

Barney says he got that life-sized piece simply because it’s “just awesome.” And why not? Weirdly, it seems to fit. And only ever would a single man be able to have a life-sized stormtrooper in his living room.

6 There Aren’t Any Real Kitchen Appliances

Barney doesn’t do housework. He doesn’t cook, clean, or do his own laundry (the suits have to be professionally pressed, of course!) So why would he need appliances? He doesn’t. This is why while his kitchen looks like a real one, it’s totally fake.

The oven is actually made out of cardboard, so if a woman wakes up and tries to make breakfast for him, she won’t be able to. And this might make her more inclined to get dressed and leave, especially when she realizes how weird it is, that, well, he doesn’t have an oven! The kitchen, by the way, also has a chute that lands in the alley below in the event that Barney ever needs to escape a clingy girl.

5 It Has Secret Compartments

Barney is known for his many books including The Bro Code and The Playbook. Because they are so precious to him, he keeps them hidden away in his apartment so that only those he trusts can see them, and he can refer to them only when necessary (for example, when a friend breaks the rules of The Bro Code.)

So where does he hide them? There are hidden buttons in his Katana, which is displayed next to his couch, that he can press to reveal the hidden compartments that house the books.

4 The Bed Can Disappear

Only Barney would have such a system in his high-tech home, which he aptly (and offensively) calls The Ho-be-gone System. The idea is that if he wants to get rid of a girl who wants to spend the night, the bed moves on tracks into a compartment in the wall, along with the girl in it. It is then replaced by a new bed.

The question, of course, is where do the girls go once they move beyond the wall? Logistically, it doesn’t make sense unless Barney also owns or rents the apartment next door and the bed moves into a room in that home. Maybe?

3 Body-Fat Scale is Hidden Under the Welcome Mat

It’s a terrible idea and so incredibly offensive. But that was sort of Barney’s M.O. Under his welcome mat is a system he calls “Heavy, Set, Go” which consists of a hidden body-fat scale that will tell him if any girl entering the apartment is overweight.

Presumably, if she is, he finds an excuse to get rid of her. If she passes his test, however, she’s let in…but never overnight, of course. If she tried that, she’d be introduced to the Ho-be-gone System.

2 He Can Customize the Balcony View

It seems this set-up is both for ambiance as well as yet another clever way to get rid of a girl who has overstayed her welcome. On Barney’s balcony is a customizable view that he can make look like Paris, Venice, or Niagara Falls. What a lovely way to allow for a romantic moment (though strangely, Barney wasn’t really one for romance.)

But there was a fourth view option: an explosion site. If Barney wasn’t feeling it and wanted to get rid of a girl, he could take her outside, queue up that view, and pretend the end of the world is nigh and she needs to escape, pronto.

1 It Has Voice-Activated Smoke Detectors

Until he finally decided to settle down with Robin, Barney was notoriously afraid of commitment. Just mention the word “relationship” and he would cringe and go running as fast as he could in the other direction.

And though he once had his girlfriend Quinn live with him, he had a foolproof way of getting rid of any girl who wanted to talk about taking the next step. His smoke detectors were voice-activated and programmed to go off any time it heard certain phrases, like “I want a deeper commitment,” “I’m a week late,” “I’m too tired,” and “let’s snuggle.”

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