Mariah Carey keeps a room full of special photographs and memorabilia hidden away in her New York home in an effort to preserve the keepsakes from her kids.

The Hero hitmaker, who is married to TV personality Nick Cannon, showed off her "Pink Room" during a segment on breakfast show Today on Wednesday (11Dec13) and revealed the space that was designed as a family room in her Tribeca pad has hardly been used.

The private area, which has been decorated with two Christmas trees featuring real pink peonies, features old family photos and images of the singer with her idols, including shots with Barbra Streisand and the late Nelson Mandela, but everything remains pristine because few people are ever allowed through the door.

Wearing a cream silk negligee and dressing gown, she explained, "Nobody's ever really in here because it's really for things that are sort of like, archived photographs and stuff that I've had and kept, that actually my dad's mum saved all of these pictures, my mother saved these pictures, and they're just personal items in here that are special to me. The kids don't even know this room exists yet. The babies don't know this room is here!"

Carey and Cannon are parents to two-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan.