Building a secret door from a bookshelf
- HANDYMAN Marius
- Sep 21, 2024
- 12 min read
Updated: Sep 24, 2024
Have you been dreaming of your own secret hiding place since you were a child, a hiding place that nobody can find? Have you ever wondered whether it is possible to create a hidden room in a normal apartment or your house that cannot be found by “uninitiated” people? Then I'm happy to tell you that you've come to the right place. In the following I would like to guide you step by step through my project “Building a secret door” and give you useful tips and hints for your own project.
So take a few minutes to avoid unnecessary problems and a long search for materials in your project and jump straight to the next paragraph to start your project.
Find the perfect place for your secret door
There are more installation locations for your secret door than you might currently think, so I would like to give you a few possible locations that you might not have thought of yet.
As we want to realize this secret door with a bookshelf, we are of course somewhat limited in terms of the passage width, you don't want to squeeze through a 40cm opening or constantly open and close a 1.5m wide shelf.
The perfect size is a shelf width of 80 cm. Firstly, it is a typical and widely used passageway dimension and secondly, there are countless ready-made bookshelves that you can use directly for your project.
Of course, it is obvious that existing rooms or storerooms with corresponding door openings are perfect, but there are also other options. Perhaps you have a corner, alcove or even a large room that you can partition off?
A partition or wall with a door opening is easier to create than many people might think. So it's best to go through your home and start by thinking about a suitable installation location, possibly one where a small drywall wall still needs to be created. Drywall is quick and inexpensive to build yourself.
I will explain later how you can determine the perfect shelf width for existing door openings.
The required material
You have now found the perfect installation location for your secret door and want to gather the materials you need for your secret door. Below you will find a detailed overview of all the materials you need for your own secret door.
Bookshelf
You can use a simple method to find the right bookshelf. First of all, you should find the approximate dimensions of the bookshelf you need by determining the width of your doorway (clear width) and subtracting approx. 6 cm from this.
For example, if you have an opening dimension (door cut-out) of 86 cm, we will start with an 80 cm wide shelf. However, as the shelf depth will also be decisive due to the opening radius, we now proceed as follows.
Cut a piece of cardboard to the size of the desired shelf, which in our example is an 80 x 30 cm shelf. So our piece of cardboard is also cut to 80 x 30 cm.
With the piece of cardboard, we can now easily test whether the desired shelf will fit our project. To do this, make a hole in one side of the cardboard and fix it to the floor at this point with a pin, screwdriver or similar. Now you can move the cardboard in all directions to check whether the opening angle fits and your future shelf does not hit the corners. You can also vary the position of the hole and try a different position if necessary, I initially made the hole 1.5 cm from the front and 2.5 cm from the right-hand side and then tested other holes at small intervals next to it. The hole that fits best will later become the position of your hinge. By the way, I can recommend one of these bookshelves:
Hidden hinges
As we don't want our shelf to be recognizable as a secret door later on, we naturally also need hidden hinges. Here is a great model that I can highly recommend and which I have been using for a very long time without any problems.
This hinge set consists of two movable parts for the top and two for the bottom. While the lower part runs very smoothly due to an existing ball, the fixing bolt on the upper part is moved in and out by means of a hidden grub screw. The big advantage over simple wall hinges is that you can also support the weight of the shelf at the bottom with this hinge. The shelf can also be easily removed from the door cut-out at any time thanks to the movable bolt on the top. Under the following link you can get the invisible hinge at a very reasonable price:
Invisible RFID furniture lock
Without a hidden furniture lock, our secret door is somehow only half as cool, so such a lock should definitely not be missing from your list. Believe me when I tell you that a hidden lock increases the coolness factor of your secret door by 110%!
Of course, such a lock can also be made simply using wire ropes and movable books as a lever mechanism, but why should we shut ourselves off from technical progress?
There are now countless hidden RFID furniture locks that you can open with any number of code cards, transponders, key fobs, etc. As I have tested many of these locks in my projects and almost as many have been returned, I can now recommend one particular lock to you with a clear conscience:
This RFID lock combines everything we want from a hidden furniture lock. It keeps your shelf firmly in place when closed (no wobbling), it is inexpensive, it has very slim dimensions and it runs on batteries (at least 1.5 years with normal use). I can reassure all those who are now wondering whether it also works through the wood, because it works without any problems.
You can also use RFID stickers or key fobs to open the lock, as the cards and blue transponders are not for everyone. If you want a really cool way to open the lock and don't want to have to worry about misplaced transponders, then you should definitely take a look at these great RFID stickers, which I also use. I simply stuck one of these stickers on the back of a picture frame that is already on the shelf and can now open it directly at any time with a quick flick of the wrist. If you prefer something a little more upmarket, you can of course also use the elegant leather key rings.
Furniture castors
As your bookshelf has a very high dead weight, it can of course not just stand on the invisible hinge. To remedy this, we add some furniture castors to our secret door,
which are later attached at various points on the underside. I can recommend one fixed and 3 movable furniture castors here, as this combination has proved successful and I had previously tested it with two fixed castors, which made the shelf very sluggish and the fixed castors also blocked each other.
Furniture handle and decoration
Of course, a suitable handle should not be missing, as you may want to close the secret door from the inside. It is also a good idea to equip the lower levels with storage boxes to make the secret door even more inconspicuous and not give the impression that there is something wrong with this shelf.
Installing the secret door
We now want to start, position our secret door correctly and make it accessible with the hidden hinges and the furniture castors. We won't worry about the subsequent paneling at this point, as I will discuss the paneling later.
Positioning the bookshelf
Do you remember the piece of cardboard we used to choose the perfect bookshelf for our project? Super! With this piece of cardboard and the corresponding trick, we have already determined the perfect positioning of our shelf in advance and now just have to install it in this position. It is important that the front of your shelf is flush with the wall so that you can create a beautiful and seamless facing later on. The left and right alignment naturally depends on the width and depth of your shelf and can vary. In the following pictures you can see the spacing of my 80 x 200 x 30 cm shelf (picture taken from the back).
In the first picture you can see the side on which the hidden RFID lock is installed, which fits perfectly with its 4.5 cm. As you can make the panels in any size later, you can of course leave a little more space. Especially with deeper shelves, the opening radius is very large and the rear corner may hit the frame if you leave too little space (test with the cardboard).
In the second picture you can see the gap on the hinge side, which is of course much smaller due to the opening direction. In my case it is 2.5 cm, although this is not even completely needed when opening.
Determine the position of the hinges
Now that we have determined the perfect position, we can continue directly with our hinges. We can also use simple tricks to position the hinges. Of course, our tried and tested piece of cardboard is also used here, which I should perhaps patent due to the many possible applications! ...Joking aside.
We simply leave the piece of cardboard on our determined position and mark the place on the floor where we made the hole in the cardboard, as this simulated our hinge point. Now we can transfer the position for our upper hinge upwards using a pendulum (plumb bob), simply use a piece of string and weigh it down with a small weight. As soon as the weight is balanced, you have determined the position of your upper hinge. Your pendulum could look like this, for example, but it doesn't necessarily have to be such a nice weight, a simple key will also work in case of doubt.
Fitting hinges
Now that we have marked the position of our hinges at the top and bottom, we want to mount them directly in the next step. Your markings should represent the position of the hinge bolts, as this will be the pivot point later on. For the lower hinge, the whole thing is actually relatively simple: position, screw in and you're done.
With the upper hinge, we have to make sure that it is installed exactly as shown in the picture above. The side with the hinge and the back of the grub screws should therefore be on top. In the best case, you can hollow out the area on your frame a little, but you can also prepare a piece of wood and then attach the hinge to your frame with the wood.
I used a 2.5 cm thick board on the upper side, as you can see in the pictures.
We can now also fit the counterparts to our shelf, which is very easy thanks to our cardboard. Simply place the cardboard on top of the shelf and use the hole to transfer the position of the bolt to the shelf. When fastening, you should pay close attention to the correct length of the screws used, as they should be no longer than the thickness of the wood. For example, if the shelf is made of 18 mm thick wood, your screws should not be longer than 16 mm.
Before you attach the hinge counterpart to the shelf, you should reinforce the shelf with a 1.8 - 2 cm thick wooden board, which you should ideally screw to the shelf through the side walls. As the entire weight will later rest on the hinge and your furniture castors, such reinforcement is highly recommended! Once you have reinforced your shelf, you can now attach the hinge counterpart to the underside of the shelf.
Fitting furniture castors
Our hinges are now fitted and ready for use, so there are now two options for fitting the furniture castors. You can tilt the shelf to the front and conveniently mount the castors on the underside, but I would recommend mounting them in the inserted/installed state. Mounting the castors in the installed state has two decisive advantages.
The rollers will remain easily accessible in the future and can be replaced easily and without great effort in the event of a defect.
You can use the castors to align and fine-tune your shelf. As the shelf was actually designed to stand firmly on the floor, it can deform slightly in our application due to the irregular weight distribution. When fitting the castors, this deformation can be compensated for very easily.
You will notice how important the fine adjustment with the rollers is when it comes to the facing at the latest. It is incredibly important that the front of your shelf is 100% flush with your wall, otherwise the panel could have a visible gap.
To get a good weight distribution, I mounted 3 flexible furniture castors on the back and one rigid castor on the opening wing side, whereby I used the rigid castor to adjust the shelf. You can therefore adjust the height of the rear or side castors during assembly to push your shelf in or out at the top or bottom.
When you get here, you can already pat yourself on the back and be happy! By now you should already have a built-in secret door, which can be opened and closed like a normal door, which is great and already a great achievement!
Creating a blind for your secret door
As you can see in the following picture, I started with unpainted 1.6 cm MDF boards for my veneer and then worked on them further until I had the final result....but now one after the other.
Production and installation of the outer facing
I admit that I didn't want to make the facing any more difficult than the minimum amount of work, so I simply had the three parts of the facing cut to size at the DIY store and only had to assemble and paint them. Our outer main facing therefore consists of three parts, and I proceeded as follows with the dimensions:
Basically, I chose a width of 10 cm for all three parts, which of course depends on the slits you want to cover on the right and left. For the two outer parts, I then chose a length that was exactly flush with the top edge of the shelf. For aesthetic reasons (because I just think it looks nice), I chose a length for the top panel that would allow it to protrude by approx. 2 cm on each side later on, which of course depends on your taste and is entirely up to you.
As you can clearly see in this picture, I painted the panels once before mounting them, as I wanted to avoid brown spots in the joints later on. What you can also clearly see in the picture is that two panels are fixed to the wall or frame and the third to the shelf itself. The fixed panel is mounted on the side of your hinges. You can then screw the movable panel directly to the side wall of your shelf from the front. In my case, I used 35 mm long countersunk screws and then sealed the holes with the appropriate filler and sanded them down. In the following picture you can see very clearly where I screwed the panels.
Please note that the top panel should be fitted approx. 2 mm above the top edge of your shelf, otherwise you won't be able to open it or it might rub against the top panel. Don't be confused by the fact that the slot looks much larger in the following picture, as I measured the 2 mm from the shelf walls, which are several mm higher than the top shelf.
If you don't feel like filling the screw holes, you can of course also attach the panels from the back with small brackets, although I am firmly convinced that you will get a much nicer joint pattern if you screw them on from the front.
Small panel at the top and bottom
Now we want to close the last suspicious gaps and fit two more panels. In the following two pictures, you can clearly see how the two small panels are fitted to the top and bottom shelves directly from the front. It should be noted that these have to move past the outer rigid panel on at least one side, which is why I used very flat MDF boards, which are only 3-4 mm thick and which I lazily had cut to size again at the DIY store.
I assembled the lower panel together with the shelf, as I find it the most visually appealing and you can hardly see it as individual parts later on. In this case, I nailed it from the front and then filled it again, as we simply don't have enough material thickness for screws. You need to leave a small but sufficient gap to the floor so that the panel can later slide over the floor with minimal air.
I let the top panel protrude approx. 1 cm downwards over the shelf, as this creates a nice visual finish. At the top, I tried to keep the slit as small as possible so that the secret door can still be opened without any problems. Of course, it is important to remember that the top panel is fixed to the wall and the small one underneath moves with the secret door, so a small slit is essential.
Varnishing
It's done and we've reached the final stage of work, just a few drops of paint are missing and your secret door is finally finished!
Isn't that great? ...yes, it definitely is.
You are free to choose your own paint anyway, but I would recommend a water-based semi-gloss paint, as this is great to work with and will give you a very nice, subtle look later on. I recommend applying two more coats of varnish to achieve an evenly covering surface and to make the filled screw holes disappear 100%.
I would be delighted if you enjoyed this article and you implement this project in your own home. In the best case scenario, you will have learned lots of useful tips from the article, which will make your own project easier and help you to avoid many mistakes or bad purchases in the first place. Feel free to use the links to the products and leave a comment and a like. If you would like to read more posts like this, then check back often and subscribe to my channel on YouTube.
Material summarized:
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