A few months ago, I came across a
tutorial for building a hidden door bookcase on
Instructables.com. I’ve always been fascinated by hidden passages and unique features in homes. I found out that there are several companies out there that fabricate all kinds of hidden doors.
Hiddenpassageway.com has some really high end secret passages (and a pretty cool website). Another site,
Hiddenpassages.com also has some pretty good ideas for hidden doors. If I ever get to build a house, I’m definitely going to incorporate some nice hidden passages. I wanted one now though. We only had one place in my house where a hidden door could be put in without much trouble – a coat closet in our living room by the front door. I decided to make it look like a built in bookcase. Here’s the finished product (almost finished – it still needs to be stained dark like the console beside it.)
My kids are calling it our “Scooby Doo” bookcase as a tribute to all of the neat hidden passages in the old Scooby Doo cartoons. The next picture gives you an idea of what this area of the house looked like before I built the door. It was taken a while back just after I had just hung our new tv and built the console underneath.
I removed the closet door and tore out the door casing. I wanted to make the new feature look like a built in bookcase. I should have taken some photos during the building process, but unfortunately I didn’t. I built the basic bookcase frame first. After I had the frame built, I had to figure out how it would open and shut. I couldn’t use regular door hinges anywhere because they wouldn’t allow enough clearance and would be difficult to hide.
I found an article on Woodweb.com about using a Rixson pivot hinge on hidden bookcase doors. It was extremely helpful and gave me the idea of constructing a scale model of my bookcase out of cardboard to test my hinge placement. My father has a machine shop, so I built the hinges myself. Each set of hinges is made from a short piece of steel tube welded to a steel plate with a polyurethane bushing pressed into the tube and another plate with a 5/16″ bolt welded to it with the threads cut off. Here is a photo of the top hinge.
The weight of the bookcase doesn’t rest on the hinges. They are just pivot points to keep the bookcase aligned. The weight is held by three pivoting casters underneath the bookcase. Two of the casters and the bottom hinge can be seen in the next photo.
I’ve had some questions about the design of the hinges, so I drew the following diagram to help explain them. They are simple to make and shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to put together in a decently equipped shop. The diagram is crude (I drew it in MS Paint), but functional. You can right click on it and download or print it if you need to refer to it to make your own set of hinges.
I used fluted trim on the face of the bookcase. I cut the trim on an angle along one of the flutes. When the bookcase opens, the trim separates. The fluted design helps hide the small gap that was needed to allow the bookcase to swing. Here’s a closer look at the trim. You can also see the lock I installed in the top of the bookcase.
The lock was an afterthought, but because of it’s location, it’s nicely hidden when the key isn’t in it. I used a cabinet lock, made some linkage out of steel flat stock, a lock pin out of steel bar and a guide out of a block of plastic. Here’s the locking mechanism…
I’m happy with the outcome. Now, I need to stain the bookcase and paint the patched areas on the wall. I’d also like to cover the back of the bookcase with some black material of some sort. I think the finished product looks much better than that boring old slab door that was there before.
Technorati Tags: Hidden, door, passage, secret, disguised, rixson hinge
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Thank you for the insight. The article was worth each and every minute reading it (and the upcoming re-reads). Brilliant submit.
Thanks! I really enjoyed building this. It is one of the more challenging woodworking projects I’ve taken on.
cheers for the above blog. That was really interesting.
Nice door! Where did you get those 2 pivot point hinges?
I made the hinges myself. I just drew a diagram of how the hinges are made. I added it to the post if you need to refer to it. They are a very simple design and can be made fairly quickly if you know someone with a machine shop or even just basic metalworking equipment. You could probably make them with a minimum of a hacksaw, sander, drill press and welder if you don’t have access to a full shop.
Excellent build! I really like the custom hinges and the lock mechanism. Thanks for the article! I’m planning to link to it from StashVault.
you did an excellent job with discriptions and pictures….thank you!!
Love love love the concept. Yes, looks so much better than a dull door. You have finished it off nicely too.
We have an older home with a DEEP doorless shelved storage area beside the fireplace. Mostly collects dust and isn’t useful storage. Makes me nuts. Yay, your project would be the perfect answer.
Thanks!
Thanks Guys and Gals. I love taking on unusual projects. It drives my wife nuts. We have projects scattered all over the place needing to be finished. Right now, I’m building a playhouse for the kids, a pirate ship shaped bed for my boy, a wifi-controlled robot built on a power wheelchair base and a CNC Plasma cutter in various stages of completion.
Sir, I would really like some instructions on how to build this. This is by far the best design I have found. Please e-mail me as soon as you can.
-Dan
I didn’t really have any design instructions. I just built it as I went. I used google to search the web for similarly constructed designs for ideas.
How long did this project take you??
Also could you email me the instructions??
I love it! Much easier then other ones. I wouldn’t mind instructions, if you don’t mind sharing
instead of fabricated, for a st 
standard doorway?
Could the pivots be bough
Great job!
The pivots are what enable an object as thick as a bookcase to have the room to swing open and still maintain a fairly tight fit at the casing so that the fact that it is a “door” stays concealed. I’ve seen some bookcase doors that are hinged or on sliders that protrude out from a wall like a normal bookcase which also conceal a doorway. I jut didn’t have the room to build mine that way.
I LOVE this idea! I am pretty sure I could handle the bookcase itself but the hinges worry me. Would you be willing to make and sell the hinges like those pictured in your instructions?
Thanks so much!
Looks like a really nice hidden bookcase! Is there any way to get a top down pic of your locking mechanism, for a little more detail? thanks!
Marcus, Love the design and thanks for sharing. The part I can’t figure out is how to install the pivots. Are they mounted to the bookcase prior to installing? If so, how do you mount the outer pieces? Thanks for your help.
Very detailed photos. Nice to see a job well done! Will you post updates on how it holds up?
The bookcase is still holding up well. I do need to take off the lowest front “baseboard” trim piece and sand the bottom edge a bit as it’s just barely scraping the floor at one point as the case swings open – perhaps from settling a bit. The hinges are holding up well.
Some folks have asked about the hinges in particular. There are similar hinges out there, just google “offset pivot” or “Rixson” hinges. I made these specifically to fit my bookcase. They were also kind of a pain to install as I put them on after the bookcase was mostly completed (trim had not yet been installed). I sat the bookcase in place, positioned the hinges by wedging them in place and then used a stubby screwdriver to get the screws in.
Hi I was wondering if u can give me the demonsions of your opening vs. your bookcase frame without molding, I’m making a very similar one, thank u
The subsequent time I learn a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I do know it was my option to learn, however I really thought youd have one thing attention-grabbing to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you possibly can repair if you werent too busy in search of attention.