Secret Bookcase Door

I replaced a 30" standard door with a 5" deep bookshelf door. It hides my bonus room/mancave. It uses offset hinges to make the door opening wider so the thick door does not get in the way. One of the key things about this door is that it had to be functional. There are a lot of hidden doors that only give you an opening of 20 or less inches, and that does not work when you have company over.

Feel free to ask questions, I will be happy to post pictures.

[airdylanmeat]

Wow I usually don't care to ever do this. But all these people who are pointing out "flaws" and telling you what you should have done are very very ignorant. We all know we as men want one of those just these people (myself included) do not know how to do this or to even start. I have to say you did an awesome job man. I am jealous of your ingenuity.

[HiddenPassageways]

Cool project! We actually professionally make secret bookcases, so it's awesome to see the shared enthusiasm!

[Beckmanstories]

I went to my local Habitat restore location and asked the manager for a deal on books that were damaged, or not going to sell. so he sold me all these readers digest and en encyclopedia for 10 bucks, instead of $2.00 a book i got them for about .25

To make them, i just cut out the pages, and sawed off the top inch. I glued a few pieces of wood into the book to keep the structure of the book and to keep the pages in place. really simple to do.

[Flecchicutlets]

An idea to make it both a real bookshelf and a door is to use wheels on the "knob" side to help hold the weight, this way it can be a useful shelf and a hidden door.

[RoamingRyNo]

Great video, maybe adding a small chair offset near the bookshelf would give the hallway more of a knook feeling.

[Cujothechosen]

On a bookshelf that size, the total weight bearing is around 600 pounds; I've seen people use like castor wheels off of dollys for hinges at the top and bottom instead of traditional hinges.

[Beckmanstories]

I am sure that you can, but make sure that you are not using just standard brass hinges, they are not strong enough to hold the weight. Also if you use regular hinges you will loose some of the doorway. If you want it to be a practical opening i would suggest using the offset hinges.

[Beckmanstories]

I used a gate latch. The home depot item number is 18112 just go to their site an put that in. I did not use the handle part. I lined up the latch and then drilled a hole through to bar so i could attach the wire at the exact part that I wanted. It was pretty easy, the book pulls up the wire, the wire is attached to the latch, so the latch gets pulled up. If you need more info I will take pictures when i get home.

[Beckmanstories]

Actually Alex, they are real books, I just altered them to make them a bit lighter for the door, when you think of putting 10+ books per shelf and the amount of weight that sits on the hinges you are talking about MASSIVE amount of weight because of the leverage. I just chose to make them a bit lighter so i did not have to use as many hinges. If you check out some of the other videos that i made you can see the final view, which looks more complete.

[alexbrunner]

Fair play mr piranhamonkey, I did think it was a good idea, i just thought it makes it obvious theres something not quite right about the bookcase, reducing the secret factor. Im workin on a project in someones house just now, where the whole wall will be the bookcase, with a door concealed at the far end. I think this should allow us to support the weight of real books, but if we are in doubt we will steal your idea. peace

[Beckmanstories]

I put the latch in a place where if something happens I can fix it pretty easy. Also there is a loop under the book that would prevent it from feeding back through the back of the bookcase. But yes it would be a pain to fix.

[Beckmanstories]

I had thought of maybe making a globe open it, you spin the globe and it opens the latch but the book is just "classic". but i could move the book to where ever I wanted. Weight really is an issue, i can tell that already but once we replace the carpet in the room behind the door i will put casters on the door and put some more real books on it.

[yaks]

great job man... i been looking for someone to help me out with the lock system!!! great job!

[Beckmanstories]

If you check out some of the other videos, the gate latch does lock.

[amazeroth]

You really think that? You really go into a friends house and say "Hey Jeff, that bookcase of yours is in a weird place, is it a secret door?".
I would call that paranoid :)

[Beckmanstories]

If you notice there is no carpet there either. I am replacing the flooring and once it is done i will actually put down some quarter round to make it less noticeable.

[whorebucks]

the obvious and very noticeable space under the shelf gives it away as a door.

[TheDragonfire]

thank you for showing ur secrets derp

[SikMisfits]

It'd be perfect if it was a closet with the door behind it or something. I would close that wall and put the bookshelf on the other side which would be the living room or something.

[stalkerkoala]

I totally cannot wait to do something like this in my own home