Moving Bookcase, Special Book, Secret Room

I know you can see the hinges. This isn't really a "secret," more of a cool surprise. Everyone who comes to my house gets to see it.

The bookcase serves as a door to one of the bedrooms in my house.

The heavy solid-wood bookcase is attached with four steel hinges, and uses NO casters. It swings freely. These are the only kinds of hinges that support the weight.

I attached a gate latch at the top back of the bookcase, latching into its counterpart inside the doorframe. I used a rubberband to make sure the latch stays down for when the door is closed. A system of two pulleys feeds a string from the latch down through a hole by the secret book.

The book has been gutted of its middle pages, leaving on the tops of the paper to keep the illusion of a complete book. I secured a piece of 2x4 wood inside the hollowed-out portion of the book. The string feeds through the hole in the bookshelf, and attaches to the wood. The bottom of the wood is hinged to the bookshelf itself. Also, I attached a rubber band from the wood to the shelf, so the book would snap back into place automatically.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• hidden
• secret
• bookcase
• bookshelf
• rotating
• turning
• spinning
• mystery
• Frankenstein
• false
• faux
• book
• lever
• home

[allwoodmike1]

Where do you get these pulleys? What type are they? They look like they are attached to a flex piece of metal?

[chasedeluca]

@allwoodmike1 They're actually just sliding screen door rollers.

[xTkon2011x]

Why Indiana Jones theme.....?

[chasedeluca]

@xTkon2011x Just 'cause. :-)

[Nephet1112]

was it expensive to make this?

[chasedeluca]

@Nephet1112 Not really, but that's because we started planning for it very early. That wall was recently added to create the room behind it. When we were framing in the door, we reinforced the frame with four 2x4s to support a heavy bookcase; very uncommon for most doors, but not very expensive. The Bookcase I bought on Craigslist for less than $100. We used 4 heavy-duty gate hinges to attach the bookshelf to the door frame. Those, plus all the other hardware was probably less than $50.

[ThePariahOfFresno]

Lenerd from the big bang theory?

[anonomous1324]

If you mounted a small horizontal bar to the hinge, then the bar to the shelf, you could attach it a few inches from the edge, hiding the hinges.

[vagapoeta]

very cool! I like that you showed how you did it at the end.

[MattxMorris]

Hmm hinges on a book case? Not a secret.

[HelenaMarian0]

You can see the hinges. Its really a door. Its not secret.

[evilbunnyreviews]

You can see the hinges

[Anubriel]

Cool! xD 

[4DPerformance]

I think the suspicious glancing back and forth 20 times might give away the secret, bro