The bookcase has become a classic hidden door design. Its popularity and appeal remain enduring today. Creative Home Engineering explains why the bookshelf door is still in fashion and how you can have one installed in your home.
There’s plenty of good reason that the bookcase doors have stood the test of time. Whether for nostalgia or for clever camouflage, bookcases consistently remain one of the most popular hidden door options.
Nostalgia is a powerful motivator compelling many security-conscious homeowners to choose a bookshelf to conceal their hidden passageways.
Swinging or sliding this concealed door lets you access your safe room like a character in a riveting mystery novel. Moving it by tilting a book, tipping a statue or twisting a wine bottle to run to safety into your covert compartment is the same trick Bruce Wayne does to sneak into the Batcave beneath his manor and gear up.
Granted, many ideas work better in fiction than in real life, but the hidden bookcase door is an exception to the rule. It’s as feasible as it is cool.
Swinging and sliding bookshelves can hide in plain sight because they serve an actual purpose in the room — even though we’re now in the digital age.
People still buy and keep reading materials. In fact, recent studies suggest two-thirds of readers still opt for physical books as opposed to digital content. Legal professionals maintain extensive libraries of law books, and comic book readers build shrines for their prized collections. Bookworms own stacks of their beloved titles.
Open shelves can feel at home in most living spaces because they hold ornamental items. You can accessorize your bookcase with artwork, indoor plants, vases, picture frames, trophies, plaques, decorative dishes and coffee table books, creating a tall, deep display cabinet with wood shelves.
Steve Humble runs Creative Home Engineering – a business that specializes in bookcase secret passageways, and one of the questions he gets all the time is “Won’t the objects on the shelf fall off when the door is moved?” But Humble is quick to point out that as long as you don’t slam the door the objects tend to stay put.
These disguised doors are available in various styles to match the dimensions of your wall. The suitable design depends on whether your secret door is in front or within the wall.
A sliding bookshelf is a realistic option if you have plenty of wall space or a thick pocket to accommodate it. It’s visually impressive and motorized to move seamlessly despite weighing hundreds of pounds.
Wall width determines how many door panels you can install, as well as the width of the bookcase itself. For example, If a single bookcase door is 1 foot thick, and the opening is 3 feet wide, that only leaves two feet of clearance when the door is in the open position. A double bookcase door will double both the bookcase width and clearance width, leaving you with a 6-foot wide bookcase and a 4-foot wide clearance.
However, bookcases that swing open into the secret room can be made to open to nearly 180 degrees which dramatically increases the clear width (the width of the objects that can fit through the open door) so that can be a great option for people concerned about getting large objects like couches into or out of the secret room, or for people that just want a nice wide opening that will be is easily passable during emergencies.
Bookcase and bookshelf doors are also highly customizable. Creative Home Engineering can soup them up to boost their soundproofing or bulletproofing properties, water resistance and fire protection. Creative Home Engineering can also strengthen your concealed door to withstand biological or chemical threats.
The company can also tailor your unit’s aesthetics to achieve architectural and interior design coherence. Many of their clients ask for specific wood species, finishes and fluted pilasters to hide a door. Some also request adding paneling and integrating lighting.
Humble points out, “If you want your hidden bookcase door to operate in a particular way, we can make it happen if your space permits. We can design to slide a bit and then come forward, or vice versa. Alternatively, our experts can partially hinge it or make it go up or down.”
Creative Home Engineering has done around 5000 unique concealed door customization projects over the last 20 years, making them the most experienced secret door company in the world.
You can have a bookshelf door in two ways — buying a prefab product or commissioning Creative Home Engineering to make you one from scratch.
The first option is more cost-effective and makes sense if you only want a no-frills unit that gets the job done. Their sister brand — the Hidden Door Store — offers a broad selection of standard-size products of various designs to fit ordinary wall dimensions and blend in different spaces. Each stock unit exhibits high-level camouflage to prevent arousing suspicion and avoid detection.
The second option costs more money but gives you more latitude in designing your bookshelf door. Together with you, your builder, architect or designer, the company can conceptualize your door’s cosmetic elements and enhance its qualities to keep you safe should your worst nightmares happen. If your space has odd geometry, we can customize its shape and make it wider or taller to fit.
Creative Home Engineering hidden doors are as easy to install as any prehung units. For an additional fee, they can even travel to your project to take measurements to ensure everything fits perfectly.
Your custom bookshelf door will come with installation instructions, which are easy to follow and execute with decent carpentry skills and basic tools.
If you prefer to leave the job to the professionals, you may hire a third-party contractor. Many of their clients take this route to help control costs. However, if you’re willing to pay a premium, they can install your unit so you can avoid telling another soul about your safe room’s existence.
Bookcase doors are timeless, not trendy. Contact Creative Home Engineering today to discuss your hidden passageway ideas and set your project in motion.