In the past, every stately castle had at least one secret passage or secret room and of course there was a well-hidden door leading to it. It served as a hiding place and a means of escape. What worked well in the past can be useful today. With a few practical living ideas, we reveal how many options there actually are for aesthetically designing a door to the storage room, to the garden or simply as a hidden wall passage.
Most of the time it's about transitional rooms, rooms that adjoin one another and are often discreetly connected, or a rarely used door. In all situations you do not want to have this door in your direct field of vision. bespecially in the living roomA second door is aesthetically disruptive and also takes up space that could be used for other purposes.
Rooms that flow into one another can be divided relatively easily using drywall. However, sometimes it is desirable not to completely separate the newly created separate rooms, or rooms and hallways. A partition wall has several advantages, but on the other hand, the connection between two rooms can be very useful. The optimal solution for this room situation is to design the partition as a wall system and incorporate a secret door into it.
A secret door can be hidden in a wall system because the individual cabinet elements can be designed to measure and the proportions correspond to a conventional door. Special mechanisms allow it to rotate around its own axis and this allows the secret door to be opened. Another variant is that only this cabinet element can be moved.
Wall coverings hide imperfections in the original walls and make them look uniform. They give the wall new structure and a modern effect. However, wall paneling is the perfect way to hide an intermediate door in a very aesthetic way. Wooden panels and others with a natural stone look are the most popular for modern wall cladding and are also perfect for covering a door due to their straight proportions.
We all know the 'secret passage' through the library shelves from films and stories. Once you take out the right book, the secret door opens. We can also use this secret tip for ourselves. A bookcase doesn't necessarily look old-fashioned. Your design should always be adapted to the individual circumstances and characteristics of the room and the furniture in the room. In addition, the books can be sorted very creatively, for example by color.
Secret doors are a practical way to optimize vertical space. Practical wall shelves can be installed on a door that is rarely used, i.e. not an outside door, and thus provides more storage space. In no other room are storage options valued as highly as in the kitchen.
If a housewife has a kitchen with a pantry, she will definitely be happy about it. However, an additional door can complicate modern kitchen design. Cleverly, this design disadvantage can be converted into an advantage. The door of the pantry or storage room can be successfully designed as part of the kitchen furnishings. A rotating mechanism then allows the door to be opened and closed.
If you like to receive guests in the living room, a small bar also makes sense. So that this is not in direct view, especially if there are children in the household, it is understandable to keep all the drinks and accessories a little more hidden. This brings up the idea of building a small secret room behind a bookcase or cupboard element. With the push of a button or a twist, you can easily access the min bar.
Secret doors are no different than doors that the homeowner has somehow hidden so that they are not immediately noticeable. These can serve as a wall passage, but can also lead to a secret passage or hidden rooms. Wall coverings in particular, such as paneling, offer ideal conditions for aesthetically concealing a door.
In addition to wall coverings, wallpaper also works well as camouflage to hide a secret door. Playful patterns, colors and structures attract the eye and make the rectangular contours of a conventional door visually disappear. Of course, in order to achieve an optimal visual illusion, it is necessary to apply the wallpaper perfectly both on the wall and on the moving part or on the door. Stucco elements and skirting boards must be cut perfectly.
Sliding room dividers and intermediate doors that run into the wall can also be described as modern secret doors. They are absolutely flush and save a lot of space. With built-in wall shelves, they disappear from view and fit perfectly into the interior.
There is a lot of free space under every staircase, which usually remains unused. In addition, it is not uncommon for the living room and garage or basement to border each other at this point. This space can be optimized through a well thought-out construction. Take a look at our two suggestions.
Long before safes existed, people protected their valuables behind a secret door or in a secret compartment. Even back then, large wall mirrors with thick frames were often used as camouflage. If the door opens to the front, the door movement is guaranteed but the door itself is not recognized. Otherwise, when the door opens backwards, the door frame should also fulfill the role of the mirror frame.
Simple sliding doors that look more like wall plaster or wall cladding can be described as secret doors because they also hide something behind them. These are usually wet areas and kitchen niches that are included in the floor plan of the living room. If this niche is in a bay window, it is easy to close it with a sliding door. If it is in the middle of the room, it makes sense to incorporate the wet area into some kind of cupboard or chest of drawers.
You can also build a secret door yourself. We would recommend this variant as a practical wall covering. Using rectangular offset elements, you can create a structure behind which any wall passage will visually disappear.
