Let’s face it, it’s something we’ve all wanted since watching Indiana Jones or the Goonies when we were kids – a hidden door that leads to a secret room.
For anyone who hasn’t grown out of the idea, we’ve had a look online to see what other people have been trying – and here are our top 19 plans for a DIY hidden door.
1.DIY Hidden Doorway Bookcase
This is a plan to build a pretty cool hidden door bookcase that’s totally believable. You wouldn’t imagine there was a door hidden there – which the whole point, really! You’ll find a list of everything you need to complete the project along with clear and well-written instructions that just about anyone with even a moderate level of DIY competence will be able to follow. A great plan for a fun project.
2.Secret Door in your house – Simple setup using a standard door
Most of the plans we’ve seen for secret doors involve using a bookcase, but the problem with this is that it needs to go deep into the wall to work. However, with this video, you can learn how to make a secret door using just a regular door – simplifying the job considerably. Want to know how? Then give it a watch.
3.How to Build a Hidden Door
This site rates this project as being of medium difficulty and estimates that you will need to spend around $260 to complete it. We like the illustrations that show you what you need to do, and each step is explained in detail, making it easy to replicate at home. This is a highly professional plan, and if you want great results, it’s well worth a look.
4.DIY Secret Room with a Mirror Door
In this video, you can see how this ingenious DIYer came up with an idea for building a secret door using a mirror. This allows him to have a small hidden closet that can be used for storing valuables in or perhaps even hiding in during an emergency. A simple plan but highly effective, making it an interesting video to watch.
5.Secret Door Bookcase
The Instructables website is a wonderful resource for DIY plans, and you’ll be able to find instructions for just about any project you can think of. This plan for a secret door bookcase lives up to this reputation and features clear and logical instructions along with plenty of useful photos and illustrations. We love their sense of humor too – they even added sound effects for when the door is opened or locked!
6.’On the Fly…DIY’ Secret Bookcase Door
This is one of our favorite DIY YouTube channels. They specialize in inexpensive and simple plans that are easy to execute. This video is under five minutes long, but it still gives you all the information you need to add a secret bookcase door to your home. And as you can see at the end, this door would be very hard to spot if you didn’t already know it was there.
7.How to Make a Secret Door/Bookcase
We love the story behind this secret door. This couple has a new baby on the way, and they want to build a secret playroom for their new son to discover when he reaches the age of about four or so. Aside from this, it’s also an informative and useful plan that will teach you how to make a hidden door for your home. A big thumbs-up from us.
8.DIY Minimalistic Trimless Door
This hidden door is slightly different from all the others in this list since it isn’t meant to be “hidden” in the sense of “secret” but is rather designed just to not draw attention to itself. It’s an interesting idea if you prefer a more minimalist style, and it’s also easy to make, as this YouTuber explains in her video. A great idea if you want a simple and unobtrusive closet door in a bathroom or other room in your house.
9.Hidden Door Bookcase
This project is a little more expensive – the bloggers estimate that it will cost around $500 to complete. You will also need to budget at least two days to finish it, but as we’re sure you’ll agree from the photos, the highly impressive results are probably worth it. This is a well-written plan with lots of useful pics, so if you want to build a hidden door, give it a read.
10.How to Make a Secret Door/Towel Rack
In this video, you’ll see how this YouTube DIYer turned a towel rack into a secret door. What we like about this is the way you would never imagine there was a door there because the space is so small. The video takes you through the steps to make it, and the presenter has loads of charisma, making it fun to watch. Another great video if you want to know how to make a secret door.
11.Hidden Pivot Bookcase Installation
What’s refreshing about this blog is the DIYer’s honesty. As he explains, his projects always seem to end up with at least one minor mistake, so that’s nothing to worry about – as long as you keep learning and improving with time. This is a professional plan that starts with the drawing phase on a computer. He then turns the drawings into reality, as you can see from the photos.
12.How to Build a Secret Man Cave Door
Here, we have a video where these YouTubers demonstrate building a secret entrance to a man cave. It’s a super-simple project, and the video is only a bit over four minutes long – so if you have even rudimentary DIY skills, you should easily be able to copy it at home. The result is impressive too – a completely secret door that you wouldn’t guess was anything other than a bookcase.
13.The Mysterious Bookcase
Here’s another plan from the Instructables website, this time for a “mysterious bookcase”. Perhaps the thing we love most about this design is that the door opens with a book, just like something out of a movie! And if that sounds like the kind of thing you’d like to have in your home, check out the plan to see how.
14.Very Cheap and Easy Secret Room/Safe
If you want a cheap and easy way to hide a door, this could be a good option to check out. Rather than do anything fancy with a fake bookcase, this DIYer has simply chosen to hide a regular door behind a sliding mirror. However, if you didn’t know there was a door behind it, you would never think to try sliding it across – making this solution as effective as any other.
15.Building Secret Rooms in Your House: Ideas & Inspiration
This isn’t technically a plan for a hidden door but rather a collection of ideas that show you the kind of thing that’s possible. However, we wanted to include it on our list to help fire your imagination and get your creative juices flowing. Then after you’ve had a look at this site and decided what you want, you can then start working out how to build it.
16.Secret Hidden Room Behind Bookshelf
Here’s another very simple hidden door, this time in the form of a false bookshelf that opens when you pull a certain book forward. The video doesn’t show how he made it – he just gives you a demonstration of how it works – but it’s such a simple idea that most DIYers will be able to copy it without a detailed plan.
17.How to Build a Secret Bookcase Door
Having a secret door can be a fun addition to your home, but it can also serve a serious purpose concealing a storeroom for survival equipment or even doubling as a place to hide if your house is attacked. That’s the angle taken by this blogger, and if you want to know how he went about building his secret door, you can find all the details on this site.
18.How to Create a Secret Room in Your House
If you’re looking for a more detailed video, this plan is worth a look. This DIYer explains his project before showing you all the steps to complete it. It’s an easy plan to follow, and the materials won’t cost you too much, so another great option if you want a secret door but don’t want to pay lots of money for it.
19.Cheap sliding hidden secret door
Here’s another plan we like – and an original idea, too. It shows you how this YouTuber made a sliding door that is completely hidden unless you know it’s there. Simple, cheap and effective, just the way we like our DIY plans to be!
Loads of amazing ideas to try
What we discovered by searching for these plans is that there are a lot of great ideas for secret doors out there, and some of them are highly original.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading and watching these plans as much as we enjoyed finding them for you – and above all, we hope you have found all the inspiration you need to build you own hidden door.
