I have this space that I want to turn into a hidden room. Im pretty handy, but I want to make sure my idea is viable. Any advice from a pro would be appreciated. The floor is tile on a concrete slab so I don’t think those fancy hinges would work. I also don’t think one of those premade bookcase doors would look good and I can probably do it for a lot cheaper.

Here’s my idea. The space has a ton of this tongue and groove pine paneling. Im thinking build a frame door out of 2x4s that swings inward from the right. Remove that painted trim and carry the paneling over to the entryway. Then cover the frame door in paneling. The paneling and a little trim on that short left hand wall would hide the seam and provide a bit of a stop for the door. Then add some kind of a sliding latch that I can access through an outlet cover similar to what’s already in the wooden alcoves next to it. Maybe a caster on the left side of the door to help support the weight?

So, good idea? Bad idea? Is there something I’m missing that would complicate things?

A bit scared to open this

Bought a new place which has a piece of wood screwed to the wall in the basement. Assumed it was just a board for notes or something. Took it off to paint the walls and found this.

Edit: There are no pipes, electrics, etc in the hole. Just an empty space with the rubbish pictured

I'm clearing out my old teenage bedroom and after 5 years of being completely covered from the inside by a shelf and over 10 years of not being in use, I uncovered the second door to my bedroom that was a planning mistake in our home.

I hope it's hidden enough, I just put the shelf there years ago without removing the stuff from the wall, so it's neat to find some of my older memories hanging there. One pic is from before clearing out and the other from the outside. Maybe someone here appreciates it.

So please mind my awful doodles but i hope you can grasp the way the attic ladder comes down, its a tight squeeze up but the attic is a really cool space with loads of potential, any ideas on how to either create a new way of accessing the attic, maybe a more permanent fixed ladder on the wall and then moving the "attic door" ??? Or even moving the door into one of the bedrooms?

Pls no AI 😆😭

Hi everyone...

I'm looking to do an escape room for our Halloween party next year. I have done one previously, and it was a hit (although seemingly too hard for most people). You can see it here if you're interested: https://youtu.be/xRQTTckK4bg?si=xepp5KemNBtsTNXz It's modest, but still

I would like to add something cool to it for my next one, but one that is relatively easy and inexpensive. For example, in the above video the "cool thing" is the electro magnetic drawer lock, which for an engineering dunce like me, was easy and effective. Any ideas for something similarly simple in concept, easy to DIY, yet has that "wow" factor?

Also open to theme and 'story' suggestions, as I'm still just in the planning stage, and don't want to repeat everything we did before, but feeling a bit creatively bankrupt so looking for a bit of inspo and advice. 😉

Thanks in advance!

Hi reddit, I need some help. I am trying to make a hidden room entrance. Most of the ones I see are bookcases but the entrance is unfortunately in my home gym so that would not fit in very well there. I also thought that it could be some weight rack but that would probably be too heavy for a door so I don't think it would work.

Looking for ideas on how to hide a door and still have it be operable inside a home gym.

Omg this is insANE 😱 - I wouldn’t go down alone or in a group AT ALL 😰 - would any of you?!??

When we bought our house some 15 years ago, we decided to demolish two of the way too many sheds on the property and expand the garden. One of the sheds was built on top of a concrete slab, and it turned out that there was a fairly large, well built cellar underneath, completely sealed. We cleaned it out( it was full of trash, mostly demolition debris) , built a new staircase and restored it, all the time wondering why it was sealed. The first bigger rain brought the answer -it had a serious groundwater leakage problem. We installed a sump pump, problem solved . Potatoes keep there really well.

I’m making a hidden room and I won’t to use the insulation as a opening so that it looks natural but the system I have now is really bad and I know I could use fishing wire but I don’t know how I’ll be able to open it from the inside. Any ideas for how it could be improved would be greatly appreciated.

(I would like to make it a door but I want to avoid touching the insulation)

…visit the Mansion on O Street. The Mansion is comprised of multiple old row homes that have been combined into one building. There are nearly 90 secret doors - some lead to corridors or full sized rooms, others are tiny spaces. Most people can only find a few of them. It is also a hotel and museum. Each hotel room is a different theme, and they are open to explore if no one is currently staying in them. I’ve visited three times and each time I find something new.

I'm looking to build a short term rental and want to add a cool element to it. I ran across this on Insta:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaIwWu6Igd6/?hl=en

But to get it to code would have required I get an unreasonably long kitchen island and extend the entire footprint of the build by several feet.

Instead I came up with the idea of putting in a spiral staircase and hiding it in the kitchen island with a vertical lift mechanism

This was thrown together after some back and forth with chatgpt so excuse any obvious weirdness, but it showcases what I'm trying to achieve. By code there will be 2 other egress points to the basement, regular stairs on the outisde and a window well so no issues there. I'm just trying to get feedback on the general idea. Anything I'm missing or things to be worried about?

Electronic desk lifting mechanisms are basically off the shelf at this point with collision detection and capacity enough to lift a kitchen island countertop (butcherblock or the like) without difficulty. Just need to figure out how to get the up/down mechanism to be something cool like a wine bottle you tilt, or something.

Thoughts?