Built-In Bookcase / Hidden Doorway Project

Hi Everyone, I’m finishing up this project - a really fun one in Winston Salem. It’s an older house in Ardmore that was expanded at some point in the past and my client wanted some built-in bookcases on the second floor along with some other room renovation work in the house. I started work on the space shown here and cut into the wall behind where the bookcases were going to be installed to explore options for re-routing the electrical and heating/AC ductwork. Once I could see behind the wall I found that there’s a huge unfinished attic space back there above where a new kitchen was added on to the back of the house way back. That’s when this project got really fun!

I showed the owners the attic space I had discovered and suggested that we could build a hidden bookcase door into the space and finish the new found attic space on the other side as a storage space, secret room or kids play room - whatever they wanted to use it for. They were as excited as I was and told me to do it! I altered the bookcase plans a little to allow for one of the middle sections to hinge out and reveal a hidden passage into the new space - I’m still finishing up the bottom trim, but you can see in the photo the third bookcase section from the left is the secret door - completely hidden when closed. I had to work out some interesting angle calculations and clearance spacing to figure out where to place the hidden pivot hinge system but it all worked out beautifully. I put in subflooring in the new space so they can use it as hidden storage for now and they might expand later to fully build it out as a new room.

Back to work, just wanted to share the fun!

-Don