Secrets rooms in houses: 35 Secret Room Ideas You Would Want in Your Home
35 Secret Room Ideas You Would Want in Your Home
Playing around with the architecture of your home can give it a sense of mystery and wonder—secret room ideas will definitely create a safe space for you and your family, and amaze and inspire the future generations who will live in your home.
A secret room, hidden room, panic room, or safe room, is one that is a hidden space in buildings or underground that can be accessed through secret passages or hidden doorways.
Why do some homes have secret rooms?
Almost all famous landmarks have secret spaces within their structures. In the deep past, ancient Egyptians built secret rooms and false passageways in their graves -AKA pyramids- to mislead grave robbers. After that, people needed hidden rooms in their homes to protect them during wars and other emergencies.
Some people actually used safe rooms in their homes to hide outlaws and runaways from the authorities. Nowadays, Presidents and VIPs are still using hidden spaces as panic rooms. On a less significant matter, you can use a secret room as a storage space for precious stuff, or as a reading or relaxing spot away from the noise.
Also read:- The architecture of ancient pyramids
- Choose a location in your home for the secret room.
This place can be a large closet, you can divide a room in half with a new wall and integrate a hidden door, or you can wall off an unfinished space to create a hiding place behind the wall.
- Conceal the doorway.
It can be a bookshelf on a hinge and rollers, wood panels, large artworks, or stairs that can be built with a hinge to raise up and reveal another set of stairs leading down to a hidden basement room.
- Plan and make sure of the accuracy of dimensions.
Before attempting to install a secret doorway, make a plan detailing how your finished door will look. When designing your doorway make sure you consider the hardware that will make the door functional.
- Install the hidden doorway.
According to WikiHow, you should build a door frame using 2x4s Measure the height and width of the doorway and cut 2x4s with a circular saw to frame the outer edge of the doorway, then create a cutout in the wood to mount the hinges for your door.
- Include a latch or a hook to open and close the door.
A gate latch on the inside of the secret room is an easy way to conceal the latching mechanism from outside view. A wire can extend through the hidden door to a trigger on the outside of the door.
- Add trim to the doorway to give it a built-in look.
To keep your hidden doorway from standing out, add wood trim around the edges flush with the wall. The trim work will help conceal the edges around the shelf and prevent it from looking like an opening.
Also read:- best wallpaper types
35 Secret Room Ideas You Would Want in Your Home
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9 Historic Homes That Have Secret Rooms You Didn’t Know About
By
Sharon Kong-Perring
Tucked away in the corners of these historic homes, secret rooms and spaces hide all kinds of stories about the past.
Pixabay
Hidden Rooms in Historic Houses
Remember, as a kid, watching “paranormal mysteries” like Scooby-Doo or the Haunted Mansion, wishing to go on a real-life hunt through a mysterious house with winding staircases, hidden rooms behind bookshelves, and trap doors? Well, here’s that chance!
Historic homes are steeped in stories of the past, often offering valuable context to the historical eras that they were constructed during and survived thereafter.
From New England summer mansions to hotels housed in historic properties, these buildings offer rich, sometimes hidden clues to life in the past– visitors just need to know where to look! These historic houses are the perfect places to hunt for hidden secrets.
Related: These Are The Best Haunted Historic Houses To Visit In New England
9 The House Of Seven Gables Has A “Secret Staircase”
Salem is home to some spine-chilling thrills but also to this historic house! Originally built in 1668 and best known for serving as the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name, the House of Seven Gables is a sprawling seafront colonial cottage with a big secret. The “Secret Staircase” was added to the home between 1908-1910 by Colonial Revivalist and restoration architect Joseph Chandler as a nod to Chandler’s own relatives, that owned the property at one point, the Ingersolls. The Ingersolls had described a secret staircase around the chimney that led to the attic, so Chandler made it a 20th-century reality.
8 Körner’s Folly’s Hidden Passageways
The brainchild of eccentric designer Jule Gilmer Körner, Körner’s Folly is an eclectic home comprised of oddly shaped hallways, trap doors, and distorted rooms. Originally built between 1878-1880 in Kernersville, North Carolina, the house is full of secret cubbyholes and passageways that were said to allow people to move from various parts of the house without being seen. Today visitors can poke around the house to see if they can find all the hiding spots.
7 The Gillette Castle, A Spy’s Paradise
It is only fitting that the actor who played Sherlock Holmes built a house full of mystery! William Gillette built his beloved castle in 1913 with a few tricks too! Outfitting the castle with an elaborate mirror system and a hidden staircase, and a hidden room, Gillette enjoyed spying on his guests and surprising them with a few pranks. Among his favorite tricks was his disappearing bar, which could only be accessed if one knew where the hidden level was.
Gillette would watch his guests struggle to open the bar back up, all the while giggling from his secret spaces.
6 Harvington Hall’s Saintly Secrets
Across the pond in a 14th-century medieval manor, concealed “panic rooms” dot the interior of this English property. These hidey-hole spots (aka “hides”) date from the 16th-17th centuries when the Catholic Pakington family would hide Catholic priests from Protestant queensmen. The Pakington Family, notably head of household Humphrey Pakington, were devoutly Catholic and had a series of “hides” created around architectural structures like the great staircase and kitchen.
5 A Secret Lab Hidden In Horse Stables At Casa Loma
A darling of the Prohibition Era, this Toronto historic house–well, mansion–was a favorite of many American socialites as a Prohibition getaway. Built in 1914, the “hill house” became a hotel in the 1920s and since has served as the filming location of Hollywood films like Crimson Peak and X-Men.
However, under the famous facade is an 800-foot tunnel that connects to the property’s stables. And the secrets don’t stop there! The stables were once concealed during World War II and turned into a tech lab where anti-submarine sonar sensors were constructed for the Allied powers.
Related: This French Ghost Town Is Actually A Memorial To The D-Day Landings & World War II
4 Scorned Lovers Haunted The Secret Passageway At The Sessions House
Originally constructed in 1710 for Captain Jonathan Hunt as a place of protection for his family– there are tunnels under the house that allows for an easy escape–Hunt’s granddaughter actually used the tunnels to have secret meetings with her forbidden lover! The family never allowed her to marry her “undeserving” love; rumor has it that the lovers still haunt the secret passageway today out of spite.
3 A “Hive Of Rooms” Hidden In The Sarah Winchester Mystery House
It’s a story that paranormal researchers know all too well.
Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wirt Winchester and heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune, bought a large farmhouse in San Jose, California, only to be convinced that she was haunted and cursed by those souls killed by her family’s invention. Thus began a massive home renovation, installing the strangest architectural features in order to throw off her ghostly assailants. While many people know about the staircases leading to the ceiling and doors leading to bricked-up walls, some may not know that through a cabinet located in one of the house’s six kitchens, there’s a “hive” of 30 rooms concealed away.
2 The Real Life Book Thief Of Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey
Imagine a beautiful hotel in the rolling hills of Alsace that, despite being 1,000-year-old nunnery, is still a gorgeously kept building anyone would be excited about staying in. Now imagine a stunning, grand library filled with rare manuscripts and thousands of books housed in that building. Well, turns out this is a real place, and its library had a couple of secrets that nobody knew about!
Related: How Long You’ll Need (& What To See) At The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
After several rare materials went missing at Monte Sainte-Odile Abbey in 2002, the police were stumped.
No signs of forced entry, no obvious break-in… Then a police officer happened to accidentally push a book on a random shelf, and voilà! A door opened to reveal a small secret room with an escape route that the thief was accessing the library through!
1 A Chamber Of Secrets For The Knights Templar At Quinta Da Regaleira
Completed in 1910 for a family of noble lineage in Portugal, the sprawling castle was purchased by a wealthy businessman thereafter. Turns out the new owner had a penchant for the mysterious—and created two 88-foot towers underneath the mansion decked out in symbols associated with the Knights Templar. Called “initiation wells,” the base of the underground towers features a complex series of caverns, also entirely man-made!
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About The Author
By day, Sharon is a museum curator in history, and by night she is a PhD Researcher (of K-Pop!) in Media and Cultural Studies.
She is a bi-coastal, Korean-American traveler who splits her time between the UK, the US, and South Korea and has written and presented articles and papers for house museums across New England, popular culture conferences and magazines, and Asian Studies conferences. Sharon is an avid aviation geek, a museum nerd, and a glutton for K-Stuff (K-Dramas, K-Beauty, K-BBQ). Follow her PhDing and travels @thepophistorydoctor on IG!
Small house interior: 31 puzzling ideas
It is not clear why such beautiful places are sometimes inaccessible to people. Secret rooms, created by real masters, are fraught with many interesting mysteries and stories. People, as in all ages, like to surround themselves with mystery.
1Here is a children’s chest of drawers is a hidden entrance to the secret playroom.
Photo: apartmenttherapy.com
2This hidden room can be accessed by opening a secret door that is also a bookcase. Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Photo: stashvault.com
3In the office, a bar room is hidden behind a secret door.
Photo: carimullaney.blogspot.com
4A this closet is for the child its own entrance to the land of Narnia.
Photo: io9.com
5The door to the home office is hidden behind a bookcase guarded by a medieval knight.
Photo: counterhack.net
6From the small office, a secret door opens into a much larger hidden room.
Photo: ladycarpenter.net
7A here, behind a door hidden by cabinets, the entrance to the basement opens.
Photo: barnorama.com
8Functional cabinets also hide secret doors to the secret room.
Photo: safestyle-windows.co.uk
9The collection of weapons is hidden in a safe safe behind a secret door that simultaneously serves as an imitation of a closet in an office.
Photo: hiddenpassageway.com
10In a Hawaiian hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii, you can find a lobby bar behind a huge bookshelf.
Photo: hawaiiwedding-don.blogspot.com
11The library does not end with the boundaries of one room – its shelves open doors to the next room.
Photo: tryingtobalancethemadness.wordpress.com
12Behind the toy shelf, a door opens to a secret game room.
Photo: tryingtobalancethemadness.wordpress.com
13A bookshelf that rotates on an axis is at the same time a secret entrance to the next room.
Photo: eckelmanbros.wordpress.com
14A beautiful version of an old move.
Photo: nnc3.com
15Behind these bookshelves opens the entrance to the dining room.
Photo: pictify.com
16Hidden library behind a bookshelf.
Photo: thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com
17A Behind this closet is a cozy place for a bed.
Photo: theownerbuildernetwork.com.au
18From the bedroom to the reading room, bathed in the sun.
Photo: hutkerarchitects.com
19Another original version.
Photo: bathinteriordesign.blogspot.com
20Enter the secret room through a bookshelf in the Wenatchee Lake House in Washington, USA.
Photo: thejoinery.com
21Cozy reading nook with carpeted floor.
Photo: houzz.com
22Secret door to the spiral staircase of the hidden second floor.
Photo: houzz.com
23Separated from the common living room, a secret play corner for the baby.
Photo: houzz.com
24A hidden passage connecting two children’s rooms.
Photo: houzz.com
25A secret play area in the children’s bedroom.
Photo: houzz.com
26A niche under the stairs – why not a secret corner?
Photo: houzz.com
27Value space? Arrange for your child a cozy sleeping place under the roof overhang.
Photo: houzz.com
28Behind the shelves with toys is a reading room for a child.
Photo: zoinki.tumblr.com
29Behind the bookshelves is a guest bedroom.
Photo: stashvault.com
30Secret entrance to the wine cellar.
Photo: hunchmag.com
31A cozy reading nook in a hidden book rotunda.
Photo: bookriot.com
Perhaps, after viewing the photos, you would also like to create a secret room with a disguised entrance? Dare!
Categories: Ideas for small interiors
Places: Game room design • Study room design • Cabinet design
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where and how to arrange a secret room in the house
Ideas for the house /
Home Furnishing Ideas
Every child’s dream in childhood is to have a secret room: to hide safely from their parents, to invite friends over for tea, to play alone with their favorite toys. In adulthood, this desire does not disappear anywhere, only the reasons for its realization become different: to retire, take a break from work, listen to music or equip a wine cellar.
The Secret Room is a place that reflects the owner’s personality, so before you start designing this area, you should consider its purpose. For lovers of reading, there is nothing better than organizing a secluded corner for a quiet acquaintance with the heroes of popular books. Fashionistas will be pleased with the new spacious dressing room, which will conveniently accommodate all their favorite clothes and shoes. For a child, a secret corner will become a magical world in which miracles will happen while adults are busy with their super-important things.
If the goal is clear and you just need a dose of inspiration to start implementing the desired project, we offer you to look at a selection of the most interesting options for arranging a secret room in a living room.
In the library
Home library is an amazing place surrounded by mystery and silence. The heroes of many books keep their stories here, so there is no more suitable area in the house where the hidden room would be so harmoniously located.
Behind a massive door, decorated with book spines (real or imitating a book row), you can hide any secret: a cache that even relatives will not know about; another living room; a place where you can safely read your favorite novel.
Behind a bookshelf
If decorating an entire library is a big and expensive undertaking, then a door to a secret room disguised as an original bookshelf is a more accessible idea. Such a move will help to use the space of the doorway, which is not used in any way in most living quarters, and will appeal to those who want to organize a place hidden from prying eyes, but is limited in square meters.
A door in the form of a modest shelf with several rows of books can be easily “fitted” into a room with small dimensions and can be used to cover a bathroom, a technical compartment or an entrance to a bedroom. The shelf is easy to make yourself using decorative book covers.
Under the ceiling
For a spacious house or a high apartment (for example, two-level), the option of placing an additional room under the ceiling is suitable.
In a private house, the attic can take on the role of a hiding place. It is easy to equip and, after removing the ladder, you can skillfully hide the exit. It is technically more difficult to organize such a place in an apartment, but as numerous examples with already implemented projects of secret rooms prove: everything is possible with a strong desire.
Concealed wall
For those who do not like to clutter up space, this idea is a real gift! No ladders or cabinets needed. Sometimes the textured surface of the wall can hide the entrance to another reality from the eyes of strangers. Behind decorative brickwork, stone covering or wooden decking, you can find a real secret passage. You just need to click on a certain part of the wall, and it will open. But only the owner of this magical place owns the clue to the secret code.
Behind design elements
Sometimes a complex idea finds a completely simple way to implement it. Imagine visiting a friend and being surprised to find a huge vintage poster hanging on the wall.
After admiring the original picture, you moved on, not even assuming that these were veiled doors, for example, to a home theater. The main thing is that this simple trick does not require a complex approach, exquisite woodworking, or a large-scale architectural plan. Two snap loops, a little creativity – and the secret place has never been so close and so far at the same time!
Children’s room
Who will rejoice most in the world in a secret room? Of course, children. After all, their world is still full of magic and magic, fictional friends and fun games. The entrance to the room can be disguised as the door to the Hobbit’s house from the famous J. Tolkien saga, or covered with slate paint so that the child can leave funny inscriptions, for example: “Adults are not allowed to enter.” Everything that is unusual, creative, non-standard – attracts the attention of the child, helps develop imagination, creates a special atmosphere where he can dream, play, read or build a house for his toys.
Such a cozy corner will give the baby a magical world in which he can be whoever he wants. For example, Harry Potter, trying new spells in his Chamber of Secrets, or Peter Pan, who hid a chest with golden doubloons in the Treasure Cave from the formidable Captain Hook.
Closet
Turning an ordinary door into a magical portal is very easy. You just need to mask the entrance to the cache with a closet. An old wooden wardrobe has something to hide, but no one will know about it, because it looks like an ordinary closet with a bunch of things, but inside is a fairy-tale world, a playroom or a relaxation area with a friendly sofa and a fluffy rug. Welcome to your own Narnia!
A similar idea can be implemented in the kitchen. Under the guise of another kitchen cabinet, there may be a small room for storing food supplies, preservation or household items. The door to this secret room should not stand out from the overall design and color of the dining room furniture set.
Behind the mirror
The mirror from time immemorial had magical powers and was considered a portal to another world.
By equipping the cache, you can give this expression a real meaning. Certainly not so mystical. Often a large mirror is placed in the hallway to briefly examine yourself before going outside. Therefore, the room, which will be hidden behind a mirror in the corridor, can have a practical function. This part of the hallway will conveniently accommodate a dressing room, storage for household items, laundry, ironing, dryer or pantry.
Under the stairs
In many houses, the area under the stairs is just lonely empty. But this is a large area that can help organize the space of the house. Turning this dead zone into a useful nook is an easy project that will give your home extra storage space and give your apartment design a twist.
In this small room, hidden from the eyes of strangers, you can organize a wardrobe, a children’s corner, shelves with various accessories, a hallway. The only disadvantage of such an idea is its obviousness. The place is in front of everyone, so it will not be easy to keep its mystery.