Hidden passages have a long history of appearing in fictional novels and films but an even richer past in reality dating back to Egyptian tombs passages for Christians to worship in hiding from Romans. Over the years hidden passages have been used to arrest kings and evacuate popes, hide shogun warriors, facilitate guerrilla fighters, enable drug smugglers and conceal serial killers. In recent times, however, many more modest individuals have created (or discovered) secret passages in ordinary everyday households and there are even companies dedicated to designing secret doors, rooms and passages in middle-class houses. In some cases the discovery of a secret room is a wonderful find but it can also be a twisted nightmare.
With so many secret rooms built into houses is it any wonder that some people are surprised to discover that their very own house has one they were entirely unaware of? One couple in an ordinary and unspectacular A-frame house found out they had their very own secret room after a year of living in the structure. The room itself: a space as large as their main bedroom and complete with somewhat creepy accessories including a sleeping bag, electrical outlet and even unopened beer cans.
While for one couple the discovering of a secret room was exciting and resulted in additional usable space for another family a similar find was the beginning of a nightmarish tragedy. In their secret room they found a mysterious note from a previous owner of the house who claimed that the structure was riddled with harmful mold that had made his children very sick. As it turned out, the note was right: an inspection revealed high levels of various dangerous molds and the new owners were able to sue and settled for having the house repurchased at the price they paid. And the previous owner? Apparently he was worried about someone with a vested interest in selling the house finding the note and therefore hid it.
Hidden rooms today usually serve one of two purposes: security or fun. Sometimes a hidden door is used to disguise a safe or a ‘panic room’ where residents can hide in an emergency. The room showed above, however, is one couples’ unusually creative gift to their very excited teenage daughter. This room works as an office and play-space and goes entirely unnoticed by clueless visitors (or even building inspectors). A remote control amazingly lifts an entire staircase out of the way revealing the hidden passage.
There are a number of design and construction companies that have grown up with the public’s recently renewed fascination with secret doors, rooms and passageways. Creative Home Engineering has a number of stock products and also creates custom hidden door and room designs. Their ready-made products include classics like the fireplace that opens when you twist a candlestick and a bookcase that opens when you tilt a book. The Hidden Doors company and others have dozens of simpler and less expensive stock items to choose from as well - from cabinets to pool racks and wine shelves masking hidden doors.
Want a secret room but aren’t sure you want to pay for one? Well, there are do-it-yourself options for creating your own disguised doors to hidden spaces though the process is somewhat complicated. There are of course a lot of things that have to be considered with a secret door such as hiding visible gaps with trim and giving the doors a comfortable swing capacity. Also, load issues need to be considered if you have, for example, a swinging bookshelf in mind. Remarkably, though, this can all potentially be accomplished for just a few hundred dollars - a relatively small price to pay for such a clever interior design feature.
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43 Comments
May 11th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Zoinks, Scooby!
Somewhere, a in a secret room, someone is putting the lotion on ‘its’ skin…
May 12th, 2008 at 2:12 am
I suppose these would sell particularly well in Austria.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Thanks a mill for this article - lately a few customers have been asking for this….
We wondered why ;-)
May 12th, 2008 at 6:01 am
The secret room does all,
May 12th, 2008 at 8:55 am
This is very useful. I’d need something like this in my house
May 12th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Secret room…..
Austria’s House of Horrors:
Suspect Josef Fritzl was arrested on Sunday April 27. He is suspected of keeping his daughter Elisabeth prisoner in the basement of his home for 24 years while sexually abusing her
http://www.time.com/time/photo.....35500_1580
May 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
My grandparent’s home (built in the late ’40s) had a secret crawl space. You could get into it from one bedroom’s closet, or the other bedroom’s draws could be pulled out, and a child could squeeze in from there.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
The Hidden Doors company is local to me, and one of the suggestions they have when they show is to hide your kitchen pantry with kitchen cabinets.
I’d love a secret passage. But then, I’ve already gotten to play in a mansion with servants’ stairways (our college had one for retreats), so I know how much fun they really are.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
My in-laws are going to build one of those book cases in their new house. It isn’t quite a secret room when they show everybody where it is going to be when they give tours of their house hehe
May 14th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Very cool stuff, I like it! ;-0
May 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I have to say this might be the most ingenuously inventive thinking that I have ever seen.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Josef Fritzel had a room just like this…
May 15th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Those are some cool rooms. I think I like the one that has the lifting stair case. Thats a great idea!!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
poink
hehe ilike the secret room like in panic room :D
May 16th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Friends in DeKalb Illinois lived in a house for 17 years. One summer the decided they needed to replace their gutters. When they measured them they found the attic was 4′ shorter than the house. An investigation followed which uncovered a false wall that hid an old still and various jars, etc. that probably dated to prohibition. Several families had lived in the house without discovering the secret room. The point of the story: if you do it right no outsider will ever know….
May 18th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Great Site - Keep it going!!!
June 1st, 2008 at 9:45 am
can you put a story for a secret passage
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 pm
This is sooo cool! i so want to design houses when i grow up!
October 29th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I love secret passages! Although it would be a PITA to have to wait to retract your stairs to continue on down.
November 5th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I use to have a secret room where my computer lab was. I had my hidden door privately made by a great carpenter whom also renovated the entire room. Actually come to think of it I believe the hidden door was his idea. None the less it was beautiful work.
Pics below:
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http://www.sellingcr.com/images/media/IMG_1310.jpg
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November 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Those are cool pics.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
got an idea for a secret room.. thumbs up for this
February 8th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I think it’s cool, i want my nana to put another one in besides the one she has behind her fireplace!
February 17th, 2009 at 10:18 am
really cool. I want one!!
March 30th, 2009 at 11:59 am
That would be great to have to house all your controls and recording equipment for the hidden cameras all over the perimeter of the house.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Makes me want to add some rooms to my house. I know one would be a secreet bathroom.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I really like the one where the staircase can be lifted by remote control, leading to the secret room. I think me and my friend discovered a very small one today in my house. It’s behind my furnace.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:39 pm
People are wanting Hidden rooms because of Obama. Hiding their Guns, Ammo, and protecting themselves from Home Invasion which is on the rise because of the bad economy. I am building one myself. Better SAFE than SORRY.
May 12th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
so someone knew about that secret space in the first few pics…un opened beer cans is creepy
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