If you had a secret room behind a bookcase, which book would you choose to open it?

[broccolibush]

I am in the midst of a slightly bonkers DIY project where I am replacing the door to my study with a hidden door/bookcase type affair. I want to hinge a book on one of the shelves and attach it to a latch to open the door but want to use something that would make sense to use as a handle.

DH thinks that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets would be best whereas I was thinking more The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (even though it's not a wardrobe). A musical friend suggested a book about Handel, which I quite like as a pun.

We're not the most literary of people so I wondered if anyone might have something clever/witty/amusing they could suggest.

THIS, absolutely this!

But for secret-secrecy, you need something that nobody would be tempted to remove from the bookcase!
I would present an older copy of the hefty 'Hammer's German Grammar and Usage' for such purposes.

So many great ideas on this thread.

My first thought was to pick something related to whatever you're using the room for (I would 100% have fairy lights in my secret room and would use A Christmas Carol as my book).

Me too. The Open Door by Helen Keller

Extremely morbid but I did laugh.

I need a secret room behind a book case in my life.

Sadly the layout of my house does not allow for such things.

I'm off to tell DH we need to move....

Hi, I thought I’d revisit to boast let you all know that we did it! We went with the Handel in the end because I’m nothing if not completely literal. I don’t think I can add videos of it in action but here are some open and closed pictures of it. The layout of our flat is such that it really is a secret room - it’s tucked off a hallway and you just wouldn’t know it’s there. I’ve shown it on our floor plan - where I’ve highlighted in red (and will name change after this thread) for completeness as I’ve struggled with that stupid room for years and all I needed to do was hide it!

We used thecraftycatsman.com/hidden-doorway-bookcase-secret-door/ thecraftycatsman.com/hidden-doorway-bookcase-secret-door/]] for suggested hardware and guidance though changed things as we went along when we got a bit stuck with the madness our builders left.

😲 🥰 I absolutely LOVE it!!! Well done@broccolibush I wish I had the space to do something like this.

Wow 😍

Oh I want one of those so badly. But short of putting it in front of the understairs cupboard I don't have room for one. Actually that's not a bad idea. But I'm in a rental property so it seems like a waste of money.

Love it! Congratulations @broccolibush 😍

OP this is seriously cool! I don't know how I'm going to persuade DP to add one of these to his already endlessly long DIY to-do list

In fact I'm beginning to think all our doors should be concealed within bookshelves. So the entrance hall looks like a reading nook in a library and you have to find the right books to proceed through the house 👏👏👏. Each door could have a cryptic literary clue to what lies beyond...

That's a fabulous idea! I have seriously thought about putting a bookshelf in front of the study door (leads off the entrance hall 😁) just because OPs looks so cool.

Like you, I have a DH with a loooonnng list of DIY jobs, unfortunately. I can see him snorting and being less than impressed. I have in the past been accused of 'inventing more jobs' for him to do...😂

I love this idea.

On getting DP/DH on board - I just showed mine a few videos on YouTube of what I wanted and left it to take root in his brain. Then came home from a spinning class to find that he’d taken off the door to the study and was starting to rip out the doorframe. At that point we couldn’t not do it.

Neither of us have done anything like this before though - I’d call us competent DIYers but we’ve never built anything that didn’t come as a flat pack with instructions. It took a while and we made some mistakes on the way, but we got there in the end. It may have been more sensible to have started our woodwork journey with a spice rack or a planter though 😂

Yes, that sounds good. I'll forward him the YouTube video, let it percolate in his mind until he thinks it was all his own idea....

Love it!

When I first saw your post my initial thought was to choose a book which is one that is something I am likely to look at, but nobody else! I hadn't even picked up on the secret room book name thing.

A famous five one, the one that has all the secret tunnels under the marshes into the house.

Five go to Smugglers' Top

Five Go to Smuggler's Top?

I loved that. That's a good suggestion.

The count of monte cristo

@MargaretThursday and @Hatty65 yes that's the one, thank you! Loved it as a child. May still have an old copy from my gran somewhere, may sniff it out for my kids.