Danny Goff
You’re probably already familiar with the concept: this is basically a door disguised as a bookshelf that hides a secret room. It’s definitely an exciting way of transforming a simple door into something more interesting, even if the idea is to make it difficult (or impossible) to spot the opening. You’ll find them commonly used for covering private areas or as a fun embellishment. You can normally get these hinges when you buy a Murphy door kit or purchase them separately from a home improvement store. Depending on how much the door weighs, you’ll want to make sure you get suitable hinges to support the weight. Align the holes according to how you want the door to swing open and insert the hinge pins.
Whether you’re concealing an office, bedroom, kitchen or bathroom, these Murphy doors are clever for hiding any space in your home. It’s between a built-in seating nook and the staircase and when you push the shelves, it reveals a lounge space. The placement is convenient because the door shelves hold books which is great since there’s a reading nook right beside them. It’s hidden behind a small bookshelf that slides back to reveal a study area.
The system is ingenious, showing us an interesting way to conceal a home office so the functions stay separate. The element of surprise makes this design by architect Consuelo Jorge so special.
It was designed for an art collector and it has not one Murphy door but three and they can all be opened simultaneously to reveal a secret area. When there’s an entire wall of bookshelves, if one section doubles as a door it can blend in more easily and it’s also less likely to suspect anything. The Ranch Mine designed this home with a fun interior in Phoenix, Arizona.
Airbnb collaborated with The Bold Collective when creating their new office in Sydney, Australia. When one enters this apartment located in Slovakia, everything seems good and beautiful except for one thing: the bedroom is nowhere to be seen. It takes a little bit of detective work to realize that this home designed by i.house in Vietnam is larger than it seems.
Concealing a room is easy when you’re working with a large space but what about a small home? The house sits on a 55 square meter lot but that doesn’t stop it from being full of surprises, including this secret nook by the stairs. Architect Jesse Bennett and interior designer Anne-Marie Campagnolo created the Planchonella House.
Britt Crepain and Stefan Spaens (now CSD Architecten) built their own house on a very small plot in Antwerp, Belgium.
They chose to give it a simple interior, with clean forms, classic and chic furniture and mostly neutral color. Utz Design knows a thing or two about custom furniture and about the ways in which it can be optimized to suit various spatial configurations and requirements.
In order to successfully integrate a secret room with a hidden door into a home, it would have to be built with this detail in mind from the start, although it can sometimes be possible to adapt an already existing layout. The secret bookcase hidden door reveals a narrow hallway that goes left under the staircase. They cleverly hid the kitchen of this home and separated it from the living room without making it look mainstream and boring.
The panel actually even looks a bit conspicuous, with that border that surrounds it and even the door-shaped form and structure. It’s easy to hide a secret door in a wall that features a geometric design. The door becomes a part of the pattern and, as Murphy Mears Architects show us here, the shelves are optional.
A secret door can be a fun option when you want to conceal a guest bathroom or a powder room. This house, previously a barn, was transformed by Studio Seilern Architects into the amazing and mysterious home you see here.
These doors are useful for making your house more fun and for concealing secret or private areas. It can be nice to have hidden areas of your house behind an unsuspecting bookcase or wall. Let these Murphy door ideas inspire you to create a secret space in your home.
