In our age, they are especially valued non-standard solutions in the decoration of the apartment. This can be a self-leveling floor with a 3D image, or suspended ceiling, as if floating in the air, and, of course, a hidden door. The last option is interesting because it can perform both decorative and practical functions. Installing a secret door would be appropriate if you want to create a stylish, minimalist interior. Also, using this design you can make a room hidden from prying eyes. What types of secret doors are there - read on.
Hidden doors allow you to truly unique interior. They absolutely do not stand out against the background of the walls or look like a decorative element of the room.
No need to decorate already finished door, you can order an option with a design that suits you, for example, a door designed to match the color of your wallpaper.
At first glance, it may seem that a secret door is a difficult-to-install element that cannot be made with your own hands. However, with a little imagination and effort, you can install invisible doors yourself.
Basic requirements that must be met when masking door design:
- The door structure should be disguised as the surrounding finish. To create a favorable basis for decoration, door frame with canvas can be pasted over with plasterboard.
- The hinges and sliding mechanism must be of a hidden type. Otherwise, these small details will give away the entire structure.
- The door handle should also not be visible. You can use mortise fittings or a rotary mechanism.
- To make the door as invisible as possible, you need to install a piece of plinth under it instead of a threshold.
- If you mask the door with a mirror, a picture, or want to make it a single structure with the wall, then it should be installed flush with the wall.
These rules will allow you to make the door in the interior of the room invisible to prying eyes. Some options will simply align the door with the wall, while others will make it a real highlight of the interior.
You can achieve the effect of door invisibility by the most different ways, however, it is important to fulfill the basic conditions of camouflage. Next, we will give you several options for installing an invisible door; you can use one of them, or, based on the main nuances, come up with your own.
Hidden invisible doors disguised as a wall or cabinet
One of the most popular ways to make invisible doors is to disguise the panel with the frame as a wall. This option looks the most natural and minimalistic. If you want to create an interior in a minimalist, hi-tech or modern style, then this method is perfect for you.
How to disguise a door as a wall:
- The easiest way to disguise a door is to cover it with wallpaper. You must use the same wallpaper that you used to decorate the walls. If canvases with large patterns are used for such finishing, they must be matched to the pattern on the walls.
- You can hide the door by painting it. This technique is appropriate if paint was also used to decorate the walls.
- Interior doors can be disguised with panels decorated to match the color of the walls.
- If you use colored inserts in the interior, then the door can be decorated to match one of them. In this case, the junction of the door and the wall will be almost invisible.
- If you decorate the door with tiles, then thanks to the seams between the ceramic elements door leaf will be almost impossible to distinguish from monolithic wall. This design is best suited for the bathroom. The tile must be chosen in such a way that it matches the style of the interior.
When disguising the door as a wall, you should think carefully about how it can be easily opened. Sliding panels can be installed even without a handle, and for opening doors, mortise handles or a special mechanism are suitable.
One more interesting option, with which you can hide the door to the pantry or to any other room, is to install it on the door leaf of the cabinet. This option was most often used in ancient locks, and in order to open such a mechanism, it was necessary to turn one of the books. Nowadays it is not necessary to complicate the design so much; you can order a standard opening door made in the shape of a cabinet.
Using a closet you can disguise the entrance to the pantry, which very often spoils the overall interior of the room.
All decorative elements located in such a cabinet must be attached to the shelves. For example, you can use mock-ups of books instead of actual literature.
A door decorated to look like a wall or cabinet is most invisible in general interior rooms. Such options are the most difficult to implement, but they look the same.
A secret door decorated with a mirror, painting or curtain
There are simpler options for designing a hidden door. You can bring them to life with your own hands, even without experience in installation work.
Simple options for decorating doors:
- Decorating a door with a curtain is the simplest option for creating a hidden door. This design does not look so modern and original, but making the right choice textiles can make the interior more vibrant and interesting. Curtains are usually used for camouflage old door leading to the pantry.
- Disguising doors as mirrors. This mirrored entrance structure, in addition to looking very original, also serves as a full-fledged mirror, so it is especially appropriate to decorate the entrance to the dressing room in this way. The handle on the door should either be made of the same mirror material, or be mortise. You can also use a prop frame instead of a pen.
- Also, to hide the door, you can decorate it with a picture. This interior element looks very unusual and interesting. You don't have to spend money on a real oil painting; you can simply decorate the canvas with a box of photo wallpapers decorated with frames.
Secret doors decorated in this way look no worse than canvases imitating a wall or cabinet. To make the doors in your apartment original and beautiful, you only need to use a little imagination and practical knowledge.
Pencil door hidden in the interior
Another option for installing a hidden door is to use hidden sliding doors. In this version, the compartment panels go deep into the wall.
The pencil door when closed is very noticeable, but when it is open and hidden inside the wall, it gives the impression of free passage. This design not only looks stylish, it also saves space, as it open form does not form a dead zone.
Make one like this entrance structure possible in two ways. In the first case, the niche in which the door will be hidden is cut directly into the concrete wall. This option for installing a pencil case is very complicated and requires a lot of time.
Another way is to build a pencil case from plasterboard. To do this, a part is destroyed concrete wall, and in its place is built plasterboard construction, in which a niche is made for sliding doors.
Sliding doors that slide into walls are suitable for both classic and modern styles interior With their help, you can increase the space of a room, while separating it from other rooms. This type of hidden door is the most difficult to implement. However, thanks to its original appearance, it looks especially interesting.
DIY secret door (video)
Hidden doors in the interior look very original and interesting. Installing such a structure with your own hands is easier than it might seem at first glance. Imagine, use the most unusual ideas to decorate your apartment, and you will receive a unique and unique design apartments.
Some owners want to arrange a secret room in their apartment where they can hide personal belongings from prying eyes, cash and other things that you want to hide.
A secret door can be installed for the following purposes:
Hidden door in the wall
To hide a door in the wall, you need to decorate it with your own hands so that it blends into the overall interior. It is better to cover it with beautiful panels made of plastic or wood, but you can simply cover it with material that matches all the walls of the room.
In this case, it is important not to install platbands, but to use special locks and hidden hinges on hinges as accessories.
Hidden wardrobe door
Secret door in the form of a cabinet - the oldest and classic version, which has already lost its popularity. A closet equipped with shelves on which all kinds of souvenirs and personal items are located will hardly arouse any suspicion among anyone. To prevent things from falling off the shelves when the secret door is opened, they are lubricated with special wax.
You can purchase a ready-made cabinet system that is already equipped with a door, but it is much cheaper and easier to make bookshelves on a pre-installed door.
Another very simple options in the interior there will be a closet arrangement, in the back wall of which there will be a room.
The use of cabinets is the best method disguising a secret door to the room. But the use of such a method will be appropriate only if there is home office or libraries.
Hidden door behind a mirror or picture
A mirror or a special mirror overlay will help to perfectly hide secret interior doors. It is better to hide the door using this method with your own hands in the hallway or in any room where there are mirrored cabinets.
This is quite easy to do. You just need to fix the mirror on an MDF base, make a frame of metal or wood and install a hidden handle.
You can also disguise interior doors using a painting. As a result, instead of a door, you can get a work of art in which the door leaf will be a painting, and the frame will be instead of platbands. To do this, it is better to stick photo wallpaper on the door or hand-paint the canvas with special paints.
So one can come up with original interior and at the same time hide a certain room from prying eyes with your own hands.
Curtain to disguise the door
One of the cheapest and easiest methods for arranging a secret door is a curtain. Can be selected as simple fabric sheets, and intricate draped curtains.
To disguise the door in this way, you need to use a cornice (which can be sewn into suspended ceiling or hang on special brackets) and a curtain or curtain. This option is best suited to hide the entrance to a niche, dressing room, or for use in an inconspicuous corner of the room.
If the owners of the house want to hide something dangerous, then it is better to do it not behind a curtain, but behind secure door with a good lock.
It may seem that secret interior doors are enough complex design to do it yourself. It's actually quite easy to make it yourself. To do everything quickly and correctly, you must adhere to the following principles:
To prevent the door handle from showing, it is better to use a special in-depth model. An excellent option would be to use sliding mechanism, which will work when pressed or rotated.
If your home has hollow walls, then installing hidden sliding doors would be an excellent option. This option will be especially relevant when space is limited. You can open camouflaged doors using special automation or manually.
An excellent option would be to use a hidden door in dressing room. Most often, owners do this to hide their belongings from strangers.
Surely in childhood everyone dreamed of their own hidden, invisible room. But it was virtually impossible to realize this dream, because there must be some kind of door leading to this room that cannot be hidden. If you are still interested in this idea, pay attention to hidden doors - modern design solution, thanks to which you can not only hide your corner from prying eyes, but also decorate the interior profitably.
Design options
Invisible doors are made from completely various materials- acrylic, glass, wood, PVC, metal, can also be found in plasterboard - and each of these options has its own advantages and disadvantages. So, for example, PVC doors are classically equipped with double-glazed windows or closed with a panel (perhaps you could see them on someone’s balcony). Perhaps their main drawback is not particularly invisible appearance, hiding them can be very, very difficult.
Aluminum is difficult to process and paint. Glass ones, by the way, are durable - due to professional processing they do not scratch and are easy to clean; this is no longer the fragile glass from which the glasses and wine glasses that stand on your shelves are made. Such doors are made of thick tempered glass and covered with an impact-resistant film.
Of course, yes, the secrecy of such a door may be in question due to its transparency - however, this problem can be solved with tinting films or correct design
They are covered on top with acrylic, an amalgam mirror, and often simply varnished. Often such doors are covered with wallpaper or painted to match the color of the walls, which allows you to make them completely invisible:
- Doors with hidden frames immediately puttied and matched directly to the interior, therefore they can be completely invisible in the wall - only a thin outline is visible. They are further divided into one-sided, invisible on one side, and double-sided, invisible on both sides. As a rule, the latter are used less often, because they take up more space (the partitions between rooms are from 75-100 mm) and are more difficult to install. And, as a rule, the door is hidden only from the entrance side.
- Doors with hidden frames for finishing in production only primed, in fact, they are a canvas that needs to be decorated, painted and puttied independently.
Hidden doors are also divided according to the system of mechanisms:
- Swing design. Most cheap option, is, in fact, an ordinary swing door, just less noticeable, less prominent from the wall. Only a handle, a lock, or a prominent thin outline can give it away.
- Roto doors. A fairly expensive option, perhaps the most expensive of those presented, but also attracting the greatest interest. In general, rotary doors are rotating doors, whose mechanism is very similar to the mechanism of turnstiles in the subway. The canvas, in fact, simply rotates around its axis on a hinge. They are very convenient to open - you can simply push with your shoulder and carefully fall inside the room, which is undoubtedly very convenient with regard to hidden doors, because there are no handles required that could be noticeable. Most often they are equipped with a magnetic lock, which guarantees tightness.
Roto doors open in both directions and require half the space that a classic swing door would require. Silent.
- Pendulum design. Average in price, based on hidden rotating mechanisms allowing the canvas to open in different directions. They are very similar in appearance to rotary doors, but there is one important difference - all swing doors are installed directly into canopies, which are mounted in the lower and upper parts doorway. Canopies perform the function of a spring axial mechanism, the axis of rotation of which allows the door leaf to rotate even in a circle. Awnings also come in different varieties – with and without closers. In the case of hidden doors, the option with closers is preferable, because closing occurs automatically due to the presence of a special spring mechanism.
It is swing doors that are most often installed in large supermarkets, and based on this, one can imagine how well this design will look in a hidden version. By the way, such doors are not particularly soundproof.
- Sliding design, or cassette mechanism, door with cassette. It is distinguished by the presence of a special pencil case for sliding doors and hidden loops. A pencil case is a box that is mounted into the wall, and the door is hidden inside it, or rather, it slides inside the wall in which it is installed. Due to this, the door leaf does not swing back and forth, but calmly moves to the side. This allows you to save space, which is especially important in small rooms and apartments, as well as time, because they are installed as easily as possible. Similar designs perfectly absorb noise and silently close and open; they can be either mechanical or electrical. They cost quite democratically.
Additionally, hidden doors are divided into single-leaf and multi-leaf. Multi-leaf doors can open in different directions, hide in one side or in different ones, and have from two to infinitely large quantity flaps, while single-leaf ones rotate only in one direction and with only one leaf.
Hidden doors can be of any size – as high as the ceiling, as wide as an entire arch.
Advantages
An invisible door will be simply irreplaceable if you have a room to which you need to restrict access - for example, if it is your art studio, an office for privacy, or if you have a safe, hiding place or something similar. And you can always hide from prying eyes.
Such doors are also capable correctly zone the apartment and generally expand the space, allowing you to preserve it, which is why they are often used in small houses. Moreover, they guarantee safety for children - the likelihood that the baby will run into or hit it is minimal.
Of course, one cannot fail to mention the zest such a door brings to the interior. It immediately becomes extraordinary and creative, simplicity disappears - even if none of the guests notice any visible changes, you know that you have a little secret in your house. This is also a good reason to brag: your friends will be surprised to learn that behind the mirror there is a rest room, and by simply moving the closet shelf you can get to the balcony!
However, speaking about the advantages, one cannot fail to mention the disadvantages, although their number is minimal - in fact, there is only one disadvantage. The first and last is, of course, the price - installing an entire hidden structure will be more expensive than installing an ordinary average door, because this requires more skill, and the design itself is more expensive.
Installation features when installing an invisible door
When installing a hidden door, you need to take into account its design. For example, in the case of a hidden box, it is installed on hidden hinges in this very special box - a pencil case. Platbands are not needed for any design of a hidden door with a pencil case, because its basis is aluminum frame, on which, parallel to the wall, those same hidden hinges are installed.
Relatively swing door we can say that the door closer at the top and the door closer at the bottom of the doorway should be located in different directions, because such doors open in a circle.
In order to make an ordinary interior door invisible, two methods can also be used:
- The first one is quite radical. In some cases it is connected with the supporting structures of the room itself. Is that there is a hole in the wall free place to install this very hidden structure. The option is not the most convenient, as it requires a lot of hassle, skill, time, and can also eat up space in the corridor due to the fact that you will have to add an additional wall there.
- The second one is simple and fast. It consists of mounting into a wall without cutting out the space of the mechanism in the box or without. It can be used with doors with a hidden pencil case, or with rotary doors, doors with pendulum mechanism, especially popular in the case of sliding doors. Also, immediately before deciding to install such a door, you should check the evenness and smoothness of the walls, floor and ceiling. In the case of hidden doors, this issue is fundamental, because if the smoothness is not ideal, then the doors may cling to the surface when opened.
Door decoration
If you want to turn even an invisible door into a noticeable piece of furniture, you can always use the usual methods of decoration - paste over it with eye-catching wallpaper (contrasting with the color of the wallpaper on the walls, with drawings or patterns, photo wallpaper), using furniture stapler drape it with fabric, choose to paint it or paste it with stickers (any stickers you want, or self-adhesive paper). Special mention should be made of the decoupage technique (cut parts are attached to the base), finishing with moldings and mosaics.
There is also a completely opposite trend regarding the decoration of hidden doors. They can be decorated so that they are completely invisible.
This can be fully achieved in several ways, the main goal of each of which is to merge with the environment:
- Under the curtain. This is especially popular in rustic country or Provence interiors, as well as in classics with their heavy, voluminous curtains. It is absolutely not necessary to turn the door into a window for this - you can hang a picture on it, and hang beautiful flowing curtains on the sides. Or, what is especially welcome in classic interiors, place curtains or curtains flowing in waves along the entire wall, and somewhere there, under this fabric, will be the entrance to your secret room. It can also be placed under a screen.
- Under the wall. Painted to match the wall, tiled or covered with the same wallpaper as on the walls, the door can completely blend into the interior, and you don’t even have to spend extra on any design items. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the handle. The classic volumetric one will be too noticeable, it is proposed to focus your attention on the same hidden or flat ones door handles that open doors with one click, or electrical mechanisms.
- Under the mirror. In this case, the door is either sheathed with mirror material, or a separate mirror is simply hung on it - full-length or half-length, it depends on how much you want to hide.
- Under the cabinet. In this case, opening the door may be a little more difficult because the cabinet itself has more weight than the curtain or mirror. Therefore, it is not recommended, firstly, to ask to install a large cabinet - after all, to hide the door, a cabinet of its size is enough; too wide or high will make it difficult to walk through and constantly knock on the walls. And, secondly, you should not load this closet with things, again, in order to open the door without unnecessary noise.
As a rule, such chests of drawers serve a purely concealing, one might say, decorative role, and are not particularly cluttered with things - although, of course, you can put a few books or office supplies in there.
Hidden interior doors are a godsend for any designer, as they allow you to implement any idea when creating an unusual interior. Such designs adapt to the wall of the room, thereby forming a single surface. Currently the doors are hidden box became in demand again. In addition, to create them, enterprises began to use heel loops (for installation on the upper and lower ends of the canvas).
Hidden interior doors can be very common in private homes. Their style is ideal for interiors with romantic, avant-garde, and loft designs. The main task of door structures of this type is only to emphasize the design of the room, and they should not be the main emphasis during repairs.
Hidden doors for painting or wallpaper?
This question cannot be answered unambiguously. When choosing one or another solution, you need to be guided by the available budget and the original idea of the owner of the premises. Today, both options are considered generally accepted, but greater preference is given to structures for painting. They can make any room spectacular, but at the same time they look pretentious. You can see such a door made to look like wallpaper in the photo.
Maintaining a minimalist style is also typical for structures that will be covered with wallpaper. Hidden interior doors under wallpaper offer a lot of possibilities and have a number of advantages:
- no need to invent any design;
- maximum invisibility of structures;
- budget savings (since you don’t have to buy additional paint).
Despite this, a single rule will apply to both doors - all of them must be coated with primer varnish before finishing. Its use allows you to create an ideal basis for further DIY actions - applying wallpaper glue or painting.
Interior sliding doors: hidden frame
The solution will be ideal option for houses in which the priority is to make the most of an already small space. Besides, this type can also be used if there are small children in the family to protect them from blows.
Installation of such a door requires an empty space in the wall where it will move. To do this, you will need to install a false wall, the creation of which will not take much time. It can be constructed from ordinary drywall.
The modern market provides the widest range of models of hidden sliding doors. They can be made of any material and can have one or two doors. The choice is also possible depending on the direction of opening of the structure and equipment with additional decorative elements. In the photo you can see one of these doors, equipped with decorative glass.
Features of installing hidden interior doors
In order for the installation of a door structure with a hidden frame to proceed correctly with your own hands, the following nuances must be taken into account:
- Preparatory work must be carried out at the proper level. This refers to the preliminary finishing of the doorway and the wall to which the structure will be adjacent. If there are any irregularities on these parts, they must be removed using quality leveling through putty and plaster. Only then will it be possible to create a perfectly flat surface.
- Following the strict verticality of the canvas. Otherwise, you will be constantly disturbed by its spontaneous closing or opening.
- Taking into account the correct planting depth and required foaming. If all the work is done as it should, then the cracks formed in the door vestibule should have same size. During normal installation, no part of the product should touch another.
If you plan to create unusual interior in your house or apartment, using a similar interior door for painting, you need to use a special profile base. It should be covered with plasterboard to continue the rest finishing works. As a result, the overall appearance of the surface is not lost. The video provides more details hidden installation interior doors.
The secret box makes it possible to create protected from external influences structures that will be very difficult to notice. Besides his attractive appearance, hidden interior doors with a hidden frame have another, no less important advantage, which is a high level of security. It will be very difficult to get into such a room without permission. You can see in the photo various options finishing of interior hidden doors.
How to treat the door?
The basis for the future hidden door should be in mandatory processed correctly. This can be done using:
- primers;
- hammer enamel;
- nitro paints;
- powder enamel.
The first solution can be called the most affordable of all available. Despite its simplicity, the coating provides the door leaf high level resistance to changes temperature regime, prevents the penetration of moisture or cold, and also meets fire safety requirements. If we talk about the cheapest option, then this is the use of nitro paint. Such a coating can be created in any premises, including technical ones.
Using powder enamel, you will create a door that will be protected against abrasion from various unfavorable factors. As for hammer enamel, its main advantage is to provide a longer and more reliable coating.
Many living spaces do not have enough space to install swing doors. Can come to the rescue sliding design, however, it is not always convenient when it opens along the wall. Sliding interior doors hidden in the wall , will be able to simultaneously solve the problem of lack of space and insufficient aesthetics of the room.
Is it possible to make a pencil case yourself?
In order to make it invisible when open, it can be hidden in the wall. There are two ways to solve this problem:
- The first is quite radical and demanding special permission when it comes to load-bearing structures. A special void is made in the wall for the door leaf. This process is quite troublesome, you can make it easier by making an additional wall, but then it will take up space in the corridor.
- More in a simple way is a pencil case for, which is quite simple to create with your own hands. This compact solution is suitable for any room, does not require large material or physical costs, and has a fairly aesthetic appearance.
Advantages of a pencil case
The pencil case performs several important functions:
- Improves the aesthetic space by hiding the open door leaf.
- Protects the door leaf from mechanical stress. This is especially true if you plan to install glass doors, and armored glass is not affordable.
- An open door slides along the wall, so nothing can be placed on it. The pencil case will take up a small space, but you can move furniture close to it, hang shelves, paintings, pots directly on it.
Methods for making doors that go into the wall
You can make hidden ones yourself. The process is creative and not overly complicated. To create a design you will need to purchase furniture fittings, parts for pencil cases and accessories for doors. The pencil case is a continuation of the wall, inside of which the door will be hidden.
An important component is special fittings For sliding door: You will need a cassette specially created for such a project and guides for the door leaf. In order to set the canvas in motion, rollers and rails are used, which can be located either in the upper or lower part of the structure, or in both. Don't forget about the limiter - stopper.
Most often, to create a niche for the canvas, part of the main wall is destroyed, then it is restored using a plasterboard sheet. The point is that sliding interior doors, the pencil case of which is made in this way, can completely disappear when opened, and the pencil case will not extend beyond the main wall, that is, its presence will not be visually noticeable.
Next important stage work is the installation of guides. They must be positioned strictly horizontally, otherwise the door will be difficult to open or will warp, making it extremely difficult to open such a structure.
Interior doors into the wall must be equipped with special handles. For this purpose, special recesses are made in the canvas. It is impossible to hang a standard handle on such a door, otherwise it will interfere with the opening of the door and will not allow the panel to hide completely in the pencil case.
Sliding door mechanism diagram. Methods for installing interior doors
Before you begin installing the cassette, you need to make sure that the floor plane is perfectly level. The same rule applies to the ceiling. The verticality of the walls is also checked: if the surfaces are uneven, the canvas may cling to them when opening.
Before closing the pencil case with plasterboard, it is necessary to install the door leaf and mechanisms for opening it. If you do not do this at this stage, it will be impossible to bring the work to its logical conclusion.
Installation of the pencil case occurs using mortgages; they are set in advance. The upper mortgages are needed to ensure that the canvas does not move. They reliably hold it in a given direction and prevent it from bending. In addition, you will need to install a wrapping box: this is necessary for proper fixation of the canvas.
Scheme of a pencil case with dimensions for an interior door. Built-in sliding interior doors will work correctly only if you determine the door leaf before covering the wall with plasterboard correct position. You can make it so that it does not go completely into the wall, then it will be convenient to pull it by the handle.
Doors that hide in the wall Many owners want to hide the door completely, in which case it will be hidden in the wall along with the handle. In the second case, to remove the door you need to use a lock with a button, when pressed, a spring will be activated, pushing the door out of the socket.
The size of the pencil case should be taken into account correctly. The block should be slightly larger than the door leaf if you want it to go completely into it.
Advantages of hidden doors
Sliding doors, pencil case closed type have the following advantages:
- Space in the room is saved as much as possible.
- You can put furniture against the wall or hang pictures on it without fear that the door leaf will touch them when opening.
- A door hidden in a pencil case will be protected from damage, and the risk of injury to the structure will be reduced, since its main part will be hidden inside.
- When using high-quality fittings, the service life of the structure as a whole increases significantly.
- A sliding door, the case of which is made independently, costs the owner a minimal amount.
Design disadvantages:
- The construction of a pencil case will still be more expensive than the installation of a regular sliding door.
- Installation requires more effort compared to installing a regular sliding door.
Sliding door into the wall – This is an original aesthetic solution for any interior. It will help increase space, make open door invisible, use all available space in the room as profitably as possible.