Secret bookshelf door

Chris Mul

Member
Messages
22
Location
Woking, Great Britain
I haven't posted a lot lately, but that is because I have been rather busy, i just thought i would share one of my latest projects with you, which is the build of a secret bookshelf door

My wife bought about 2 years ago these double secret bookshelf doors. They were originally to be fitted as access doors to our library. We later decided against this, due to the fact we wanted more light into our hallway and changed the design that all the doors leading off the hall ways are to be double doors with glass panels, which meant we weren’t going to use these doors in their intended place
The doors in question


Doors1 by mcluma, on Flickr

Doors3 by mcluma, on Flickr

Doors4 by mcluma, on Flickr

And the other side of the doors


Doors2 by mcluma, on Flickr

As we got underway with the refurbishment of our house we midway changed the ground floor layout. Originally we planned a double internal garage with at the back of the garage the plant room and Gym. Walls and doorways got build, and as these are structural walls they couldn’t be moved without a cost aspect. In the new lay-out the garage is to become our new lounge.
So a solution had to be found for this doorway into the Gym



Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Which we had and that are the secret bookshelf doors!

So after the floor was screeded the walls plaster boarded and plastered I set about to fit these doors.
Originally they were fitted with 3 hinges each. Now there was no way I was going to use these hinges.
1) The door weighs a hefty 100kg (or so I think, as it was more then I could lift) so this was not going to work with just 3 hinges (no ball bearings)
2) The door is to open outward, so the hinges had to be changed and would then be seen from the inside
I found the solution in using these Hafele floor hinges

http://www.hafele.co.uk/Hafele35a1/Images/400_300/932.10.760P1.JPEG

These are rated up to 150Kg

Here the doors in position to show what it’s going to look like


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

The doors are bigger than the current opening, and to give it that “bookshelf “ feeling I had to build a frame to hold the doors


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Here the floor pivot hinge fitted on a 30mm threshold, This will enable later on the carpet to be fitted and still being able to open the door. I should have done the threshold in oak, but I didn’t


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

And the top pivot hinge fitted


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

With the doorframe done its fitting the other bits to the door. Had the help of my son to move the door about
Here the bottom floor hinge receiver fitted (flush with the bottom rail)


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

And the top hinge


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

On this photo you can see the little hole in the style, this gives access to the screw to adjust the hinge in and out


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Door is fitted and adjusted


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

The action is SOOOOOOOOOO smooth, and the whole door, despite its weight can be moved with just one finger – I really like these floor hinges


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Time to make it look more like a bookshelf, the sides are build out of oak, which will be stained darker later on, this will then match the rest of the furniture of the room


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

We have two of these doors, and we like symmetry, I fitted the other door at the other side of the room.


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

As I was working to a tight schedule with the carpets being fitted, my wife already started with staining the unit dark oak


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

First coat of staining done


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Inside of door to white


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr
 
Prep work for fitting the crown moulding


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Here the crown fitted


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

First coat on the crown and second on the sides of the unit and prep work underway for fitting the rads


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Yesterday the carpets got fitted, so here is the final product .


Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr

Untitled by mcluma, on Flickr


Over the weekend I will be fitting the electric door opener with a concealed button (pictures and video to follow
Thanks for looking
 
Nicely done.

I have a friend who has a "secret" room that was looking to install a bookshelf door.. we started doing the math on the weight of actual books and the hinge required was .. impressive (not to mention the surrounding re-enforcements). For some reason neither of us thought of having faux books like you did here - seems obvious in retrospect..
 
Top