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Hidden rooms on the rise

nytimes.com — ON a recent Saturday morning Cami Beghou, 13, pushed the right side of the tall, white bookcase that is built into one of the powder-pink walls in her bedroom. The bookcase, holding rows of books, a stuffed dachshund and a volleyball, silently swung outward, revealing a tiny, well-lighted room. Containing a desk, a chair and a laptop computer

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  • cmdrwhitewolf, on 10/12/2007, -23/+87In preparation for the our beloved governments upcoming raids like back in Nazi Germany I wonder?
    • SouthernDigger, on 10/12/2007, -85/+21Nazi conspiritors like yourself are more scary than our government... i would use my secret room to hide from people like you.
    • Jrr6415sun, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20nice summary...
    • shinynew, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4@SouthernDigger
      i sure hope your useing your laptop in the room to post this cause if not, he might get you with his words.
    • fatas, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2@ Southern
      Loves his sister, not in a platonic manner.
    • kano123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Plans are underway! The security of one of these rooms does bother me alot though
  • aragami, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24is that like a panic room but less secure?

    cool idea though :-)
    • redxii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+39Yeah, this room has windows. A Linux panic room has no windows.
  • humblepatience, on 10/12/2007, -2/+32"Although hard data is not available, architects report an increase over the last five years in the number of clients installing concealed rooms." Now that's what I call investigative conjecture. I mean journalism.

    Oh well, I always wanted a secret room and was jealous of anywhere I heard that had one.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20The house I recently bought has a kind of hidden room. I didn't even realise it was there for a few days after I moved in (it was an impulse buy and I hadn't actually inspected it before I bought) and started wondering why the outside dimensions were somewhat larger than the inside ones.
      I think it might have been used for a large walk-in robe or closet, the door was flush with the wall and I thought it was just a bad plastering job.
      I'll be sticking a PC in there, and my not-quite legal DVDs etc :)
    • gregharmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+50zybch:

      I buy electronic gadgets on impulse.. But you, sir, buy houses on impulse. That's rich. :-)
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Well, I was living in another town, and this house came on the market at a stupidly low price and it is directly behind my best friend's house as well.
      I had to get a small loan for it, but I don't have to rent any more so it was well worth it.
      It not like I make a habit of buying homes or anything.
    • AssfaceJackson, on 10/12/2007, -45/+5zybch:

      Child pornography dvds??
    • rolfeman02, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24AssfaceJackson...you're an idiot.
    • Barryke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@humblepatience
      "Oh well, I always wanted a secret room and was jealous of anywhere I heard that had one."

      But then it is not a *secret* room anymore, is it?
      Think on the bright side.
    • AriaStar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ humblepatience: Impulse-buying a house? I take it you are no where near the Bay Area/Silicon Valley.
    • ashlvsya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1His name is "zybch" not "Foley"
  • Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+90"Hidden rooms on the rise"

    Those are called "elevators" you dork!
  • CrackHappy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27I have a really good friend who actually built two secret rooms. They are both BDSM dungeons. They're frigging awesome.
    • Democritus2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16for clarity-- Bondage Domination Sado-Masochism

      for the uninformed.
    • Mesach, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6So are you the Dom? or the Sub?
    • cviebrock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Surely you mean for the uniformed.
    • Rosco, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7It puts on the lotion.
  • Hegemony, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34Publishing pics of your secret room kind a defeats the purpose... neat though.
    • Barryke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Measuring is changing it.
      Lets start callling these ex-secret rooms.

      Also; kinda relates of Schrödingers cat.
  • fjvwing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23Who are these people who buy enormous houses with left-over rooms they don't need?
  • Masna, on 10/12/2007, -24/+3http://duggmirror.com/design/Hidden_rooms_on_the_rise
    • splash, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I'm pretty sure that the digg effect won't affect a major website like NY Times
  • meefin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8You all need to check out this site: http://hiddenpassageway.com/http://hiddenpassageway.com/. They build hidden passages for you! Really cool.
  • merdiesel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15That stair case one is bad ass!
  • weirdlookinguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I wouldn't mind something like this.... stash my three desktop PC's and two laptops in there........ actually now that I think about it that would ne neat! Not all of us had the luxury of deciding how our homes would be built though :(.
  • millixaw, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Pretty cool, until the government declares that only terrorists and people who want "kiddie porn dungeons" are the people who use them.
  • apetrie, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17well-lighted? Must the english language continue to be dumbed down? Well lit! Its not that hard.
  • pillfred, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2
    yep
  • rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10What is the point of having a secret room if you leave the door open when you are inside?
  • rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34Mom, Dad, Tom Cruise is in the Secret Room and he won't come out!
  • maklershed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Webster?
  • baumgarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21I didn't realize I was being trendy, but I just put in a hidden room. It is just a storage room and I did it more for my kid's entertainment than anything. It isn't hard. Buy a bookcase, but roller casters on the bottom, and attach it to hinges.

    The hard parts were hiding the gap where it swings, hiding the bottom gap where it is on rollers, and a locking mechanism. By making it swing inward I could use the trim to hid the gaps where it swings. The hidden room has a concrete floor but the room to access it is carpet, so the carpet hid the casters on the bottom. A simple door stop with a spring acted as a good lock. I ran a string attached to a book to pull up the door stop to unlock.

    All told, I think I spent about $150.00. It isn't the coolest door in the world but it works. Eventually I want to make it a wine room, but right now it is a toy storage area.
  • Avalontor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16I just hope they never have a fire and are trapped in their secret room. Firefighters usually don't spend a lot of time inside the burning structure looking behind bookshelves for unconscious victims of smoke inhalation, etc.
    • Anomaly427, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Excellent point. I just changed my plans for my future ultimate secure house to handle that um, issue.
  • RMDTech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I have always wanted secret passage ways, rooms and doors littered through out my house but I guess I will have to wait until I can actually get a house before I can do something like this. But I am sure not paying that much for a secret room or hidden door. I think, like baumgarr, you could build it cheaper than paying someone for it. Quality might be the only issue though.
  • Life247, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0when i heard this, it reminded me of Stuart little. I'm also related to some kirchers, but maybe not that one.
  • tastypastry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I did a security alarm system for a somewhat famous person earlier this week and he had a few secret rooms. One was pretty neat, he had all of his networking componets in there for his cameras and internet gear. Actually they weren't that secrect since his son kept coming out of them. They were book shelves that swung open by the way.
  • signal15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've wanted one since I was a little kid and my friend's rich parents had a secret passage from their indoor pool room that went down to their basement.
  • serra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've always wanted to secret room, one that has a pole that slides from the second floor bedroom down to the garage for a quick getaway from criminals!
  • interiot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Isn't this directly attributable to games like Wolfenstein 3D and Metroid that contained lots of hidden passages as part of the game?

    And in response to one of the links above... do you really want a motorized hidden door? Do custom electronics like this really last the lifetime of a house?
  • Lane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5just what every girl needs a room to store her boyfriend!
  • SelfAppointedMe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Damn you Webster !! I'll have my hidden rooms and passages one of these days.
  • tmiller51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Plus, you can keep your weed in there.
  • booc0mtaco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1There's a company that specializes in this. Based near Chicago, actually

    http://hiddendoors.com/home.asp
  • videoCT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Wives around the world discover a formerly hidden room...the kitchen!

    just kidding, I love my wife.
  • ReLyT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Plans are underway! The security of one of these rooms does bother me alot though.
  • potskie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0dude it neat to see that I'm not just weird. I personally have a hidden room in my basement actually it used to be a root cellar that extended off the house under ground (house is 150 YRS old) there's nothing above it but lawn and i wasn't using it for anything.So i got the idea to build a book case in the doorway to kinda make it look like its just a book case built into the wall in my rec room. I finished the hidden room and now its where i keep all my computer equipment so its pretty much my Office/study. Also i have another space i could make hidden as well because off the side of my house in the same predicament is a cistern (forgive spelling) its like a giant water storage tank that's
    part of the foundation of the house. Since its 10X10 I'm considering knocking out the wall and making it another hidden room since its used for nothing at all right now.
  • optikshell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm pretty sure one of my computer science professors has one of these. One day when I'm not a poor college student I'd love to have something like this. As for now, my hiding spot is under my bed... or wearing a cammo t-shirt.
  • piratearggghhh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The gimp has to sleep somewhere...
  • datastorageguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Now if I can only have it installed without my girlfriend noticing...
    • fallenone05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If she notices, just throw her in there and lock her for eternity
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