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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Hidden compartment in ceiling?
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SeattleRain
# Posted: 22 Jan 2010 18:32
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Does anyone have any easy/cheap/creative ideas on how to build a hidden compartment in my cabin's ceiling space? It's actually not the ceiling, but the floor of the loft which is supported by 2x6 rafters and sits over the kitchen area at a height of about 7'. Eventually, the exposed rafters will be covered by interior siding, but I thought it would be great to take advantage of some of the "dead space" between them with some sort of secret compartment for storing valuables while I'm away. Any ideas...?

Borrego
Member
# Posted: 22 Jan 2010 21:04
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How about a fake vent? One of the ones made to fit between 16"OC joists. You could use it as an access door and reach in as far as you wanted to, even store long poles etc...

What kind of siding are you using?

SeattleRain
# Posted: 25 Jan 2010 12:54
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The exterior siding is cedar, and I'll be putting knotty pine on the interior. The fake vent is a nice idea, except that the cabin is only 16x20 and heated by wood stove...so no "venting" that would require a vent cover.

Has anyone ever built a hidden compartment? I'm open to ideas...

Thanks!

cabinbasics
Member
# Posted: 25 Jan 2010 14:56
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Seattle, how bout mounting some kind of a pot rack to a board, and hinging that to the ceiling? Need to get in, just pull the pots off, unlatch and wallah.

Moontreeranch
Member
# Posted: 29 Jan 2010 15:15 - Edited by: Moontreeranch
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My dad built a secret room in the house I grew up in to house his guns..it was off the side of a closet. The wood paneling matched the rest of the closet and we used a spring mounted inside to hold it closed...you could open it a little then un-hook the spring, then swing the door open. Since the hinges and spring were inside the room it was totally stealth...These days you can get some rare earth magnets that might work better. These could be epoxied to the back of a panel that matches the rest of the "ceiling" in that loft area, a couple of screws could provide the "steel" for the magnets to grab. A single width of 6" T &G would be enough of an opening to reach in and store things...If all of this is also hidden behind a pot rack so much the better

Kithera
Member
# Posted: 5 Apr 2010 17:40
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If you have a kitchen cabinet against the "ceiling", you could put your access door in there. Then you don't have to worry much about hiding the access door.

dvgchef
Member
# Posted: 28 May 2010 19:04
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I am planning on building storage in the second floor of my cabin - but not too worried about making it stealth. I'll be using inset rings, like those found on trucks) so the grips will be flush with the floor. If you don't want to go crazy, throw a carpet over the handles.

Anonymous
# Posted: 18 Aug 2010 16:28
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check out

http://www.nichelocks.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=240

you could setup some kind of board with the hinged on the inside and use a magnet lock like this

MikeOnBike
Member
# Posted: 18 Aug 2010 16:39
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Actually the 'fake' vent does make sense with a loft. I have seen several cabins that have vents between the loft and first floor to facilitate air movement. They are set along the back wall of the loft.

mandelbaam
# Posted: 29 Dec 2010 21:51
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look into soss hinges.

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