After recently completing a kitchen remodel, the plan was to make a small broom closet outside the kitchen, that would open into the living room. However having a normal looking door in that location would have looked out-of-place. So I built and installed a hidden door that looks like a built-in bookcase.

I still need to figure out what to put on the bookcase, and how to keep the stuff from falling off when the door swings, and I still need to reinstall the baseboard and touch up the paint, but for the most part it is finished.

The hinges are heavy duty swing clear ball bearing hinges. The sides, top bottom and shelves are 1x8 poplar, the bottom panel and the back are 1/2" plywood. The face frame is 1x3 poplar.

The bookcase is assembled with screws only and the face frame is attached via pocket screws (I love my new pocket screw jig)

The back of the cabinet is narrower than the front so that the back of the cabinet will clear the opening when it opens.

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Of course part of the reason for doing this is just that having a hidden door/secret room seemed like a really cool idea.