Throughout history,
secret compartments have been found in anything,
from desks, to chairs, to lamps.
In this video, we'll show you how to add a concealed compartment
in the bottom of a dresser drawer.
[Captions by Judy V. at Y Translator] [Music]
[Music]
To get started on this build,
we're going to need a dresser, a desk, or an end table
that has a drawer that you want to add a secret compartment to.
Next, you'll need a thin board
that you can build the bottom of the drawer out of.
Next, you'll want a small scrap of wood
to create the supports for the false bottom.
We'll also need a little bit of wood glue
to attach our support pieces.
Here's the basic idea.
We'll cut a thin board into the same size and shape
as the original bottom of the drawer.
We'll have supports in each of the four corners
that will hold our false bottom off of the original bottom of the drawer.
A hole drilled from beneath will allow us to use a pen,
a nail, or a piece of a dowel,
as a secret key to lift the false bottom up.
In addition, we'll have a magnetically activated lock
that will prevent anyone from lifting up the false bottom,
unless they know the secret to opening it.
The first step is to choose which drawer
you want to add your false bottom to,
and remove it from the rest of your furniture.
This nightstand only has a single drawer,
so it's an easy choice.
[Music]
After removing the drawer from our furniture,
we need to measure how big the interior of the drawer is.
We'll cut a piece that size out of our board.
If you have multiple drawers,
it might be a good idea
to try and match the look of the false bottom
to the bottoms that are already in there,
so it doesn't stand out.
In this case, the material for the false bottom
isn't quite the same as the material that's already in the drawer,
but since there's only one drawer, there's nothing to compare it to.
[Music]
The board is now cut almost to the right size.
But it doesn't quite fit in.
The amount we need to take down the width of this board is very minor,
so we'll try putting the gate of the table-saw
right up against the blade,
and see if we can trim off just the tiniest bit of this board.
[Music]
Our board is now basically cut to size.
And we can start testing to see if it fits into our drawer.
But before we do that, we want to add a keyhole.
The key to opening the false bottom of the drawer
will be a small hole in the original bottom.
We'll use a small dowel, a pen, or a nail to pop a secret bottom off.
Now that we'll be able to get the false bottom out,
let's test if it fits.
[Music]
It looks like we're really close,
but it doesn't quite lay all the way down.
And even though we're going to have it raised up a bit more,
we want to shave off some of the excess material
so it fits a little bit more flush than this.
Looking at the front of the drawer,
we can see that there are some slight gaps in some places,
and other places where it's completely flush with the wood.
The spots where it's completely flush
is where it's pressing maybe a little bit too hard.
Let's mark those with a pencil,
and then take them down using a belt sander.
[Music]
Once you've cut and sanded the board,
that will be your false bottom, so it fits perfectly into your drawer,
it's time to cut some supports that will keep it lifted off
of the actual bottom of the drawer.
This is where our little scrap of wood comes in.
I like the thickness of this scrap of wood for the total elevation.
If you wanted anything more than that of course,
you can just cut farther, and turn the pieces sideways.
To be able to cut all four pieces that I'm going to need off
of this block just the same size,
I'm going to clamp this board in place on to the saw.
That will make it so that as I cut,
every piece is cut off the same width.
[Music]
Before we glue these in place,
let's do a final test fit with all four of these in the corners
and our new false bottom on top of them.
[Music]
Our false bottom fits,
but the nail that I was using to pop it out
is too short compared to this drawer.
So I'm gonna move to using this piece of dowel.
This is long enough that we should be able to pop the false bottom
all the way up and out of the drawer.
So let's just widen our hole a little bit to fit this size dowel.
[Music]
With our board fit to size,
we can now glue the four supports into the four corners of our drawer.
[Music]
We can now fit our false bottom into our drawer.
And we can remove it whenever we want.
But for an added layer of security,
I want to try and add a hidden lock to the inside of our secret compartment.
For this lock, we'll use a small hinge, some powerful magnets,
a piece of a kitchen sponge,
and a piece of dowel that can fit through the screw holes on the hinge.
We've also got some super glue and some two part epoxy.
Let's use some epoxy to glue our hinge down
on to the bottom of our board.
So that the piece that hangs down is just about flush with the edge.
This kind of two-part epoxy is one that bonds especially well to metal.
To help make sure it sticks,
I'm also using a little bit of sandpaper to rough up the backside of the hinge.
[Music]
With the hinge secured in place,
we now want to use the same epoxy to attach one of our strong magnets
to the other side of the hinge.
The hinge pin is not made of the same stainless steel
as the rest of the hinge.
And our magnet is more attracted to it.
If we try and set the magnet right here,
it gets drawn into the hinge pin.
To keep our magnet where we want it,
we'll apply the epoxy,
and then use this small scrap of cardboard just to keep it in place.
Our hinge now has the magnet attached to it.
And we don't want this hinge to fall closed,
except when we dictate.
So to keep it open until we're ready,
we're gonna use a small piece of sponge
as a sort of compression spring.
We'll have a small piece of this dowel attached to the front of the drawer.
When the hinge hangs down,
the hole will fit over the end of the dowel,
creating a latch to make it so our false bottom can't be lifted up.
However, using a magnet, we'll be able to pull on the hinge,
and it will move out of the way so it's no longer attached to the dowel.
To mark where we want to put the dowel,
we'll apply a tiny bit of paint to the outside of the circle on the hinge.
We'll then use our magnets to hold it in place
as we lower the false bottom into the drawer.
At that point, if we remove the magnets,
the hinge should fall down.
And if we turn our magnet around,
we can even push it slightly up against the drawer.
This little spot right here is what was marked by our paint.
And then it did drag a little bit
on the side of the drawer as we lift it up,
so there's a little bit of a white line going up.
We need to drill a hole the same size as our dowel
right in this spot.
[Music]
Our dowel fits into place.
And of course, we don't want a very long piece.
We want a piece that just barely sticks out
far enough for the hinge to grab on to.
After we cut the dowel at this length,
we'll also taper the edge a little bit
so it's easier for the hinge to fit around it.
Okay.
About half of one cut with our hacksaw was enough.
[Music]
The false bottom is built,
and our drawer is ready to go back in the nightstand.
[Music]
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