In this video I’m going to show you how to build a super secret shelf that’ll hide
spare keys, cash, passports, or anything else you don’t want people knowing about.
For this project we’re going to need a 4’ length of 1”x12” common board, a length
of 1/4”x1” hardwood emboss rope, and a 4” ft length of 4-1/2” hardwood emboss crown molding.
All of which you can find at the hardware store.
Crown molding is the stuff that has the angled ends and it’s typically used for decoration,
to make the corner under your ceiling look fancy.
We can get away with using a 12” chop saw to cut out all the pieces we need, but if
you don’t have one of those, you could maybe borrow one from your neighbor, or just use hand tools instead.
Start by cutting the common board into a rectangle 24” long by 11-1/4” wide, then use the
same board to cut another piece 18-1/4” long by 8-3/8” wide.
If you do it right, you can use the rest of the board to get an 18” by 2-1/2” piece, and two 6” by 2” pieces like these.
And go ahead and trim a 45º cut from the tips of those pieces while you’re at it.
With your pieces of board cut, you should have just enough scrap left over to make a
few prism shapes, and you’ll see what these are for in just a minute.
Now when it comes to crown molding., it can be extremely difficult to cut corners that
actually line up. But here’s a cool little trick for making perfect cuts every time,
simply by using a bit of masking tape.
Place some tape on both sides of your cutting base, and lay the crown molding with the top side facing down.
And when the molding feels like it’s locked squarely into place, use a pen to mark a line
on the tape along the top edge.
Do the same thing on the other side so you have reference lines to guide you, and this
should save you about $20 from having to buy a cutting jig.
Now the easiest way to measure the walls for our custom shelf is by lining the bottoms
of the moldings up with the 8-3/8” wide board, then using a pen to mark where the bottoms meet the front edge.
When you’re confident you understand how it’s going together, rotate the table of
your miter saw clockwise so the blade is cutting at a 45º angle.
Set your crown molding in place with the top facing downward, and make sure it’s perfectly
aligned with the marks on your tape, then carefully cut the crown molding so the blade
slices exactly through your marking.
This will give your side piece a nice angle, and you can double-check the length by lining
the bottom of the molding back up with the edge of the board, and making sure the edges
at the back and front are perfectly flush.
Ok that’s looking great, so let’s flip the saw around to 45º the other direction
and do the same thing with the other side of the board.
Line up the molding with the tape marks, and cut it to it’s custom length like you did before,
but this time make sure you use the other end of the board, so you keep one of the edges flat.
At this point we've got the two sides of our shelf finished, so let’s move on to making the front piece next.
Since we’ve already got the saw angled to the right, let's go ahead and trim a new piece
so it’s pointing the right direction, then use the length of the 18-1/4” board to mark
the bottom of the molding exactly where we need the other end cut.
Flip the saw back the other way one more time, and make your custom cut, and that’s it.
The front wall of our shelf is finished, and now if you try pressing two of the pieces
together, it should make a near perfect joint without any special tools or training. Let’s
move on to working the trim next.
The trim I’m using is a 4’ length of 1/4”x1” hardwood emboss rope, and I’m using it as
decoration for the top part of my shelf.
Measure it to where it matches the front and sides of the larger board, then cut them at
45º angles so the front edges join together as they wrap around the board.
With these final cuts, the hard work is over, and we’ve got all the pieces we need to
start putting our shelf together. So let’s get ready to assemble.
Now for a strong and sturdy shelf it’s a good idea to run a bead of wood glue between
all your connections, and I like to start assembly with the smaller blocks, and the 18” board.
Make sure the flat sides of the board are all flush, except for the underside, where
it should be slightly offset from the bottom, with the 1” angled cut pointing down.
Now we’ll need to fasten these pieces together, and while you could just use a hammer and
finishing nails, I’m using a brad nailer I found at a garage sale for $35 instead,
because it’s a lot faster, and much easier to use.
Punch one small nail in from the back to hold the pieces together, then drill a couple of
pilot holes so you can add two 2” wood screws to hold the pieces firmly together. This just
makes the shelf a lot more durable.
The next step is to add glue to the bottoms of the crown molding, and press them into
place around the sides of the board, then fasten them to the base with finishing nails
to hold them securely in place.
It’s a good idea to glue and tack the corner joints as well to help reinforce them, and
I found that spacing the nails around 2” apart seemed to work really well.
Ok the bottom of our shelf is finished, so we can start adding the 1” trim around the
top plank, and for best results you’ll want to glue it in place as well, so it’s hanging
halfway off the bottom edge.
Set the top of your shelf so it’s resting on the base, and you’ll see how the overlap
gives a wonderfully decorative feel to the shelf, and completely conceals any visible gaps that might give it away.
Alright our shelf is framed and looking good, so let’s install some functionality next.
The secret to making the shelf open and close properly are very specific cabinet hinges
I found in the hardware isle of my hardware store.
They’re called mortised full overlay cup hinges for frameless cabinets and come in
a pack of 2 for under $6. (HC11SFC-NP-C5)
A small adjustment needs to be made to lengthen out the hinges, which can be done quickly
and easily by loosing the bottom screw clockwise, loosening the top screw counter-clockwise
and sliding it up as far as it will go.
Then simply re-tighten the screws again so the hinge is locked into position.
Just for reference, this is what the hinge looks like before the adjustment, and here’s what it looks like after.
A nice feature of cabinet hinges is they come with templates, and you’ll need to center
them 3-1/2” in from the sides and use something like a screw to mark the center of the circle.
Do the same thing from the other side as well, then use a 1-3/8” Forstner bit to drill
out the hole according to the instructions. If you don’t have a Forstner bit, you could
always chip the wood out with a chisel or a knife as well, but only go deep enough to
just barely press the hinges into place so they rest firmly on the top of the board.
When you’ve secured the the hinges to the base of the shelf, then it’s time to bring it all together.
The hinges need to be attached to the inside of the support bar, and I’ve found the best
way to align them perfectly, is to stand everything upright with the hinges slightly overlapping,
then using the top of the shelf to gently close the container all the way shut.
When you pull the top off again, your hinges should be, in the perfect position.
So let’s mark their location, and screw them into place..
With the support bar secured, and the top side flush and flat, we can join it to the
top of the shelf, finishing off this basic assembly.
The top of the shelf needs to be glued and nailed down along the back edge of the board,
and secured to where the arms are extending underneath.
With this final step, the most basic version of our shelf is finished, and all for around $35 in materials!
Now before we move on, it’s a really good idea to test out the hinge mechanism by propping
the shelf upright on a table and gently opening and closing it, so you can study the movement
of the bottom corner.
Notice how it doesn’t actually contact the table through the testing cycles. This means
it should’t make any dent’s or holes in your wall once it’s installed, which is really important.
It should also fit snugly and symmetrically inside the trim around the top, and if it
does, then you’re ready to install the secret magnetic locking system that makes this whole thing work.
I found some magnetic locks at my local hardware store in the cabinet isle, sold as child safety
locks for kid-proofing cupboards.
You can see that when a super strong rare earth magnet comes within about an inch of
the lock, it’ll magically activate the mechanism, allowing it open and close.
You can get away using just one, or as many of them as you want, and by hiding them inside
the compartment, no-one will know they even exist at all.
Ok it’s time to bring back the wooden prisms we saved from earlier, and choose where want our locks to go. we
Glue and nail the prisms to the inside walls of the crown molding anywhere you want, but
make sure they’re flush with the top lip because this will create a flat inner edge,
for us to screw the locking plates into position.
Now go find something like a tube of toothpaste because we’re going to life hack these locks into place.
Add a generous amount of toothpaste to the top ridges of the locking plates, and you’ll
see that when we close the shelf, then open it again, it leaves markings exactly where the locks need to go.
Use these marks as a reference point for securing the main part of the unit to the underside
of the of the shelf. And don’t worry if you’re a little off because there is some
wiggle room you can play with until you get it perfected.
Oh yeah, I have to mention here it’s extremely important to manually move the lock into the
closed position, so you don’t accidentally close the shelf and lock yourself out prematurely.
With the switches locked in the open position, you can close and re-open the shelf for testing
purposes, without the headache of having to magnetically unlock them each time.
Now at this point we’ve got a high quality, and fully functional secret shelf, at a price
point about as low as it gets. The only thing left to do now, is make it look good.
For my shelf I decided to use a red chestnut wood stain, and a fast-drying polyurethane
semi-gloss to give it a nice rich color and make it shine.
I removed all the hinges and hardware before I stained my shelf, so they’d stay clean
and professional looking. Then I went back to the hardware store and got some diamond
plated aluminum tread, for decoration.
I cut a place for the hinges, then screwed it on using small round-head screws, and reattached
all the hinges and magnets into their respective places.
Now to prevent our shelf from falling open and banging down into the wall, I’m using
some #6 sheet metal screws that are 1/2” long, a couple #6 flat washers, and a couple feet of Jack chain.
Let’s cut two pieces of chain seven and a half inches long, then use the washers and
machine screws to secure one end of the chain to the centers of the 45º cuts on the tips
of the support arms. The other ends screw to the bottom corners of the base.
With this simple addition, you can see that when the shelf is opened, it hangs neatly
at a forty five degree angle, giving the whole system a smooth and professional look. And a bit more functionality as well.
The magnetic key that came with my child lock is a little too obvious for the system, so
I got a couple Neodymium magnets off the internet, which are really small, but extremely strong.
The cool thing about this approach is now you can drill a few smalls holes into random
decorations and instantly convert them into covert magnetic keys.
I left my magnets exposed so you could see them, but if you stick a price tag or glue
a piece of felt to the bottoms, no one would ever know.
With that final step, our Stealth Shelf is completely finished and ready for testing,
so let’s explore how it works in the real world.
When you want to open your shelf, simply position your select decorations in the secret locations
that only you know about, to active the child locks inside.
Then push up gently from the bottom, and if you got the combination right, it’ll click
open and reveal your secret stash inside.
As easy as that you’ve got quick and easy access to whatever you need, and if want,
you can even install a little motion activated LED that’ll turn on whenever you crack the case.
This turns your shelf into a cool looking display case, but also doubles as an emergency
flashlight if the power ever goes out, or if you need to locate an intruder in the dark.
I found mine online for about $10, and I’ll put a link in the description to where you can get it.
By the way they’re also magnetic, so they conveniently clip back into place in seconds.
Now if you’re concerned about kids getting into your shelf, then simply hide your magnets in heavier objects.
Heavier objects won’t respond to the magnetic fields the same way, so it’ll be a lot more
difficult to find any secret lock locations.
And if you install more than one lock in your system, it’ll make it exponentially tricker to figure out.
When you’ve got your secret safe loaded up and ready to close, simply move your covert
keys out of the way, and press the bottom of the shelf back into place until you hear it click.
It instantly transforms into a nice piece of home decor. While secretly keeping your valuables tucked away inside.
Now if you want to go one step further, you could always make a magnetic baseplate as well.
I ordered a few magnets with countersink holes, and screwed them onto the bottom, then covered
them with sticky-back foam from the craft store.
The magnets are more than strong enough to hold defensive weapons securely in place,
and make it easy to click them out, then lock back on again when they’re ready go back into hiding.
Now of course you can customize your shelf any way you want to, and make it any color you desire.
I used a can of black spray paint to make this one, and you can see it looks just as
good, and nicely compliments my workshop.
The magnetic lock for this one’s in a different spot, and hides my CO2 powered BB gun out
of sight, and out of mind.
These shelves also hide things like spare keys, passports, or any extra cash you don’t want anyone to know about.
It’ll make electronics virtually disappear when your kids need a break, or conceal those
little indulgences you might have, that you don’t want anyone getting into.
Well now you know how to use commonly available materials from the hardware store to make
a decorative, functional, and multi purpose “floating shelf”, on a budget.
And don’t forget. They still work as shelves for displaying pictures and other random trinkets as well.
Well that’s it for now. If you liked this project, perhaps you’ll like some of my others.
Check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com