Hidden door in the interior 2022: best photos!

What are hidden doors?

Hidden installation of doors is an ultra-modern way of designing entrances and exits using hidden hinges.
Thanks to the inner frame, the door will be invisible and the feeling of a blank, uniform wall will be created. Today, secret doors serve slightly different functions than before. If, since the Middle Ages, invisible entrances hid behind them secret rooms into which strangers were not supposed to enter, today the main purpose of installing a hidden door is to dissolve the canvas itself into the wall, thereby achieving a minimalist design and visually expanding the space.

The most advantageous place for hidden doors in a house is a corridor or hallway with many entrances and exits. When replacing standard doorways with platbands with hidden ones, you will get a spacious room with neat walls without unnecessary accents.

Hidden doors in the living room perform the same functions as in the hallway. But in the bedroom, using a secret door, you can hide a dressing room, which guests should not enter. Storerooms (for example, in the kitchen), offices and other personal spaces can also be hidden.

Modular shelving - transformers

Modular - consist of individual shelves arranged in different orders. This type of shelving can be grouped throughout the room as individual shelves, or two small shelving units, or one large one, but its configuration will match your vision.

Modular - Matrix - a simple, lightweight and mobile design that is suitable for placing flowers and interior accessories. The modules can be assembled as a shelf or used as separate stands.

The Italian development of the Domino company went further and offered storage of stools in the form of a rack. It's a pity that I never found this option for sale.

Cabinet modular shelving consists of individual shelf-boxes: simple and quite massive, they stand stably on top of each other.

This option will allow you to make the most convenient use of the space to suit your needs and your child’s: you can put it where nothing else can be placed in the configuration you need.

And even with any redevelopment, you can effectively use the free space.

Why are hidden doors needed?

There are many reasons for installing a hidden passage in a room, the most popular of which are:

The desire to exclude the possibility of detecting a room in which weapons, money, valuables, etc. are stored.
An invisible door in the form of a picture or mirror is designed to hide hiding places in the cabinet. This design is often used to disguise the entrance to a dressing room or pantry in order to unload the interior. This is especially in demand if there are many doors in the room.
Children will love the secret room setup. This will help them feel like heroes of fairy tales.
Proponents of the minimalist style use hidden canvases solely for the purpose of implementing design solutions.

Painting an aluminum box

Additionally, you can order painting of aluminum profiles in the required color. During installation, you will have to adhere more strictly to the rules and be careful so as not to damage the coating. But such a decision is often justified if the basis is an interesting design concept.

Painting options for aluminum door frames for hidden installation

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of hidden doors in the interior:

Stealth. This gives more options in wall decoration and allows you to hide insignificant spaces, such as storage rooms.
Variability of finishing. If ready-made factory doors from the manufacturer have a certain color that is not easy to match to the walls, then custom hidden doors can be painted in any shade or even covered with wallpaper.
Compactness. The inner box, hidden hinges and the absence of platbands allow the installation of a hidden door even in narrow passages.
Saving. Moldings are often more expensive than door panels, but in the case of hidden doors you won’t have to buy them.
Large selection of sizes. The height and width are practically unlimited - you can order a model with standard dimensions or a non-standard floor-to-ceiling canvas. Of course, its cost will be higher, but you will be able to implement any design solution.

Disadvantages of invisible openings:

High price. Although interior doors do not require a frame or trim, the door leaf itself can cost a pretty penny. The most budget option is the standard size (70*200, 80*200) without finishing.
Complicated installation. Since hidden interior doors in the interior still remain a curiosity, not every master is ready to take on such work and do it efficiently.
Lots of nuances. If conventional models can be installed during decorative finishing, then hidden solutions are installed at the stage of rough work.
Limited styles. Hidden canvases look ultra-modern, therefore they are suitable mainly for current styles: modern, minimalism, loft. At the same time, it is almost impossible to fit them into classics, Provence or Baroque.
One-sided beauty. Aesthetic fit and invisibility in standard openings will be only on one side: on the “wrong side” there will be a recess that will be clearly visible even when decorating the space with the same materials. This is due to the small thickness of the door, which makes hidden installation possible.

Rotating racks - transformers

In rotating ones, the central element is a pole, relative to which the shelves rotate. There are two modifications of this transformer: with fixed or non-fixed.

Rotary transformer with fixed ones - resembles a book where the pole is the binding. This one can stand at any angle, which is sometimes quite important in non-standard apartments with obtuse angles.

Rotary with reversible has more room for imagination and creativity. And if the previous one is intended for books and things comparable in size, then this one can also accommodate rather large objects, such as flower pots or vases. You yourself will choose what they will be like and on which side they will stand.

Types of hidden doors

By type of opening.

Swing. Traditional, opened by pressing one of the sides.
Pendulum. The rotating mechanism opens the canvas in any direction.
Roto. Or carousel. The rotating axis is located in the middle of the opening.
Sliding. The canvas goes into the wall.

Hinged interior doors with hidden hinges are the most common and are most often purchased. They have standard equipment and are easier to install at home. Pendulum ones are more expensive, but opening is much more comfortable and practical. The rotating model is technologically complex, the most expensive, and more suitable for offices than apartments. The sliding ones are not completely hidden; small noticeable niches remain on both sides. To make them invisible, you should carefully consider the intended finishing coating of the walls.

By type of finish.

For painting. The easiest way is to paint the walls and canvas the same color. When painted in a single color, the doorway gaps are slightly noticeable. Some types of patterns guarantee an unmistakable invisible effect.
Under the wallpaper. Creative method. You can choose a color, pattern or texture that completely hides the outline of the opening. Photo wallpapers or vertical stripes look interesting.
With a mirror. A size that matches the door leaf to a millimeter will hide the door 100%. If the door has no handle and is rotating, then this is the limit of perfection.
Other design tricks. The entire height of the wall. Under primer. Under the panels. With acrylic coating. Or one side of the door is with wallpaper, and the other with primer. This is an option for rooms with a different style. Such personalized solutions are expensive, but in some cases a combination of several techniques at the same time
justified
.

We disguise the structure as a curtain

The easiest way to hide a passage is to curtain it with a sheet of fabric, which is identical to the curtains in the room. A simple or ceiling cornice is used for fastening.

The advantage of the design is its low cost and organic appearance. A hanging curtain almost never attracts attention to itself and fits perfectly into any interior.

Method of masking under a wall

If, when creating a hidden door, the goal is to dissolve the canvas against the background of the wall, use a method of decorating with a material identical to the decoration of the walls. It's very easy to do. The only requirement is that the gap between the wall and the door should be minimal.

To implement it use:

Pasting with the same wallpaper, preferably not plain, but with a pattern or ornament. You can use photo wallpaper.
Painting the entire surface, including the door leaf. It is advisable to complement the overall background with darker vertical lines. They will hide the gap.
If you decorate part of the door leaf with panels along with wallpaper and paint, the overall appearance of the wall will become more realistic.
If the wall space has niches and other irregularities, the door can also be hidden under fake decorative inserts that imitate existing ones.
Tiling is a common option, since the gap between the wall and the canvas will be disguised as seams between the tiles.
You can hide the door behind a small closet or hang shelves.

Let's use a picture

Another simple way to hide the entrance to another room is to hang a picture on it. However, we are not necessarily talking about a full-fledged work of art. You can use photo wallpaper, abstraction or any other image pasted onto the door leaf and framed. As with the mirror, the frame will hide the gap and serve as a handle.

Such an invisible door will look organic in the interior of a living room or office, especially if there are other paintings hanging nearby. An original option would be to decorate the door leaf with many family photographs hung all over the wall, including on the surface of the door.

Using Large Mirrors

A good way to decorate hidden doors in the interior is with mirror overlays. This option is especially in demand in corridors or other rooms.

The implementation of the method is very simple: a full-length mirror is glued onto a base made of MDF or chipboard, and the structure is further strengthened with an aluminum frame. You can install a decorative frame along the contour of the canvas, which will simultaneously hide the alignment line with the wall and serve as a handle. A mirror will visually increase the space, which is important for owners of small narrow corridors.

Advantages

An invisible door will be simply irreplaceable if you have a room to which you need to restrict access - for example, if it is your art studio, an office for privacy, or if you have a safe, hiding place or something similar. And you can always hide from prying eyes.

Such doors are also capable of intelligently zoning an apartment and generally expanding the space, allowing it to be preserved, which is why they are often used in small houses. Moreover, they guarantee safety for children - the likelihood that the baby will run into or hit it is minimal.

Of course, one cannot fail to mention the zest such a door brings to the interior. It immediately becomes extraordinary and creative, simplicity disappears - even if none of the guests notice any visible changes, you know that you have a little secret in your house. This is also a good reason to brag: your friends will be surprised to learn that behind the mirror there is a rest room, and by simply moving the closet shelf you can get to the balcony!

However, speaking about the advantages, one cannot fail to mention the disadvantages, although their number is minimal - in fact, there is only one disadvantage. The first and last thing is, of course, the price - installing an entire hidden structure will be more expensive than installing an ordinary average door, because this requires more skill, and the structure itself is more expensive.

How to make a secret door with your own hands

A secret door can be made to order in special companies that perform the work individually for a specific room. Here they will assemble and disguise the structure themselves. The price of such services for the individual production of invisible door panels can be very high. Then the question arises: is it possible to make a secret passage with your own hands?

The simplest solution is to purchase ready-made hidden interior doors for painting. They are made of metal, which ensures their strength and durability. The box is made of aluminum profile and is securely hidden in the wall. This design can be installed flush with the wall to finish it and make it invisible.

The disadvantage of this solution will be a certain thickness of the canvas, which may differ significantly from the width of the wall. Therefore, it is only suitable for creating the effect of invisibility from the side of one of the separated rooms. The advantage of a purchased design is the presence of special hidden fittings.

The main condition for creating an invisible door is a hidden door frame. You can disguise it with plasterboard, without installing platbands. If you have minimal carpentry skills, you can convert it into an invisible one yourself. The least amount of work will have to be done when the door leaf of a conventional design, when closing, is flush with the door frame. In this case, it will be enough to replace the hinges with hidden ones and mount the canvas so that on one side it merges with the plane of the wall. There is no need to install platbands.

If the width of the box differs from the width of the canvas, then you will have to put in more effort to remake it. First you need to disassemble the entire structure, remove the beam that forms the box, and reduce its size using a plane. With some skills, this type of work can be done at home. Then the box is assembled in its place and the canvas is hung on it using hidden hinges.

It is more difficult to make a door yourself that is invisible from both sides. The thickness of the door leaf is usually not equal to the thickness of the wall, so the task arises of increasing its width. This is easier to do for a frame structure. You just need to disassemble it, redo the frame, adding new layers, and glue back the removed overlays. All that remains is to make recesses around the perimeter for the false strip.

A door that does not have a frame will have to be practically made from scratch. This work is already for craftsmen who have the necessary materials and equipment to produce a new canvas.

It is quite difficult to install this design without errors, so it is best to entrust this to a specialist. If you still want to do it yourself, you should follow the advice of professionals:

It is necessary to eliminate all sorts of defects on the wall into which the door will be built.

The position of the canvas must be exclusively vertical to avoid spontaneous opening and closing.
It is necessary to calculate the planting depth, which will eliminate disturbances during operation.
For finishing work under wallpaper, it is best to use drywall.

It is better to entrust the installation of hidden doors to specialists. In order for the installation of the door to emphasize its functionality, it is necessary to ensure freedom of movement in this opening.

Material of manufacture

As for the materials for making invisible doors, door leaves are made from:

MDF. Such structures are coated with a primer to protect them from moisture. They are white in color and many people confuse it with paint. Such designs can be decorated independently in any way.
Glass or mirrors. A good design solution that will suit a high-tech or minimalist style. When purchasing such doors, it is important to think through their fittings in advance.
Veneer. They look stylish and attractive in interiors thanks to their natural finish. To make a solid veneered wall, it is recommended to order the door leaf without finishing, which will subsequently be veneered together with the wall panels.
Chipboard. A very practical and profitable solution. They are suitable for installation in residential and non-residential premises and are durable and durable. Compared to veneered models, products made from chipboard are more affordable in terms of price. But when choosing them, it is important to pay attention to the minimum content of harmful substances in the panels.
Acrylic. An excellent option for installation in a minimalist design. They are distinguished by practicality, durability and aesthetics.

Hidden doors can be purchased completely finished with factory painting. In this case, it is recommended to order an aluminum edge that protects the canvas and hides the color transition.

When choosing a door frame, it is worth considering that they come in two types:

Aluminum. They are distinguished by their reliability, aesthetics and ability to cope with various loads. In economical options, the boxes are made of thin aluminum, and such structures require additional reinforcement with wooden beams or multi-layer plywood.
Wooden. They are quite rare. They are characterized by naturalness, hypoallergenicity, and high technical characteristics.

Installation recommendations

If the owner himself will install the door, then he should carefully read the manufacturer’s instructions. It describes the configuration and step-by-step assembly of the structure. At the first stage of work, an opening is formed without finishing. The sides are brought to a vertical position and the lines are aligned. The maximum error is 2 mm per two meters of height. The location of the final covering is marked on the subfloor and the position of the frame is tied to it.

Then the box is mounted, collecting all the parts on a flat surface. The kit must contain all the elements - aluminum profiles, brackets, screws. The box is installed in the prepared opening and fixed through the factory holes. For a stable position, you can use plastic or wooden wedges. The position of the box must be strictly vertical. Control measurements are taken between the side posts at the bottom and top; if installed correctly, the resulting number should be equal to the width of the door leaf plus 0.5 cm. Only after this the rubber seal is glued on.

At the third stage of work, you need to finish the structure. The joints between the wall and the frame are taped with a fine mosquito net. Then the adjacent surface is coated with a primer, and after it dries, plaster is applied. It is impossible to carry out finishing work in a room where the temperature is negative and the humidity level is above 60%. After the plaster has dried, cover the walls with a layer of leveling putty.

Examples of hidden doors in the interior

A secret door can become an important and appropriate part of almost any room. At the same time, you can disguise the door in the interior in several ways:

Under the closet. A fairly simple method in which the door imitates a closet. Moreover, the shelves can be left either open or closed.
Under the wardrobe. In this case, the canvas is designed like a cabinet door.
Under the curtain. If the chosen style of room decoration involves the presence of curtains, then this method of hiding the door is quite simple. Curtains can serve as a decorative element under which a passage or niche will be hidden. Or, another option, hang a massive mirror or picture on the door, and hang a curtain on the side and secure it beautifully with a tieback.
For painting. Typically this is a swing or rotary door, which does not require a door handle. The door covering can imitate wallpaper, brickwork or tiles, making the entrance almost indistinguishable among the wall decoration.
Under the mirror. It looks like a floor-length mirror. When looking at such a structure, you don’t even think that there might be a passage or room behind it.

In the kitchen. Since the kitchen usually has high air humidity (due to constant cooking), it is advisable to install durable and reliable doors made of PVC, acrylic, glass and even mirrors. They are resistant to the formation of fungus and mold and can cope well with sudden temperature changes.

In the bedroom. Here you can decorate the doorway in any way: paint, plaster, decorate with wall panels, cover with wallpaper, photographs, hang paintings or panels. In other words, everyone chooses the best option for themselves, based on personal wishes and the overall interior of the room.

In the living room. Here, canvases with a mirror surface, tinted to resemble bronze or graphite, will look original. They will not only serve as a mirror, but will also visually increase the free space. Decorating the entire wall with mirrors will look even better in such a living room. Then the door will become completely invisible in the interior. Glass doors painted to match the color of the walls are also suitable for this room.

In the hall. Since this room is the most trafficked in the entire house, wear-resistant and durable materials are chosen when decorating it. A good option for installing hidden doors in the hallway would be products with mirrors. They will visually enlarge a small room and make it stylish and brighter. If there are paintings hanging on the walls in the hallway, you can also decorate the door leaf with them. As a result, it will merge with the general background of the surfaces.

Decoration methods

A hidden box for placing a door allows you to implement several options for masking the door leaf:

Surface painting;
Pasting an interior door with wallpaper.

However, regardless of the method of further processing of the door structure, one of the main conditions for creating a high-quality and durable product is the mandatory use of primer varnish. Thanks to it, wooden doors are protected from the formation of deformation processes when changing climatic conditions. In addition, the primer provides the most effective adhesion of any possible coating to the surface of the door leaf.

Painting

The most popular method is painting. At the same time, the door leaf completely preserves the individuality of the product and does not oversaturate the interior with unnecessary details. The color range for coloring doors is almost unlimited. In most cases, the same paint is used to cover door structures as for decorating walls.

The paint often contains acrylic. This helps produce more saturated shades. This door covering is very convenient to use because it does not have a strong foreign odor and also dries quite quickly.

Pasting

Covering a door with wallpaper to create a single, cohesive appearance is typical of a minimalist style. Using this type of design has a number of advantages over coloring. These include:

Maximum masking of installation sites;
No need to think through design techniques;
Money savings. This effect occurs due to the absence of the need to purchase paints and varnishes.

Design secrets for designing “invisibility”

Design advice is important to create a positive aesthetic impression.
The texture and color scheme must match the wall option.
It is possible to decorate the door and wall with decorative panels.
It is convenient to camouflage doors before painting by using rectangular panels.
The radical difference between the two sides of the canvas is applied depending on the difference in the interior of adjacent rooms.
A special design technique is the complete opposite of the door decoration and wall material.

Constructive solution

One of the structural installations

If you look at the market offers, you can see that the price of ready-made engineering solutions is quite high. This is explained quite simply.

Modern serial invisible cameras are made of metal. This is the easiest way to make a durable solution that meets any requirement. If we consider a short list of wishes for which users choose such designs, it will look something like this:

Possibility of installation flush with the wall;
perfect closure, the structure should be invisible on both sides;
the canvas must have high strength so that any finishing can be applied to it, for example, pasted over with decorative stone;
the fittings must be hidden and ensure reliable long-term operation even in conditions of strong changes in the mass of the sash.

Such rather stringent requirements form the picture of the market. The price is high, since solutions are used that provide a margin of safety, reliability, and also guarantee long service life:

load-bearing structural elements are made of metal, most often a lightweight and durable aluminum profile is used;
the elements of the box, which are responsible for rigidity, are moved beyond the plane of the opening;
the door leaf is also formed according to the rules for the manufacture of steel products; it is taken into account that the external finish cannot be responsible for strength, since it can be anything;
fittings are used, in particular, hidden hinges, designed to control a sash that weighs much more than the actual weight of the finished leaf;
serial solutions are immediately designed for invisibility on both sides, so the concept of a cover strip almost disappears, it is replaced by a metal corner.

All finished products are calculated for a certain wall thickness. A structure of any thickness can be made to order, and the price increases accordingly. But for the money the user gets a truly high-quality solution.

Finishing methods

Painted and decorated to match the wall

You can use any materials to decorate the door leaf. Ready-made solutions are typically offered in adhesive finishes for subsequent paint and adhesive coatings. The following materials are common among production models:

veneer;
acrylate, a thick, highly durable plastic that is scratch and abrasion resistant;
glass;
thin overlays made of wood or MDF, often pre-primed, intended for subsequent painting or wallpapering.

In cases where glass and acrylate are used, there can be any colors, as well as light refraction effects. Coatings intended for subsequent finishing allow the application of decorative plaster.

Design examples

As already mentioned in the last section, the easiest way to hide entrances in an apartment or house is by finishing the canvas to match the walls. For this, the same wallpaper, paint or other material is used.

Even laminate, slats or other wood trim are fixed to the interior fabric. The main rule in this case is to decorate the wall at the same time as the door in order to install it in a single contour. Important! Experts usually do not recommend gluing heavy tiles or porcelain tiles onto the opening panel - this will put additional stress on the hinges and can damage them.

Additionally, you can use original decorative options: paint the wall with the door up to half the height, make chaotic strokes of paint, catching both surfaces.

It is not necessary to repeat the finishing of the walls - for high doors you can use materials for the ceiling on top and floor materials below.

A convenient option for the corridor is mirrors. Secure several panels, one of which will be on the door. This way you will simultaneously hide the entrance and make the space visually larger.

If there are paintings or other decor hanging on the wall, attach it to the canvas as well. This technique will further disguise the opening and literally dissolve it in space.

Seal the seams

Hidden installation is called so because the structure does not have platbands. The installation seams are sealed with plaster and wall finishing in such a way as to hide the foam, plates, and all gaps after installation.

There are a number of important features that we strongly advise against skipping or ignoring.

We process the aluminum box. For reliable adhesion (adhesion is the adhesion of dissimilar surfaces at the molecular level), we apply “concrete contact” to the surface of the box that will come into contact with the finish.

Concrete contact is a liquid mixture, sold in a hardware store, that acts as a connecting element between a smooth surface and finishing materials. It is easily impregnated into concrete, brick... what is important for us is metal. As a result of this finishing, the surface of the box becomes rough, which reliably fixes the plaster, tiles or wallpaper.

At the time of processing the box with concrete contact, it is important to stop dusty construction work so that construction dust does not settle on the surface.

We cover the perimeter of the box, with an overlap on the wall, with reinforcing tape. Plaster fiberglass mesh - serpyanka.

Preparing a hidden door for plastering work, laying out the reinforcing tape

Apply polymer cement starting putty.

This type of putty contains reinforcing microfibers, which improves the elasticity of the solution and forms a strong base and bond throughout the entire volume and perimeter. The starting putty will provide strength and prevent the possibility of shrinkage and cracks.

What do they look like in the interior?

The most popular today are standard models for finishing: they are the easiest to hide in the wall and are suitable for any color scheme and material.

Among adherents of the classical style, a method using textured baguettes has become widespread: they are used to assemble a composition that is fixed both on the walls and on the interior canvases. This solves the problem of excessive minimalism, which is not suitable for baroque, classic, or art deco.

In some rooms (for example, in children's rooms) it is appropriate to use black slate paint: firstly, black masks the gaps, and secondly, the child will be able to paint the walls without harming the renovation.

How to decorate the doorways in your apartment is up to you to decide.

Opening mechanism

Depending on the opening and closing mechanism, hidden doors are:

Swing . The most common option. Their installation is quite easy and without any problems. The advantages of swing structures include: ease of installation, ease of operation, reliability and durability.
Sliding . They are less common in modern interiors, due to the more complex and time-consuming installation process. For this purpose, specialists must be involved. Sliding canvases are characterized by saving free space, since when opened, the canvas goes inside the wall.
Pendulum . They are attached to canopies located at the edge of the box. Can open in different directions. When installing such a structure, it is recommended to use special closers.
Roto-doors . Similar to a pendulum system. When opening, they rotate around the central axis. To open them, there is no need to use a door handle, but simply push the door.