Ditch Basic Closet Doors And Try This Genius Sliding IKEA BILLY Bookcase Hack
Have you ever wanted a secret room or to hide a vault behind a bookcase, just like you see in movies and TV shows? This kind of intriguing fiction could happen in your real life if you could only realize your long-time dream of having a hidden room behind a sliding bookcase. And now you can, thanks to TikTok interior designer Alexandra Elizabeth (also known as @alexxs1007) and her father. Here's what you need: an IKEA BILLY bookcase, a set of drawer slides that could support a wall safe, and a few odds and ends from Home Depot to customize your new hidden lair.
Like a similar secret room bookcase door from HGTV's Jasmine Ross, Elizabeth's "IKEA BILLY bookcase remix" is a bit more than a hidden room. Rather than stick her clients with a couple of dull IKEA shelving units (for whom she originally designed the bookcase ruse), Elizabeth gave them the custom treatment with an arched facade made of plywood. One bookcase covers a closet door and slides to the side, while two others are stationary. There are wheels visible on the front, but they are part of the BILLY bookcase drawers and neither help nor hinder the sliding bookcase. The visible wheels seem to contribute to the illusion since they're facing the wrong way for a sliding door.
What you need for your own secret bookcase door
The bookcase from TikToker @alexxslides is on an Accuride heavy-duty slide (around $170 from Cabinetparts.com) with a 500-pound capacity and a small caster mounted low on the back of the bookcase to make it move smoothly. The slide itself is mounted on a board, which makes the slide flush with the outside of the hidden door's casing. It's all supported by four larger but hidden casters, two on each side of the piece. You don't have to stick with a drawer slide, though. Some barn door slides now have completely hidden hardware. Of course, you could use any sufficiently sturdy bookcase, or skip the bookcase and use a full-length mirror in a bedroom or bathroom or a large acoustic wall panel in a home theater.
That only leaves the problem of the blank wall next to the sliding bookcase. Naturally, you wouldn't want any furniture or wall-hangings here, so what to do with that space? How about a nook like this TikTok-viral Mediterranean arched niche inset into the wall to give the sense of decor without interfering with the bookcase? And within this nook, why not a few thematically appropriate spy gadgets (hidden, naturally, in books)? And to finish up, make your secret bookcase even more impressive with a DIY hidden latch made of — you guessed it — a book.