What we make
Hidden bookcase & secret doors
Hidden bookcase doors, secret doors and concealed jib doors — made to measure in Poole and drawn into the shelving or panelling around them.
A hidden door should go unnoticed until you want it: a bookcase that is also a way through, or a panel in the wall that opens onto another room.
We make hidden bookcase doors, secret doors and concealed jib doors as part of the joinery around them. The door is drawn with the bookcase or the panelling it sits in, so the shelves, mouldings and joints line up and nothing gives it away.
Each one is made to measure in our Poole workshop. We survey the opening, work out how the door should open and what it will carry, then make, finish and fit it with our own joiners.
Jib doors in panelling
A door cut into the panelling itself — flush, hinged and mould-matched so an ensuite or a store room disappears into the wall.
Closed, the panels and mouldings run straight across it. See more on our panelling page.
Concealed jib door
Bookcase doors
A bookcase door is a proper bookcase first: solid shelves, a real cornice and timber matched to the room. One section of the run is made as a door, hung on concealed hinges or a pivot and built to carry its books.
The library shown is a fitted bookcase rather than a door. It is the standard a hidden door is built to. See our libraries.
Walnut library · Branksome Park
Secret doors in panelled rooms
Painted panelling built up from applied mouldings on a flat ground, carried across the wall and the full-height cupboards so the hall reads as one.
A secret door works the same way: the panelling carries on across it, so it reads as wall or cupboard until it opens.
Panelled hall cupboards
What this includes
Common questions
Hidden & secret doorsHow does a hidden bookcase door open?
It is hung like any door, on concealed hinges or a pivot, and can open into the room or away from it. Which suits depends on the size and weight of the bookcase and the space on either side, and we work that out at the survey. A concealed catch holds it closed and flush with the rest of the run.
What kind of wall or opening does it need?
A doorway with a frame we can build into. Most hidden doors go into an existing doorway; a new opening is formed first, like any other, and we can work alongside your builder on it. The bookcase or panelling is then built around the frame, with enough depth for the shelves on the door and for it to swing clear.
Can a bookcase door hold real books?
Yes. It is built as a working bookcase, with shelves set out for the books it will hold, and the frame and hinges are chosen for the loaded weight. A full bookcase is heavy, so we talk through what will go on the shelves before we draw it.
Can it match my existing panelling or bookcases?
Usually, yes. We take the mouldings off the existing panelling and run new ones to match, and match the timber or paint finish, so the door reads as part of the room.
How do we start?
Send us a few photos of the room and the opening, with rough sizes if you have them. We then visit to measure up and talk through how the door should open, and draw it for you before anything is made.
Where we work
Hidden & secret doors for homes in Poole, Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs, Branksome Park and Bournemouth — and across Dorset, the New Forest & Hampshire.
Also from the workshop
By appointment
Arrange a consultation.
Send us a few photos of the room and the opening, with rough sizes if you have them. We'll arrange a visit to measure up and talk through what's possible. No obligation, and no fixed catalogue.