Hidden Exterior Door Obscures Your Entryway

While I’ve seen plenty of secret passageways used in home interiors, I think this is the first time I’ve seen a hidden exterior doorway. This fantastic home hack comes to us via Core77. The YouTube user that uploaded it, oggfaba, has given a few details on the materials used:

Standard fiberglass exterior door.

Red cedar (won’t rot, but lighter than pressure treated). Three 2x4s, ripped to 3″ to form a frame to offset the siding, mounted to the door using 3″ lag screws and fender washers (fender washers used to prevent the bolts from tearing through the fiberglass door).

HardiPlank siding.

Morning Industry Keypad and Remote Deadbolt.

Ball Catch (holds the door shut without needing a turn-able doorknob).

Richelieu 1-1/2-in x 1-1/2-in Satin Nickel Surface Cabinet Hinge (two).

Hose bib (used as as the exterior door handle… no working plumbing connected).

Interior doorknob is a dummy knob (used for pulling the door open but doesn’t actually latch).

9 Responses to Hidden Exterior Door Obscures Your Entryway

JohnA on January 24th, 2013 at 10:58 pm said:

Wow.

I guess it’s all for fun -if it was life-or-death we wouldn’t know of this- but if it weren’t the seams are a dead giveaway if anyone inspects it in person.

Not an issue though if they use a trim piece on the hinge-side that extends past the seam and possibly a downspout over the other seam.

*I certainly can’t match that and I definitely wouldn’t spot it unless I knew or expected it to be there. It’s just this side of “Hogan’s Heroes” as it is and it’s freaking amazing.

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fadfdssdfa on January 25th, 2013 at 12:50 am said:

we have the same at our house, but instead of a remot cnontrol there is a RFID reader besides the door and no handle. So you have to know where to hold your RFID tag to open it.

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CG on January 25th, 2013 at 1:21 pm said:

To obscure the seam you could stagger the siding that is attached to the house so that every-other board sticks into the doorway a couple inches. Since the door opens inward it wouldn’t interfere with these pieces but rather they would interlock when the door shuts. The upside is more obscurity, but the downside is you have to avoid snagging on or breaking off those siding pieces when you go into and out of the door.

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cde on January 25th, 2013 at 2:53 pm said:

The keypad panel should have been the entire length of the door. It’s quite telling as it is right now.

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David Kuder on January 25th, 2013 at 8:33 pm said:

An appropriate sized laundry vent would have made a better keypad cover…

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nurrys on January 25th, 2013 at 9:21 pm said:

winge winge winge if you did not see it open you would not know its there simple as that always amazes me how somebody has a outside the box idea and every one criticizes it picking the small things

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- Aeiluindae (@aeiluindae) on January 26th, 2013 at 2:44 pm said:
  
  To be fair, when someone is making an explicitly hidden doorway, you need to be picky, especially about the small things. Sure, it`s not super-critical, but it`s worth pointing out, and this build is just awesome, anyway
  
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