It's no secret that clothes love to be treated with care. In addition, careful owners try to store it so that a dress or suit, coat or raincoat is always ready to go out - cleaned, washed, ironed. Naturally, for such purposes one cannot do without a special storage facility. And if previously most families had enough storage in an apartment or house wardrobe, then today, with the increase in income and standard of living of the population, the range of clothing items has expanded significantly, and there is often not enough space.
Therefore, more and more often, owners are including a separate storage room in the layout of their homes - a dressing room, which solves numerous problems and simplifies the search for the necessary things. Services for planning and arranging such a room are widely offered by many companies or private craftsmen, however, it will not be cheap at all. Therefore, a convenient DIY dressing room can be the optimal solution to this issue, especially if the budget allocated for home renovation is quite modest. In addition, by creating and implementing the project yourself, you can plan the arrangement of shelves and hangers with maximum convenience for yourself.
Having a dressing room in a house or apartment helps free up space from bulky closets. And besides, it brings a certain order to everyday life, since all the things of family members are in one place, and they are always easy to find.
However, taking into account the fact that everyone’s living space is different both in quantitative terms and in its “geometry”, we will have to do independent choice options for placement and configuration of the dressing room.
Considering the small areas of modern apartments, most often the best option for placing a dressing room is along one of the walls of the hallway, bedroom, and sometimes you have to use the living room.
The convenience of this option consists of several points:
The disadvantages of wall-mounted storage organization include the following:
However, if it is not possible to allocate space for a separate storage room, a dressing room built along the wall is not the worst option.
A wardrobe located in the corner of the room is sometimes the only the right decision, since the design to a certain extent optimizes the space. So, areas of the walls in the corner, which are usually not used in the interior, can be allocated for such storage. For example, if there is not enough distance between this corner and the window or doorway to install some necessary piece of furniture, but it can be used to create a corner dressing room.
Let's say, if the bedroom in an apartment has enough large area, then the dressing room can be arranged in one of the corners of the room by installing a partition, the outer side of which will simultaneously serve as a bookcase. In this way, the space will be perfectly optimized.
Another way to use a corner area is to install a wardrobe in it. This option is perfect for a hallway, of course, if it has sufficient area and a suitable configuration.
For a square hallway, a more compact design of a corner wardrobe is well suited. It is convenient because you can go inside the cabinet to find necessary thing. But even such a closet is unlikely to become a fitting room, since there is not enough space for this.
So, positive aspects corner dressing rooms are as follows:
The disadvantages of this dressing room arrangement include:
In many apartments multi-storey buildings Both old and new buildings already have a storage room included in the layout. This is a great success, since such a mini-room could well be equipped as a separate dressing room, especially since there is space for racks and shelves. Often such storage rooms are simply littered with rubbish accumulated over the years of residence and, in fact, do not perform any useful function. It is worth paying close attention to the available optimization opportunities.
Naturally, it is better if the pantry does not have a window - this way, a larger area of the walls can be allocated for shelving and hangers intended for large items. If the pantry is equipped with a window opening, then you will have to use the surfaces around it more efficiently.
So, under the window you can place cabinets or shelves for shoes, and the tabletop-window sill above them can be used to store bags or organize a place for ironing on it. Shelves can also be installed above the window for hats or other boxes, for example, with seasonal shoes temporarily stored for storage.
Another room in the apartment that is not always used to the full extent functionally is the loggia or balcony. But here, too, it is quite possible to place a wardrobe, thus freeing up space directly in the apartment.
However, if this room is chosen for a dressing room, several points should be taken into account, without which its arrangement in a loggia would be impossible:
City apartments rarely boast of having a staircase. But in private two-story house(or having an attic), a convenient place for storing things can be the space under it, which usually has good depth. can be arranged various options wardrobe - open, as shown in the illustration, closed with hinged or sliding doors, or a block model, in which each of the blocks rolls out using wheels. Shelves or crossbars for hangers can be installed inside the blocks.
It is important - when choosing such a place for arranging a wardrobe, it is necessary to make the ceiling of this under-staircase space very durable and reliable. Just so that when people move up the steps, dust does not fall on things placed below.
If the room has rectangular shape, then in its end area it is quite possible to install plasterboard partition, which will separate the main part of the room from the dressing area. If you want to maintain the visual spaciousness of the room, this can easily be achieved by installing mirrored doors in such a dressing room.
Building a plasterboard structure is not at all difficult, especially since its construction does not require collecting certificates and permits. Such a partition has very little weight and will not burden the ceiling. So the option is quite suitable for both a private house and an apartment in a high-rise building.
If there is no desire or opportunity to install a solid stationary partition, then a thick curtain can be used as one. The fabric is hung on a cornice fixed to the ceiling, and a dressing room is installed behind the curtain. Such a simple enclosing structure will completely hide the storage of things, but it will always be accessible. In addition, a well-chosen curtain can add individuality and originality to the interior of a room.
This arrangement option is most suitable for the bedroom, since in such an improvised dressing room you can place not only items of clothing, but also bed linen. Such storage would not be very appropriate, say, in the living room.
It is only possible to allocate a separate room for a wardrobe in your own home or in an apartment with a large area.
In a private house, it is recommended to provide a wardrobe room at the design stage of the building. Without words, it is clear that this is the best option, since the storage room can be arranged in an area of the house convenient for the owners. Most often, the wardrobe is adjacent to the bedroom, less often it is located next to the hallway. In some cases, even two wardrobes are equipped:
It is necessary to separate different categories of things for the reasons that it is somehow inappropriate to store bed linen and underwear in the hallway, since all the dust that enters the home from the street first of all ends up in this room. Again, storing shoes and underwear in one place is not entirely correct, although in many of the illustrations shown, all shoes are in the same storage with the rest of the things.
From the information presented above, it becomes clear that the dressing room can have different configurations - this most often depends on the available possibilities for its arrangement. For example, corner storage takes on a triangular or trapezoidal shape, but most are square or rectangular. It is convenient not only to store things, but also to try them on.
As for the size of this room, it directly depends on the area of the apartment or house. But usually a wardrobe takes up 1.2÷1.5 m² - this is a rectangular room with dimensions of 1.0×1.5 m. It should be noted that a corner triangular dressing room with the same area is more spacious than a rectangular version.
A rectangular dressing room, designed for one-sided placement of shelving, must have a width of at least 1200 mm. If you plan to install shelves on two sides of the room, then you need to plan a width of at least 1500 mm. After all, the main difference between a dressing room and a regular closet is that you can go into it - this factor should also be taken into account when planning the placement of shelves.
Several principles for organizing the interior space of a wardrobe are used. Shelving can be installed only along one wall, in a U-shaped or L-shaped pattern. Most rational option- this is a U-shaped distribution of shelves, as it makes it possible to make full use of the entire space of the room, as well as move around it in search of the necessary thing. At the same time, it is possible to organize a storage system in this way even in a relatively small area.
If the room (bedroom) has a small area in which it is difficult to select and fence off 1500÷2000 mm, then you will have to limit yourself to a wardrobe installed along one of the walls. This option does not take up much space and has a well-thought-out distribution of internal space.
In the same situation, when a dressing room has to be organized in a passage room, for example, in a hallway, the best option would be to place the shelving along parallel walls. In this case, to prevent the room from looking sloppy, it is recommended to equip the shelves with doors. Placing shelves in parallel will not make it difficult to move around this room, but the capacity of the cabinets will be maximized.
Due to the fact that when arranging a dressing room, every centimeter is usually saved, the doors for this room or closet should not take up much space when opening and closing them.
If the area of the adjacent room allows, then you can use the simplest and most familiar swing door design. It is quite convenient, since when you open the doors you can see the entire room and things laid out on the shelves.
Another option for doors is an “accordion”, that is, when it is opened, the doors fold together. The option is quite interesting, but its installation will also require a certain space in the room adjacent to the wardrobe. In addition, the scheme itself is quite difficult to implement by an inexperienced master.
Therefore, the most preferred design, which will not take up extra space, is sliding doors, such as those installed on sliding wardrobes. At the same time, for comfortable operation of the storage facility, it is recommended to choose doors that open in both one and the other direction. The doors of such doors often have mirror inserts, which is convenient when trying on clothes.
The design of the compartment doors also cannot be called very simple. But with diligence, and even more so - with the use of special sets of metal profiles and the necessary fittings, the installation is quite feasible to carry out independently, without the involvement of an outside specialist.
Is it difficult to make and install sliding doors yourself?
Sets of special components and special aluminum profiles make this task quite feasible for any owner who knows how to handle basic set tools. And detailed illustrated, with all necessary calculations, reader on the pages of our portal.
Whatever door is chosen for the wardrobe, its design must still correspond to the overall design of the room into which it opens.
In some cases, instead of doors to close the dressing room, thick curtains of appropriate design are used.
The number of things that can be placed in it, as well as the ease of finding what you need, depends on how ergonomically the space in the dressing room is organized. Therefore, there are certain rules that it is advisable to follow when creating your own design of a room for storing clothes and shoes.
Shelving or wardrobes are divided into several levels:
It is necessary to clarify that some dressing room owners prefer to allocate not just one lower tier for shoes, but an entire section of the rack, placing it from floor to ceiling.
Modern designs of shelving and cabinets used in the dressing room use various holders, press hangers, drawers for small items, metal mesh baskets, convenient for storing knitwear, socks, underwear, etc.
A dressing room is most often a closed, unventilated room with no windows. Therefore, it has to organize its own ventilation. Otherwise, over time, a musty smell will appear in the room itself, which will permeate all the clothes. And getting rid of it is quite a difficult task even with the help of the strongest perfumes and deodorants.
Ventilation is planned at the stage of drawing up the dressing room project. It is then that it is necessary to find the optimal option for organizing it or connecting it to a common ventilation system.
The principle of arranging ventilation in the dressing room is identical to the ventilation system in any of the rooms. Exhaust ventilation vents are planned in the ceiling surface or in the upper part of the walls. These vents are connected by air ducts to the home's ventilation system or have their own exhaust duct that goes vertically to the street. Sometimes, if necessary, it is installed exhaust fan. The flow of air into the room is ensured through the cracks under the door or through specially equipped windows in the lower part of the door leaf, closed with decorative grilles or overlays.
The air exchange organized in this way maintains a normal microclimate in the dressing room.
When choosing a fan for installation in the dressing room, you should pay attention to the noise level when it operates. This room most often borders the bedroom, so noise should be minimal. The fan can be controlled automatically or from a pass-through switch.
A room without natural light in which things are stored requires the use of a considerable number of lighting fixtures. This is necessary to make it easier to find the item you need and then try it on.
An excellent help in organizing lighting is the presence of a large mirror in the dressing room, which enhances the light flux coming from electrical appliances. An important point in achieving a comfortable atmosphere is the choice of the color of the walls, ceiling, as well as cabinets, shelves and racks. So, if all surfaces have light shades, they will also enhance the brightness of the lighting.
Due to the fact that there should be a lot of lighting fixtures in this small room, it is worth thinking about their efficiency. You should not rely on using conventional incandescent lamps, as they not only consume a large amount of electricity compared to their counterparts, but are also not durable enough. Besides, high temperatures heating of such lamps makes their use unsafe under the conditions under consideration.
The best option for lighting shelves would be tubes that provide bright, but not harsh light, are designed for a long service life and are economical in terms of energy consumption.
You should not choose massive chandeliers for overhead lighting, or pendant lamps hanging from the ceiling by more than 250÷300 mm. It’s just that when trying on, you can easily touch them with raised hands. The most suitable lamps for this room will be spotlight models built into the suspended ceiling of the room, as well as directly into the shelves.
Additionally, the lighting in the dressing room can be equipped with a motion sensor, which will eliminate the need to turn on the light with a regular switch - it will light up when the doors are opened, and turn off when they are closed. A motion sensor can be tied to the entire lighting system, or another option is to purchase ready-made lamps with a built-in sensor.
Arranging a dressing room yourself will allow you to get a practical and ergonomic space for storing most of the necessary things at minimal cost. In addition, when creating a project with your own hands, it becomes possible to create a comfortable placement of shelves and cabinets for each dressing room owner.
To begin with, it is worth determining what materials the dressing room and shelving inside the room can be built from.
It is preferable to use for covering the frame, since this material is “breathable”, therefore it does not accumulate moisture and counteracts the formation of unpleasant odors. And it’s more environmentally friendly than wood composites.
It should be noted that making a frame from galvanized metal profiles is not the most the best option for small spaces. It will definitely have to be sheathed on both sides with plasterboard or other sheet material. The design will certainly look neat, but it will take up too much useful space.
Usually, if a dressing room is created with your own hands, any suitable material, available in home “stores”. Often old furniture is disassembled and used for this purpose - these can be cabinets or cabinets. To ensure that all this variety of material looks neat upon completion of the work, it is recommended that the finished structure be painted in one light color.
Whatever the construction of the dressing room is supposed to be, work on its creation begins with the development of the project, taking into account the materials that are planned to be used.
The project is a drawing made according to the measurements taken of the place where the dressing room will be organized. To know what a project drawing might look like, several options will be considered below.
When creating a project, it is not at all necessary to draw the things that will be stored in one or another compartment of the structure, but it is advisable to make signatures of their location. This will make it easier to imagine and decide how convenient it will be to use the shelves and hangers. In addition, all distances between structural elements must be indicated on the drawing. After such a substantive study of the scheme, you can immediately draw up a list of all the necessary materials, parts, special components, indicating their required quantity.
Using the presented parameters as a basis, you can create a set of shelving from different materials without using the side panels of the structure.
What you can use to build a partition for a dressing room was described above. In addition, our website contains many publications with information about working with drywall. Therefore, this section will describe the option of manufacturing shelving in a room already separated by a partition. And the frame for the shelving will be metal pipes. Moreover, in the example under consideration, these are completely ordinary VGP pipes.
How to install a light partition in a room?
By the way, a frame structure followed by sheathing with sheets of plasterboard is not the only option. There are others, and they are very interesting and accessible. independent use technologies. All this can be found in a special publication on our portal.
To manufacture this design, you can take any of the projects presented above, or you can create one yourself.
To work, you will need some tools that, as a rule, can be found in the “arsenal” of any home workshop:
From the materials for installation of the structure shown as an example, you will need to prepare:
Chipboard, plywood 10÷12 mm thick or boards for making shelves and drawers.
Furniture fittings - corners, guides, hinges, handles, etc.
Boxes and baskets for storing things.
Self-tapping screws for fastening structural parts to walls, floors and ceilings.
Having prepared everything you need, you can move on to the first stage of work:
For assembly, you will either have to purchase pieces of pipe of the required length with already threaded threads, or do the cutting yourself. In principle, this is also not particularly difficult if you purchase or rent a socket (ratchet) and a die of the appropriate diameter. A long threaded section at the end of the pipe is not needed - 12÷15 mm is enough.
When using furniture pipes, no threading operation is required - all connecting units are mounted using the appropriate parts, tightened with screws.
Pieces of pipes with flanges are screwed to the upper ends of the racks through bends for final fixation to the wall. Very high reliability of all connections is achieved. And at the same time, such a structure, if necessary, does not take long to disassemble, modernize, increase or decrease the number of shelves, etc.
If there is no opportunity or desire to tinker with connecting sections of pipes, and there are enough chipboards accumulated in home storerooms to make shelves, then you can use another option.
In a furniture fittings store you can purchase special corner holders-brackets, which are fixed to the wall, and pre-prepared shelves are placed and fixed on top of them. This method of forming a structure is much simpler. Moreover, you can start assembling racks from a finished piece of furniture - a pencil case or cabinet, “tying” the remaining structural elements to it and the wall.
The preliminary work, before starting to fix the shelves on the walls, is identical to the first option for arranging a wardrobe with shelving on pipes.
We deliberately do not stop at self-production cabinets made of chipboard or MDF furniture panels - a separate detailed publication is devoted to this on our website.
How to make built-in furniture yourself?
Inexperienced home handyman Sometimes it’s scary to take on such a task—the fear of failure overpowers it. But there is no need to worry - there is nothing supernaturally difficult about it. About the technology, including the wardrobe for the dressing room, in a special publication on our portal.
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So, above were presented only a few simple options that can be used to create a personal dressing room. However, when arranging a storage room, much will depend on the characteristics of a particular room. Therefore, when creating a project, it is necessary to take into account not only the size of the allocated area, but also the materials from which the walls and floors are built.
And information about the basic principles of organization and the stages of creating a dressing room will greatly facilitate both the design and implementation of your plans.
Some pieces of furniture
Some pieces of furniture seem to have come straight out of a science fiction or spy movie: in fact, they are not at all what they seem. This cannot be said to be a modern invention - furniture with additional secret functions has been made since ancient times. Inside the extant antique furniture very often various hiding places and secret boxes are discovered. Tables, dressing tables, chests of drawers and cabinets created by ancient masters usually had a dual purpose: they were not only used, but also money, documents and jewelry were safely hidden in them from prying eyes and intruders, which was vital in those turbulent times.
In France in the 18th century they even began to produce the new kind furniture - secretaries. The name itself suggests that these interior items were intended to keep the owner’s secrets. As a rule, these were miniature bureaus with many visible and hidden shelves and drawers and a folding tabletop used as desk.
The boxes were often equipped with secret locks and secret locking mechanisms. Among antique dealers and collectors of antiques, there are many legends about untold riches accidentally discovered after pressing some inconspicuous stud inside an antique secretary. Or how an antique secretary, having changed many owners, fell into the hands of an experienced specialist who was able to figure out the location of the hiding place, searched for a long time for a way to open it, and, of course, eventually discovered a secret drawer full of ancient treasures.
But even today, the romance of secrets and mysteries has not gone away - people still like to create unexpected and original places to store valuables. And for a number of reasons, the easiest way to do this is in furniture and other interior items. Some hiding places cannot be created without the help of a good furniture maker; in some cases, furniture is already sold with secret niches for storage, but there are also ways to reliably hide something inside the most ordinary furniture.
The simplest example is if you need to securely hide an envelope or flat package, simply tape it to the bottom of the drawer on the bottom side. In most cases, even if someone goes through all the drawers of your desk, they will hardly think to look under them. For greater confidence, use the lowest drawer so that inspecting its bottom is also physically inconvenient.
The same principle applies to hiding places under the seats of chairs, however, in our opinion, this is less reliable: chairs are often lifted to be rearranged, and they can also accidentally fall. Therefore, there is a very high probability of quickly discovering such a cache, and this one is better original way storage to be used for something not very valuable.
It is also quite common to store valuables in a piano. By its design, this musical instrument has a lot of free space inside, which can be perfectly used to place anything: from household supplies to important documents. Of course, provided that there is no professional musician living in your family who will not allow you to treat the instrument so frivolously.
Hiding places are often installed under furniture - in the empty space between the legs, which is closed decorative facade. Someone builds a convenient drawer there. Or you can simply find a flat box of suitable size, put valuables in it and put it away under the closet. You can also make the simplest double bottom inside a drawer yourself.
Naturally, not all ready-made furniture can be used to store valuables - most often it is simply intended for the convenient placement of ordinary household items. For example, in an ottoman in the hallway it is very convenient to neatly lay out shoes, and in ottomans or banquettes in the bedroom or living room - those things that are often used in these rooms.
The same applies to storage under the bed - you won’t get a full-fledged hiding place from this place, but it is very convenient to remove items that are not needed at the moment.
Among the ready-made furniture intended for secret storage of valuables, special shelves and tabletops should be noted. From their appearance it is impossible to guess that there is a hiding place inside.
Wall mirrors and specially designed paintings can also make excellent hiding places that are almost impossible to discover. Also, real safes are sometimes disguised as paintings.
Another way to create a hiding place at home is to purchase a secret drawer or safe disguised as an outlet.
It is very popular to place caches made from books on bookshelves. This does not require any special skills or expensive materials - the main thing is to choose the spines of the books in such a way that they look harmonious among the other publications on the shelf and do not attract attention to themselves.
You can try creating your own simple secret storage spaces inside or under countertops.
Other, more complex projects are made to order from a good craftsman. This applies to secret drawers or special secret niches for storing various furniture inside.
Furniture that retains the breath of old times gives our apartments a special flavor. In this section we will mainly talk about the secretary, but not about the one we all know as component modern furniture wall, but about how our ancestors imagined this piece of furniture many years ago. A home craftsman with some carpentry experience is quite capable of making such a desk along with an extension.
The table shape, tabletop area and extension are small in size. Therefore, the secretary will not take up much space in the room and can be placed somewhere near the wall, and maybe in front of the window.
In our design we will be dealing with shaped parts, small drawers, etc. To make them we will need pieces of plywood board or thick plywood.
The secretary shown in Fig. 20 should be considered only as one of the options. Your own taste and the material you have will tell you a variety of variations of this model. First, let's determine the main dimensions of our future structure. Table height – 75–78 cm (top edge height), extension height – at least 40 cm, tabletop width – 120–140 cm, depth – 60–80 cm. When manufacturing various parts, you must first draw up an accurate sketch of them. For curly sidewalls and corners, it is necessary to make templates in advance and transfer the shapes with a soft pencil to the material.
Rice. 20. Secretary
Now some instructions for making a secretary. The table consists of two sidewalls, which are also the supporting legs of the table top, a frame of drawers and a thick rail that strengthens the structure and is placed in the lower rear third of the table. We connect the frame and tabletop to the sidewalls using dowels in the same way as the crossbars, which act as special legs. We connect the back support strip to the sidewalls using cuts and, after gluing, also with screws. In accordance with the specified width of the drawers, we insert shutter strips between the slats. To the extension, consisting of sidewalls, top board and back wall, we add various drawers on both sides. Since our design uses different materials, it is recommended to paint the secretary, preferably in two brown tones that go well together.
The picture below shows how without special tool you can make the specified shapes for the secretary from the available material. First, use a hacksaw to make the marked cuts before starting to carve. Then, using a chisel, we hollow out part of the material (on both sides), and then make oblique cuts. We finish the grooves and roundings with a rasp.
It seems that the screen in the middle of the room has finally gone out of fashion. However, screens can be used in our daily lives. They allow you to partition or close something.
Our first recommendation concerns a screen that can be used to create a comfortable workplace. Two workstations in a narrow children's room, equipped with a side to the window, give two children the opportunity to study without distraction. The partition can be made from old material you have. If we build new partition, it is recommended to make a frame from slats (2 cm thick and 6–7 cm wide), interconnected by overlapping ends. If a large structure is planned, it is necessary to provide transverse rigid fastening, especially if we (as indicated in Fig. 21) also want to equip small shelves on the partitions.
Rice. 21. Screen
We carefully sheathe the frame on both sides with TDVP. We make small shelves from pieces of boards 12–15 cm wide, nailed together at right angles. The shelves should be positioned in such a way that they are supported by transverse connections, which are secured with screws screwed into the other side of the partition. Since the shelves are not opposite each other, you can hang a tear-off calendar or attach a writing board on the screw heads on the other side.
At certain intervals we screw in small hooks. We attach lamps to the top of our structure to provide the necessary lighting. In order for the partition to have a strong support, support bars are used as legs (as can be seen from the figure).
Another option for using a screen is shown in the figure below. The screen can be used by placing it in front of the crib to protect from light and noise. It is also useful in the garden to temporarily fence off, for example, a swimming pool. To do this, we build frames approximately 180 cm high, which are upholstered on one side with any padded material. The upholstery can be mats, straw matting, awnings, burlap (which, by the way, can be painted in a very original way) or even cardboard, which can be covered with wallpaper. The frames form a screen using plug hinges.
To use the screen outdoors, we attach two long pegs at the bottom of each frame that stick into the ground. By using tent pegs (as indicated in the right picture below), the screen is installed so firmly that no wind will blow it away.
As we noted earlier, when furnishing apartments, one often has to deal with the fact that the furniture available for sale does not quite correspond to the size of the premises. Often a section of the wall remains unoccupied, although it could be rationally filled with some piece of furniture. One solution to this problem is a homemade cabinet with shelves. This locker is an extremely useful thing. It can be used, for example, to decorate a youth room, a corner of the room or as a TV stand. Its appearance should, of course, be in harmony with all the other furniture in the room.
It is advisable to use parts of a well-preserved old cabinet as a material. If you plan to paint the cabinet in advance, this greatly simplifies its manufacture, since nails and screws are used to connect the parts; however, you should always recess their heads. The holes must be filled with wood putty and, after setting, the surface must be sanded with sandpaper. If we want to do without nails and screws, the individual parts can be connected using wooden dowels.
The dimensions of the locker are determined by specific conditions. For our example, they are as follows: width – 90 cm, height – 75 cm and depth – 40 cm. The frame of the cabinet consists of two side walls, a shelf (bottom shelf), a lid, a back wall and a base. To connect the polyc to the side walls, it is best to use a closed tenon joint. To do this, the floor must be between the walls, the lid must be on the side walls (see Fig. 22 bottom left). The back wall fits into a recess that is located inside, on the side walls. We use TDVP or plywood boards as the material for this.
Each time dictates its own styles, including in furniture design. However, in addition to beauty, many interior items should also have additional functionality: have drawers, drawers and shelves. And in some cases - hiding places, small safes disguised as ordinary bedside tables, chests of drawers or other pieces of furniture, as well as built into bookcases and wardrobes.
Secretary with curved legs, decorated with carvings
Their presence always had its own meaning: here it was possible to hide something that was not necessary for others to see. And, starting from the 18th century, in any rich house one could find a secretary, or in the Russian version, a desk where the owner kept especially valuable documents: bills, money, jewelry.
Various hiding places and secret drawers are often discovered inside antique furniture that has survived to this day.
Furniture with secrets - table and cabinet with additional drawers
In past centuries, in the homes of wealthy people, a mandatory part of the office was a table or a cabinet with secret drawers, which were used to store especially important documents, money, and jewelry, which made it possible to protect them from thieves. Later in France, a special table-cabinet was invented, called a secretary, because it was really possible to store various secret documents and small valuables in it.
The drawers were often equipped with secret locks and secret locking mechanisms
The popularity of secretaries and other furniture “delicacies” equipped with various secret spaces was not accidental. Their design has its advantages that they do not have regular tables and cabinets, and features unique to such products.
They are no less relevant today: they are stored in stylized safes and hiding places. securities, expensive jewelry, important correspondence and documentation. Among the obvious advantages of such furniture are:
Among the factors characteristic of furniture with a secret, the design features of such products stand out, allowing you to prepare storage spaces specific type values. As a rule, if hiding places are specially equipped, they are equipped with secret locks, and today - with an electronic security system.
Today furniture market offers products not only for personal use, but also for businesses and organizations. In addition, it can be made to order according to individual drawings.
To open this table you need to place a special magnet in Right place, no more knobs and levers
Hiding places are often installed under furniture - in the empty space between the legs
Antique furniture is a storehouse of secrets and mysteries. Old cabinetmakers turned furniture elements into real works of art. Today's craftsmen make modern furniture in the old style, helping to create special interior and supplement it with hidden elements.
Hiding places in antique furniture
Purchasing special tables, cabinets and bedside tables with hiding places is quite expensive. But this does not mean that especially important documents and jewelry will remain on the shelf in the closet.
Option for a hiding place in the house on a bookshelf
Wall mirrors and specially designed paintings can also make great hiding places.
Available today different kinds ordinary furniture equipped with secret spaces. Secret places can be located in any part of it, and they can be equipped either by the owners themselves, or by ordering their production by craftsmen, secret places can be located:
A secret drawer or safe disguised as an outlet
Custom-made desk stash
There is not always a need to buy expensive exclusive furniture equipped with secret places. Can be used a budget option by ordering required element furniture interior specialists according to their own drawings. Or a home craftsman can try to create and equip it with his own hands.
These can be equipped secret places under or inside countertops, in the doors of cabinets and bedside tables, as well as shelves and drawers on which locks can be installed.
Of interest are small “turnkey” niches equipped in the depths of the desk drawers with a secret.
An interesting option for hiding in a chest of drawers
A simple hiding place in furniture - in the hollow legs of a chair
A hiding place arranged in these pieces of furniture is considered a classic. Making it is quite simple: you need to drill a hole of the selected size inside the furniture element. It is assumed that only one person will know about such a “secret” - the one who made it.
It is clear that the place for storing valuables equipped here does not imply a large number of them, which must be remembered to be disguised in a convenient way.
Advice. You need to make holes very carefully and not overdo it with their diameter, so as not to weaken the structure and lead to its breakage.
Stash inside the chair seat
The double bottom drawer is a true classic that still works today
Traditionally, hiding places are located in drawers of a desk or chest of drawers, where a “second bottom” can be made. For its equipment, take the same material from which the furniture itself is made, of the same size, secure it:
Small hiding place idea - a box within a box
You can put flat objects there:
Hidden “treasures” must also be secured on the “second day”.
Drawers with secrets for regular cabinets
Secret drawers, securely hidden in the most ordinary-looking bookshelves
Cabinets provide a wide field of activity for equipping secret places from thieves. Their large internal and external space allows you to hide a large number of items of various configurations.
Hiding places built into a regular closet
| Cache location | What can you hide? | How to secure |
| Under the bottom of the cabinet, in the far corner | Jewelry, small valuable items | ·Fold into a box of suitable size and place on the floor; ·pack in a bag and attach with Velcro to the bottom of the cabinet |
| Behind the back wall | Documents, securities. Jewelry, art paintings |
Secure in bags and attach with tape or glue |
| Behind inner surface mirrors | Only flat objects | Use tape |
| At the bottom of the cabinet - the formation of a second bottom | Any objects corresponding to the height of the second bottom | Fold into a niche, cover with the second bottom |
| In the far corner inside the closet, disguised as a shoe box | Items that fit the box | Place a drawer with a lid that locks with a key in a shoe box secured with screws to the floor of the closet, put a pair of shoes on top that no one uses, cover with a shoe box lid |
Pull-out panel in the closet, hidden from prying eyes
Attention! Before hiding a thing, you need to decide who may know about the existence of the cache and have access to it, so that if it is discovered by household members, you will not end up in a stupid position.
When a child reaches the age of plush toys and wooden rocking chairs, his growing up is not a reason to send old favorites “into exile.” But it’s worth thinking about refurbishment of the nursery. For example, a horse can be easily turned into a compact, fun secretary for a teenager. A little ingenuity, a few boards and screws, a reliable tool and love for your rapidly growing child - that's what you need for this.
For the internal structure, medium density MDF is mainly used. This gives two advantages at once: firstly, MDF with a thickness of 16 and 19 mm is sufficiently durable and works well in bending even at large sizes. Secondly, its surfaces are easy to paint. Sanding before applying paint, as a rule, is not required; only the edges, due to their high absorbency, require at least two treatments - “sandpaper” No. 100 and No. 180.
You will need a variety of screws: 4.0 x 45 mm; 4.0 x 20 mm; 3.5 x 50 mm; 3.5 x 25 mm; 3.5 x 16 mm.
You will need
cordless drill wood drill bits 3.5 and 6 mm Forstner drills 30 and 35 mm jigsaw miter box hammer chisel pencil and ruler tape carpentry and assembly glue* lighter MDF screws 19 and 16 mm plywood 27 and 18 mm lumber rubber cord rollers with guides belt for pens.
When gluing it is necessary high accuracy due to the lack of fixing screws. Simple adhesive tape will help you.
Transformable furniture has become popular recently due to the lack of space in small apartments for useful things.
But such pieces of furniture were invented quite a long time ago. This applies to such an interesting piece of furniture as a secretary. Despite the fact that previously living space was measured not by individual rooms, but by floors, houses and entire palaces, this multifunctional cabinet gained its popularity even then. Later, this furniture began to be replaced with heavy walls and began to be taken to dachas or simply got rid of it. Now secretaries are again at the peak of popularity, however, the variety of models allows them to be successfully fitted into almost any room. We will tell you below why it has gained such popularity and how to use a modern secretary in the interior.
It is believed that the first secretary was created in 1730, but the prototype of this piece of furniture appeared in the 12th-13th centuries. Then it was exclusively ladies' furniture, where romantic young ladies wrote messages to their lovers, and women close to power decided the destinies of individuals and entire states. Later, men also appreciated the charm of such an unusual cabinet-table, and it was used by the highest strata of society, right up to kings and emperors. The furniture of some of them still amazes the imagination, delighting the eyes of connoisseurs in historical museums and galleries. Also, secretaries were often used by doctors, since in its numerous compartments it is convenient to store papers, medicines, and various medical devices.
It is worth noting that the secretary has always been a combination of a cabinet, a desk and a safe, and it has remained the same to this day, only its appearance, thanks to the efforts of designers and furniture manufacturers, can now be completely different. Sometimes a written secretary is compared to a bureau. However, there is one main difference between them: a secretary is a type of cabinet, i.e. storage places, and a bureau is a type of table, i.e. workplace. Thus, the main function of these multifunctional interior items is different.
Designers have always understood the beauty of such interior items, although they could not always use them. And if a modern secretary occupies a separate place in the interior and is an independent piece of furniture, then quite recently, in Soviet times, it was often built into furniture walls or sets. Thus, a separate section or module was allocated to bookshelves, several drawers and an invariable folding tabletop, which make up the secretary. We can say that this was a version of the built-in secretary.
The advantage of modern models is that they can be part of furniture group belonging to the same collection or skillfully matched to each other in color and style, and differ from all other pieces of furniture, being the main object or accent in the space.
The options for today's secretaries can be completely different: massive and miniature, stationary and mobile, ordinary rectangular and corner. Appearance - shape, fittings, color and other characteristics - can please people with completely different tastes.
It could be a classic desk secretary made of solid wood, an elegant console cabinet for the hallway, a multifunctional secretary for the bedroom that looks more like a chest of drawers, a modern computer desk-secretary, etc. There are specialized or, better to say, “professional” secretaries, for example, accounting, filing or library models.
The variety of models allows you to imagine a modern secretary in the interior of any room. In the office, this is an indispensable writing secretary, combining a durable tabletop with convenient storage for papers and small items. In the living room this is a storage area with the possibility of turning it into work area. In the nursery it's comfortable spot for creativity, where all things are in order, but at the same time always at hand. Also, in all these rooms you can install a computer desk-secretary if there is no separate place for it.
Many remote workers will like this, because such interior items are designed not only for laptops, but also for desktop computers. In any case, if necessary, for example, when receiving guests, you can hide the workplace by raising the table top or closing the door if the secretary is a table in a closet.
You can use a modern secretary in the bedroom interior either to create a work area that can be easily hidden during relaxation by raising or sliding the tabletop, or to store bedding, women's magazines and other small items, as well as write plans for the next day or keep a diary every night.
The kitchen can also include a transformable cabinet such as a secretary, but still few people organize a work area here in order to work with papers or at the computer. For the kitchen, it is better to choose desks or buffets similar to secretaries with retractable or folding tabletops.
A small writing secretary on high legs can be placed in the hallway or hall so that it is convenient to put the press on it, sign bills or leave some small things (keys, change for travel, a shoehorn) so that they do not get lost.
“Antique” secretaries look great in classic interior styles, especially retro style, and a modern secretary – in an interior with a minimalist design, high-tech style or other modern trends. An antique writing secretary is usually massive, “pot-bellied” and solid: made of solid expensive wood and decorated with carvings. Such aristocratic furniture dark colors Suitable for Baroque, Rococo, Art Nouveau and other classical interiors. Use of antiques or artificial aging new furniture is also quite typical for these interior styles.
Refined furniture options with elegant shapes and original fittings are suitable for the Art Deco style. Typically, secretaries for them are more like narrow console tables with small drawers on top. Such tables are usually made in black and white, which is one of the characteristic features of Art Deco.
A modern computer desk-secretary is represented either by a light, airy model, or combines a spacious bookshelf with a retractable or opening tabletop.
Such secretaries with a minimum of finishing and simple fittings are suitable for minimalism, hi-tech, pop art styles, however, the materials and colors for each option should be different. Thus, the high-tech style is characterized by translucent matte facades, gray color, laconic shape, chrome parts and technological options for transforming the table. Pop art “loves” a combination of bright colors, slightly naive details, pictures or photographs on facades. Basically, for some modern styles In the interior, you can decorate your computer desk-secretary yourself, using an inexpensive purchased model as a basis.
For ethnic styles you can choose your own shapes. So, French, English or scandinavian interior easy to create using furniture from certain manufacturers. Country style provides slightly naive desk cabinets with natural or artificial abrasions on the body. Small secretaries of laconic forms made of wood and rough finishing are suitable for eco-style.
Proper use of the secretary's features, rational storage of books, papers, writing instruments and other things necessary for work, as well as the interesting appearance of this piece of furniture will certainly be appreciated by any home owner. By the way, the secrets of some ancient secretaries have not yet been solved, maybe your furniture will become interesting to your descendants later?
New secretary made from old wood
Furniture that retains the breath of old times gives our apartments a special flavor. In this section we will mainly talk about the secretary, but not about the one that we all know as an integral part of a modern furniture wall, but about how our ancestors imagined this piece of furniture many years ago. A home craftsman with some carpentry experience is quite capable of making such a desk along with an extension.
The table shape, tabletop area and extension are small in size. Therefore, the secretary will not take up much space in the room and can be placed somewhere near the wall, and maybe in front of the window.
In our design we will be dealing with shaped parts, small drawers, etc. To make them we will need pieces of plywood board or thick plywood.
The secretary shown in Fig. 20 should be considered only as one of the options. Your own taste and the material you have will tell you a variety of variations of this model. First, let's determine the main dimensions of our future structure. Table height – 75–78 cm (top edge height), extension height – at least 40 cm, tabletop width – 120–140 cm, depth – 60–80 cm. When manufacturing various parts, you must first draw up an accurate sketch of them. For curly sidewalls and corners, it is necessary to make templates in advance and transfer the shapes with a soft pencil to the material.
Rice. 20. Secretary
Now some instructions for making a secretary. The table consists of two sidewalls, which are also the supporting legs of the table top, a frame of drawers and a thick rail that strengthens the structure and is placed in the lower rear third of the table. We connect the frame and tabletop to the sidewalls using dowels in the same way as the crossbars, which act as special legs. We connect the back support strip to the sidewalls using cuts and, after gluing, also with screws. In accordance with the specified width of the drawers, we insert shutter strips between the slats. To the extension, consisting of sidewalls, top board and back wall, we add various drawers on both sides. Since our design uses different materials, it is recommended to paint the secretary, preferably in two brown tones that go well together.
The figure below shows how, without a special tool, you can make specified shapes for a secretary from existing material. First, use a hacksaw to make the marked cuts before starting to carve. Then, using a chisel, we hollow out part of the material (on both sides), and then make oblique cuts. We finish the grooves and roundings with a rasp.
From the book 40 best knots for a tie, scarf, scarf author Ivanov AndreyThe New Knot The New Knot is a step up from the simple knot: those who can master the first knot will almost certainly master the second. The only difference between them is that when tying a new knot, the edges of the wide end of the tie first
From the book New hallway, living room, bedroom. Best finishing and design projects author Sokolov Ilya IlyichSecretary Unlike a small bureau, a massive secretary is more reminiscent of a full-fledged closet, combining the functions of a desk, a shelf for papers, and drawers for storing small items required for work. The main difference between a secretary and a traditional desk is that
From the book DIY Home Decoration. Handmade. Fashionable solutions for interiors, gifts and accessories author Dobrova Elena VladimirovnaNew life for old furniture Some household items acquire a special chic over the years and do not require any special transformations, with the exception of a barely noticeable and careful restoration designed only to emphasize their advantages. Other pieces of furniture inevitably age and lose
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From the book DIY Furniture author Onishchenko VladimirChapter 3 Restoration of old furniture Not only in a country house, but also in a city apartment, there is often a need to eliminate minor furniture defects. To do this, you don’t need to be a professional and understand the intricacies of finishing. Enough to know
From book Exterior finishing country house and dacha. Siding, stone, plaster author Zhmakin Maxim SergeevichNew look for an old chair If you have a favorite chair at your dacha whose upholstery has worn out, you can transform it by sewing a new cover. It will give the piece of furniture a new look, and you will be in a great mood. For work you will need the following: – an old chair; – fabric,
From the book Practical homemade crafts for the garden with your own hands author Team of authorsA new look for an old kitchen Any woman who spends a lot of time in the kitchen wants her kitchen equipment to look stylish and beautiful while providing sufficient efficiency. But time passes, and the hostess begins to think (or maybe this is actually the case)
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From the author's bookPreparing surfaces with old paint Before painting, carefully prepare the surface by removing all old paint, rust and mold, and clean the base from dust and other types of contaminants. If you decide to apply a layer of paint over the old coating, that is, serious
Each time dictates its own styles, including in furniture design. However, in addition to beauty, many interior items should also have additional functionality: have drawers, drawers and shelves. And in some cases - hiding places, small safes disguised as ordinary bedside tables, chests of drawers or other pieces of furniture, as well as built into bookcases and wardrobes.
Secretary with curved legs, decorated with carvings
Their presence always had its own meaning: here it was possible to hide something that was not necessary for others to see. And, starting from the 18th century, in any rich house one could find a secretary, or in the Russian version, a desk where the owner kept especially valuable documents: bills, money, jewelry.
Various hiding places and secret drawers are often discovered inside antique furniture that has survived to this day.
Furniture with secrets - table and cabinet with additional drawers
In past centuries, in the homes of wealthy people, a mandatory part of the office was a table or a cabinet with secret drawers, which were used to store especially important documents, money, and jewelry, which made it possible to protect them from thieves. Later in France, a special table-cabinet was invented, called a secretary, because it was really possible to store various secret documents and small valuables in it.
The drawers were often equipped with secret locks and secret locking mechanisms
The popularity of secretaries and other furniture “delicacies” equipped with various secret spaces was not accidental. Their design has its advantages that ordinary tables and cabinets do not have, and features that are unique only to such products.
They are no less relevant today: valuable papers, expensive jewelry, important correspondence and documentation are stored in stylized safes and hiding places. Among the obvious advantages of such furniture are:
Among the factors characteristic of furniture with a secret, the design features of such products are highlighted, making it possible to prepare places for storing a specific type of valuables. As a rule, if hiding places are specially equipped, they are equipped with secret locks, and today - with an electronic security system.
Today, the furniture market offers products not only for personal use, but also for enterprises and organizations. In addition, it can be made to order according to individual drawings.
To open this table you need to place a special magnet in the right place, there are no more handles or levers
Hiding places are often installed under furniture - in the empty space between the legs
Antique furniture is a storehouse of secrets and mysteries. Old cabinetmakers turned furniture elements into real works of art. Today's craftsmen make modern furniture in the old style, helping to create a special interior and complement it with hidden elements.
Hiding places in antique furniture
Purchasing special tables, cabinets and bedside tables with hiding places is quite expensive. But this does not mean that especially important documents and jewelry will remain on the shelf in the closet.
Option for a hiding place in the house on a bookshelf
Wall mirrors and specially designed paintings can also make great hiding places.
Today, various types of ordinary furniture equipped with secret spaces are produced. Secret places can be located in any part of it, and they can be equipped either by the owners themselves, or by ordering their production by craftsmen, secret places can be located:
A secret drawer or safe disguised as an outlet
Custom-made desk stash
There is not always a need to buy expensive exclusive furniture equipped with secret places. You can use a budget option by ordering the desired element of the furniture interior to specialists based on your own drawings. Or a home craftsman can try to create and equip it with his own hands.
These can be equipped secret places under or inside countertops, in the doors of cabinets and bedside tables, as well as shelves and drawers on which locks can be installed.
Of interest are small “turnkey” niches equipped in the depths of the desk drawers with a secret.
An interesting option for hiding in a chest of drawers
A simple hiding place in furniture - in the hollow legs of a chair
A hiding place arranged in these pieces of furniture is considered a classic. Making it is quite simple: you need to drill a hole of the selected size inside the furniture element. It is assumed that only one person will know about such a “secret” - the one who made it.
It is clear that the place for storing valuables equipped here does not imply a large number of them, which must be remembered to be disguised in a convenient way.
Advice. You need to make holes very carefully and not overdo it with their diameter, so as not to weaken the structure and lead to its breakage.
Stash inside the chair seat
The double bottom drawer is a true classic that still works today
Traditionally, hiding places are located in drawers of a desk or chest of drawers, where a “second bottom” can be made. For its equipment, take the same material from which the furniture itself is made, of the same size, secure it:
Small hiding place idea - a box within a box
You can put flat objects there:
Hidden “treasures” must also be secured on the “second day”.
Drawers with secrets for regular cabinets
Secret drawers, securely hidden in the most ordinary-looking bookshelves
Cabinets provide a wide field of activity for equipping secret places from thieves. Their large internal and external space allows you to hide a large number of items of various configurations.
Hiding places built into a regular closet
| Cache location | What can you hide? | How to secure |
| Under the bottom of the cabinet, in the far corner | Jewelry, small valuable items | ·Fold into a box of suitable size and place on the floor; ·pack in a bag and attach with Velcro to the bottom of the cabinet |
| Behind the back wall | Documents, securities. Jewelry, art paintings |
Secure in bags and attach with tape or glue |
| Behind the inner surface of the mirror | Only flat objects | Use tape |
| At the bottom of the cabinet - the formation of a second bottom | Any objects corresponding to the height of the second bottom | Fold into a niche, cover with the second bottom |
| In the far corner inside the closet, disguised as a shoe box | Items that fit the box | Place a drawer with a lid that locks with a key in a shoe box secured with screws to the floor of the closet, put a pair of shoes on top that no one uses, cover with a shoe box lid |
Pull-out panel in the closet, hidden from prying eyes
Attention! Before hiding a thing, you need to decide who may know about the existence of the cache and have access to it, so that if it is discovered by household members, you will not end up in a stupid position.
Today we will tell you what secrets the most ordinary furniture at first glance can keep.
Some pieces of furniture seem to have come straight out of a science fiction or spy movie. In fact, they are not at all what they seem. This cannot be said to be a modern invention: furniture with additional secret functions has been made since ancient times. Various hiding places and secret drawers are often found inside antique furniture that has survived to this day. Tables, dressing tables, chests of drawers and cabinets created by ancient masters usually had a dual purpose: they were not only used, but also money, documents and jewelry were safely hidden in them from prying eyes and intruders, which was vital in those turbulent times.
In France, in the 18th century, they even began to produce a new type of furniture - secretaries. The name itself suggests that these interior items were intended to keep the owner’s secrets. As a rule, these were miniature bureaus with many visible and hidden shelves and drawers and a folding tabletop used as a desk.
The boxes were often equipped with secret locks and secret locking mechanisms. Among antique dealers and collectors of antiques, there are many legends about untold riches accidentally discovered after pressing some inconspicuous stud inside an antique secretary. Or how an antique secretary, having changed many owners, fell into the hands of an experienced specialist who was able to figure out the location of the hiding place, searched for a long time for a way to open it, and, of course, eventually discovered a secret drawer full of ancient treasures.
But even today, the romance of secrets and mysteries has not gone away: people still like to create unexpected and original places to store valuables. For a number of reasons, this is easiest to do in furniture and other interior items. Some hiding places cannot be created without the help of a good furniture maker; in some cases, furniture is already sold with secret niches for storage, but there are also ways to reliably hide something inside the most ordinary furniture.
The simplest example: if you need to securely hide an envelope or a flat package, simply tape it to the bottom of the drawer on the bottom side. Even if someone goes through all the drawers of your desk, in most cases he will hardly think to look under them. For greater confidence, use the lowest drawer so that inspecting its bottom is also physically inconvenient.
The same principle applies to hiding places under the seats of chairs, but in our opinion, this is less reliable: chairs are often lifted to be rearranged, and they can also accidentally fall. The probability of quickly discovering such a cache is very high, so it is better to use this original storage method for something not very valuable.
It is quite common to store valuables in a piano. By its design, this musical instrument has a lot of free space inside, which can be perfectly used to place anything: from household supplies to important documents. Of course, provided that there is no professional musician living in your family who will not allow you to treat the instrument so frivolously.
Hiding places are often installed under furniture - in the empty space between the legs, which is covered by a decorative facade. Someone builds a convenient drawer there. Or you can simply find a flat box of suitable size, put valuables in it and put it away under the closet. You can also make the simplest double bottom inside a drawer yourself.
Naturally, not all ready-made furniture can be used to store valuables: most often it is simply intended for the convenient placement of ordinary household items. For example, in an ottoman in the hallway it is very convenient to neatly lay out shoes, and in ottomans or banquettes in the bedroom or living room - those things that are often used in these rooms.
The same applies to storage under the bed: you won’t get a full-fledged hiding place from this place, but it is very convenient to remove items that are not needed at the moment.
Among the ready-made furniture intended for secret storage of valuables, special shelves and tabletops should be noted. From their appearance it is impossible to guess that there is a hiding place inside.
Wall mirrors and specially designed paintings can also make great hiding places that are nearly impossible to discover. Real safes are sometimes disguised as paintings.
Another way to create a hiding place at home is to purchase a secret drawer or safe disguised as an outlet.
It is very popular to place caches made from books on bookshelves. This does not require any special skills or expensive materials: the main thing is to choose the spines of the books in such a way that they look harmonious among the other publications on the shelf and do not attract attention to themselves.
You can try creating your own simple secret storage spaces inside or under countertops.
More complex projects are made to order from a good craftsman. This applies to secret drawers or special secret niches for storing various furniture inside.
