Hidden Drawer Compartment

101,030

438

17

Introduction: Hidden Drawer Compartment

About: My name is Hiyadudez. I make stuff. "The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."

Ever needed a place to hide your cash, a spare key, or something you may put in your wallet on a Saturday night that never ends up getting used, but just could find a good place to put it where there is only a tiny chance somebody would find it? Then you most likely didn't have a hidden drawer compartment.

This hidden compartment is something almost ANYONE can do. The only tools used were a pencil, ruler, a few sticker sheets (not necessary) and a small kitchen knife; things that are readily available to pretty much everyone.

I hope you enjoy this Instuctable. Thanks for taking a look!

Step 1: What You Need

The tools list may vary here depending on what you have, but this is what I used:

- Pencil
- Ruler
- Small kitchen knife (or anything that can cut through the material you have. Mine was hardboard)
- Sticker sheets (These help disguise the drawer compartment)
- Cardboard box

Thats all!

Step 2: Mark Out the Secret Compartment

Lets make the basic shape and size for our compartment.

1. Depending on how big your drawer is and what you want to hide, decide on the size of the compartment.
2. Draw out your compartment lid. Mine was 100mm x 100mm
3. Using your tool, cut out the lid. Using my kitchen knife was messy, so you may do a better job with other tools.

Step 3: Lid Hinge and Camouflaging

At the moment, the lid is kind of bovious and it has no way of lifting up. Lets camouflage it!

1. Grab your sticker sheets. I used these because they were readily available to me.
2. Cover the bottom of your drawer with them. This will help blend the lid with the rest of the drawer.
3. Cover the lid with sticker sheets also, but overlap them slightly and fold over the edge so there is a flap, but its not sticky, and also act as an invisible handle to open it up. (These 'flaps' can be seen in pictures 3 and 4)
4. To create a hinge, simply put a sticker on the hinged side as seen in pictures 3 and 4

Step 4: The Compartment

This step will vary for most people depending on the box you have, the kind of drawer, and the compartment size, so I will not have any steps. It is, however, very self explanatory.

Get a box that fits over it and stick it on the underside of the drawer, you can see how I did this in the pictures.

Workshop Contest

Participated in the
Workshop Contest

Be the First to Share

    Recommendations

    • Big and Small Contest

      Big and Small Contest
    • Game Design: Student Design Challenge

      Game Design: Student Design Challenge
    • For the Home Contest

      For the Home Contest

    17 Comments

    0
    candoman
    candoman

    9 years ago on Introduction

    Most drawers stop 2 - 3 inches before reaching the rear wall of the dresser. Measure that distance behind your drawer then obtain a small box that will fit in that area. buy industrial strength adhesive velcro tape (comes in 5 foot length X 1.5 wide rolled into a box). buy at local home improvement, hardware, or Walmart (possibly). Cut tape length to fit your box. Put one side on the box and the other on the inside of your cabinet behind a drawer. If someone removes the drawer and dumps it, it is unlikely they will stoop down to look at the inside back of the cabinet. My house was robbed a few years back. They pulled out drawers, flipped mattress etc. All my guns were missed by the robbers. Guess where they were all SEVEN (3 hand guns and 4 long guns) were behind drawers in various furniture. I was lucky and I know it. Now in addition to that tactic I also use sealed air tight surplus ammo cans in secret wall compartments etc to store a lot of pilfer-able stuff and live modestly (looks can deceive) . You are limited only by your imagination. By the way. Everything I have is LEGAL.

    .

    0
    patron_zero
    patron_zero

    9 years ago on Introduction

    One might consider using contact paper or a like material to line the drawer's interior, mind not as quickly accessible as the method shown but does a dutiful job of concealment.

    As to bad people tossing drawers during break-ins, those little battery-powered 'shrieking' alarms are perfect 130db surprises to have attached inside desks or bureaus to send intruders fleeing in a panic !

    Nice work! :) However: Drawers arn't good places to hide things because bad people just rip the entire drawer out and dump it. So even taping something to the underside of the drawer wont work either. False cans and outlets are better ways to go.

    0
    lamerc
    lamerc

    Reply 9 years ago on Introduction

    No, but it may well keep pilfering coworkers or snooping family members from finding it. :)

    0
    millmore
    millmore

    9 years ago on Introduction

    Put a sheet of drawer liner in the bottom of the drawer (or left over wallpaper or wrapping paper), and it'll look completely hidden inside too.

    0
    Tampaguy
    Tampaguy

    9 years ago on Introduction

    Some very unique ideas, that I plan to adapt to various other projects. Great Idea!

    0
    Ward_Nox
    Ward_Nox

    9 years ago on Introduction

    won't work for my side table but it does give me an idea

    0
    dimtick
    dimtick

    9 years ago on Introduction

    another thing you could do:
    looking at the inside of your cabinet you see the gap between the back board and the top. you can cut a couple pieces of poster board the width of the insde of the cabinet and then tape or glue to the inside of the cabinet. this will create a secret compartment that you get to by reaching in from the back.
    hopefully that discription made sense.

    0
    Hiyadudez
    Hiyadudez

    Reply 9 years ago on Introduction

    It did, and that's an excellent idea. You could also modify the drawer slides so it could only come out a certain distance to avoid revealing the compartment, which means you have to take out the drawer to get to it.

    0
    Zinked
    Zinked

    9 years ago on Introduction

    since it's under the drawer anyway wouldn't it make more sense just to attach a container to the bottom of the drawer?

    0
    Hiyadudez
    Hiyadudez

    Reply 9 years ago on Introduction

    They do not. Nor will ever know!

    (hopefully)

    0
    NTT
    NTT

    9 years ago

    Cheeky!

    0
    Mielameri
    Mielameri

    9 years ago

    Nice instructable. Works better than a false bottom in some regards, because you haven't changed the depth of the drawer