One day my wife went out on some errands and left me and the boys home alone. She returned to find a porthole from my sons closet into the next bedroom. I haven't watched the kids alone since.......

It's fun to open the hatch from inside the closet and crawl through to the other room. Especially when playing hide and seek or being chased with Nerf guns. If your house is setup in a similar fashion, have a little fun and make this porthole. You can't win "father of the year" without putting a few holes in the walls.

Step 1: Materials,Demo and Build

For this project you will need,

Sheet of coroboard
Sawsaw
Drywall screws
Drill,Sharpie and other misc tools.

After you have decided on your new porthole spot. Measure again on the other side to make sure you don't hit anything important. Now draw a circle with the diameter of your choice. Ours is about 2 feet in diameter and flattens out just above the baseboard trim. In case I have to cover this hole some day. I didn't want to repair baseboard and drywall.

With your safety glasses on, carefully cut out the hole using a reciprocating saw or other sharp object.

I cut through 2 studs and used small pieces of that wood to outline the hole on the sides, top and bottom. Everywhere you see a drywall screw I have wood behind it.

Using a strip of coroboard the width of your opening. Line the inside of the hole and secure it with a few screws.

Now measure and cut out a door with frame to fit over your hole. Leave a section uncut to be the door hinge.

Attach to the wall with a few evenly spaced screws and add a couple extra near the hinge area.

Step 2: Finishing Touches

Using a Sharpie, draw some fake rivets around the porthole to make it look cooler and hide the screws.

A simple wood sliding latch was glued to the door with a matching hole cut into the inside strip. It works, but isn't going to stop any intruders. Original plans were to have a mechanical iris, but unfortunately there was not enough clearance inside the wall. My quick fix was to add a large piece of coroboard to the inside closet. It slides up and down in a channel made from coroboard.

Now wait until your wife goes out, grab the kids and make some holes in your walls.

If you enjoyed this Instructable, you might like these other hiding places I've made in older instructables....

Mysterious bookcase

Secret Batcave

UPDATE:2016

We redid the room and while I am making a nicer wooden porthole door. A little change was made to the porthole. I'd hate to try catching the pokemon that fits in there......