How and Why Secret Doors Are Made: Designer Tips

A door with a secret is an excellent solution, especially when you need to hide something. For example, a bathroom or a mini-kitchen, and sometimes even the door itself. Designer Olga Solnyshkova shares her personal experience.

Olga Solnyshkova is an interior design expert, graduated from the Moscow State Academy of Arts named after S. G. Stroganov.

This interior was designed very quickly, in one breath, because from the beginning I managed to understand and feel all the client's wishes. For him, as for me, the main thing is functionality. If the space is well designed, adding details to it is pure pleasure.

Before the reconfiguration, this was a 77 sq. m. unfurnished two-bedroom apartment. The client wanted to turn it into a three-room flat. In addition to the bedroom, bathroom, and guest bathroom, two walk-in wardrobes, hallway, kitchen, and living room, it was also necessary to accommodate a study that could later transform into a children's room.

The study could only be arranged in the place of the former kitchen. The kitchen was moved to the former corridor and merged with the living room: a transparent dining table that does not 'consume' space helped it look bright and uncluttered with furniture.

The only room remaining in its original location was the bedroom. However, it had to be slightly squeezed and part of its area was given to a wardrobe. Thus, the bedroom ended up having two windows and three doors.

To eliminate the feeling of a passage room, make the doors invisible, and functionally utilize the space between them, I designed a four-door cabinet 'with a secret' along the wall. Behind its third door is a bathroom, behind the first one — a wardrobe. The remaining two doors are for small cabinets with horizontal shelves for storing clothes. Closed shelves were also made above the doors.

All carpentry items, doors and cabinets in the apartment were custom-made according to my sketches — this helped create a functional interior and visually connect different rooms.

When I was designing the interior, I always thought about my clients and tried to imagine myself in their shoes, so it turned out exactly as they wanted — modern, functional, and simple. A design that won't get boring over time.

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On the cover: Interior design project by Olga Solnyshkova.

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