Hidden doors remain one of the most popular home features on Pinterest. Watching Pinterest boards evolve for almost a year, it's time to dig deeper and learn how Pinterest can help us enhance our homes, which in turn should make our lives more enjoyable.
It seemed like the best way to explore how Pinterest users might ultimately use these ideas, was to look at the names of the boards where they pinned hidden doors and/or secret rooms. So before starting down this path, it's only fair that I share my fascination with these photos.
- Hidden doors – started with my love of doors, and the idea that more functional homes will serve us better while using less space and fewer resources. As a lover and collector of books, my collection started with hidden doors that are also bookcases, and grew from there.
- Secret rooms – entered into this story as some of the hidden doors lead to secret rooms. Thinking of secret rooms takes me back to my childhood with stories about castles with endless stairs, rooms and of course, the imaginary secret room.
Hidden Doors or Secret Rooms: Which Came First?
There is lots of history that includes secret rooms. The Diary of Anne Frank included secret rooms and there were thousands of these hidden rooms across Europe. In the United States we had the underground railroad, with hundreds of families that risked everything to help slaves escape to the north.
When searching Pinterest for hidden doors and secret rooms, I found:
- Chad King pinned a hidden door (above) from StashVault.com, and here's where people repinned this elegant, hidden door to boards:
- Chad's board – Secret and Secure Spaces
- For the Home (twice)
- Closets
- Favorite Places and Spaces
- Our House
- Book Staircase Door
- Secret Passages
- Hidden Doors (twice)
- Farmhouse
- … with total of 56 pins, 4 likes.
Tina Gleisner (that's me) pinned a hidden bookcase door from garymkatz.com (great directions on how to build and install the hidden door), to boards:- Tina's board – Doors that are Different
- Shelving Units
- Great Ideas
- Future House
- Cool Stuff
- My Dream House
- For the Home
- Lightbulb
- I Want
- Home/House
- Renovation Ideas
- Home Decor
- … with total of 48 repins, 10 likes.
- Joslyn Aspen pinned a curved bookcase door from imgfave.com, another photo sharing website:
- Joslyn's board – For the Home (plus 2 others)
- Decor for Germany
- For Sarah
- For Dream Home
- Renovation Ideas
- Dream Casa
- Home
- DIY
- Husboard
- … with total of 49 repins and 3 likes.
Follow Pinterest to Source Photos
What I learned is when you track back to the original photo source, you often will find much more information about the idea illustrated in the Pinterest photo. Sometimes though, you'll find photo sharing sites that likely preceeded Pinterest but didn't offer visitors an easy way to save the photo for future use.
Pinterest's value is more obvious when you compare it to these photo sharing sites. Pinterest let's you share what you like with others, i.e. showing the builder what you want in your kitchen remodel or shopping for furniture having already picked a decorating style for your home.
Hidden Doors: Using Pinterest for Research
My initial interest focused on combining a bookcase for storage, with a door for access. This concept didn't dominate people's interest, as most often they pinned to a board with renovation ideas or future house/home. There also didn't appear to be much overlap between hidden doors and secret spaces as only one board “Secret Passages” pointed to this topic (so maybe another day of research on “secret” rooms, spaces or passages?
Maybe the real value here is helping people think outside the box when it comes to designing and remodeling a home? Hidden doors can combine storage with a door, i.e. a kitchen pantry door. Hidden doors can hide doorways in awkward space like the middle of a dining room wall or a bedroom leading into another room. Hidden doors can also be disguised when they are located in unusual spaces like under a staircase.
Will you add one of these hidden doors to your home?
PS If you're looking for more information on doors from traditional, to more novel like Barn Doors Save Space, visit Doors and Windows here at HomeTips4Women.
Blast-resistant windows and doors have long
been used; and an increase in blast-type attacks or events has created a
need for higher levels of protection in a wider range of applications.
Secret rooms and hidden doors are nothing new. In fact, they go back far into history and have been used to hide everyone from paupers and princes to kings and popes.
Exactly and yet we don’t have them in our homes. What I’ve been amazed by are the unusual items like hidden doors, that people are enjoying on Pinterest, which is what prompted my article.