Comments on: Secret play room uses armoire as hidden doorway

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Halva? (Or more usually: halvah)

More likely to get my attention than Turkish Delight, that’s for sure.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice Stranger In A Strange Land reference. That was a great book!

By: bklynchris

bklynchris — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@Suburban Cowboy Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Yeah, um, the creepy factor here is WAY TOO HIGH. A shot of a hidden room with children’s toys just visible?!

and ANtinous-What in the HELL is a lantern waste??!!! Is that something like a lorey? Did the British version of the Chronicles say Lantern Waste, is that a poncey way of saying lamp post? Bet you’re the life of the party ; )

By: amycamus

amycamus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What a coincidence – I was just watching “How to Steal a Million” with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole, which features a wardrobe entrance to a secret art studio.

By: Jason Stackhouse

Jason Stackhouse — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m sad that all I see is a place to stash a kidnapped child; I’ve watched waaay too much “Criminal Minds” this week.

@ Stephan 22 Hey, neat. I’d not heard of that story, but it sounds fantastic. I’ll have to check it out…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow I am also surprised no one has commented when the kids get to be of an older age and need a place to hide their gf/bf for covert operations, this space would be Ideal!

By: WaylonWillie

WaylonWillie — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sweet! I wish I had the dough to hire a woodworker to take the back off of a cabinet.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

OK, I’ll give you “faun” but I still say “lamppost” is legit since I was referring to the actual landmark, not the colloquial name for the surrounding territory.

By: Milo

Milo — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I grew up in a house where the only way to get to two of the bedrooms was through a walk-in wardrobe. It looked totally normal until you turned to your right, to see a normal-size door leading into the first room.

We were disappointed when my dad cut another door into the other room a few weeks after we moved in, and when we got rid of it completely when we were teenagers. It was a strangely planned house, though!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Did the British version of the Chronicles say Lantern Waste

As opposed to the Amharic version? The area is called Lantern Waste in the English-language books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Waste

And I am the life of the party, since you asked.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t think it’s a full room. It’s likely crawlspace given the angle of the walls. That would account for the color of the walls too; if a lamp with a tungsten tone is used, it would make even white walls appear to be cream or yellowish without an external natural light source.

By: Ddaub

Ddaub — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Berg Furniture is great! My kids absolutely love the stairs and the play area. I wish they made this stuff when I was a kid…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi, I’m Gary Busey and I’d love to be the next hider in that house :)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There should be Ed Gorey-style fur coats hanging up in there. It’s cold in the lampost wastes.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bad Ronald:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071186/

Wow, 1974! I saw the movie once but still recall scenes, like Ronald sneaking out to guzzle milk from the new owner’s fridge. Fantasy-obsessed Ronald was echoed in other Vance characters, particularly Alan Howard Treesong.

* * *

Yeah, secret rooms really come across badly in TV and movies. They’re where CSI characters hide their fetish gear, and pedos hide their victims.

By: kaffeen

kaffeen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Where was I when the “cool parents” were handed out at birth?

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

For those who can’t afford all that this would entail, here’s a reasonable substitution:

http://www.bergfurniture.com/91_72.asp

Click on the slide show to see the details.

By: VoiceUXGuy

VoiceUXGuy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What a fantastic idea. I’m so doing this, and I do not now nor will I ever have kids.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The home owner wouldn’t happen to have been Michael Jackson would it?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now u know to be cool to your kids

By: rebdav

rebdav — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yea, that is a very Portland kind of thing. Like the bumper sticker says, “Keep Portland Weird”. I miss that place, it is where so very many very cool people hide out.

By: insatiableatheist

insatiableatheist — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This would be so fun to build.
Stash room anyone?

By: Xenu

Xenu — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Does the playroom have windows? If so, it would be easy to spot the hidden room from outside.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was going to hide my basement. It’s pretty small (underneath the kitchen only; the rest of the sub-ground-floor area is crawlspace), and the doorway to the basement stairs is in the kitchen at the end of the counter/cabinet area. The stairs descend 90 degrees to the right, and the wall opposite the inside of the door is the back of our front parlor’s wall, where I just installed a full-wall bookcase. The idea was I’d do the old Hidden-Doorway-In-The-Bookcase gag, then wall off the kitchen doorway and extend the countertop and cabinets so you’d never know the doorway used to be there. And I wouldn’t tell the kids about the hidden door in the bookcase. If by the time they graduated they still hadn’t found the hidden staircase, I’d disown them as incurious, unimaginative dullards.

Alas, the H.D.I.T.B. turns out to be more trouble than it’s worth. I’d have made a small version (only 2 or 3 shelves high out of the whole bookcase), but my water heater and water softener are down there, so it’d be dumb to make them less accessible than they already are.

But since the house is 101 years old, there are other nooks and crannies that might make nifty little hidden rooms. I’ll have to get back to y’all…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This can’t possibly be to code. From the lighting inside it looks like there are no windows, and I am assuming there isn’t another door because that would ruin the illusion..

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m doing this for my office.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If your house is old enough, you’ve probably already got secret rooms.

I was making scale drawings of my first floor in preparation for a kitchen remodel and found two. One of them is just a priest’s hole, though, in the wall by the cellar stairs.

By: kaffeen

kaffeen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That is funny. I live in Austin, Texas. We have the same bumper stickers “Keep Austin Weird”. Unfortunately, it appears to be failing miserably (read: big business).

By: thequickbrownfox

thequickbrownfox — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fritzel room?

@Justin, if you put one in your office you may get a “Being John Malkovich” situation.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Narnia jokes in 3, 2, 1…