A bead of glue under the false back keeps objects from sliding under it.Ī turn button will stop the drawer from fully extending. The false back of a drawer is set in dadoes on either side of the drawer box. Most of these hiding places are small, but well hidden, and require that you pull out the drawer before you gain access.Ī false drawer back can create a space behind the main drawer. There are a number of places for secret compartments in drawers. Just pull the front down and slide it out of its hiding place after removing the drawer. To gain access to the tray, a small finger hole can be drilled in the bottom. The back of the tray can sit on a cleat while the front is held with magnets embedded in the desktop. This makes a perfect hiding place for a dropdown tray. If a dresser or cabinet has a rail just under the top and above the drawers, there can be dead space behind the rail. For more security, adding rare-earth magnets and screws will keep the cap from coming loose and spilling the contents. Concealing the opening can be done with a finial or a cap. But it’s a simple matter as you’re working on the project to cut a mortise in the top of one of these parts to stash small items. The goal is to make the apron look like it’s one piece with the cabinet, so mating the apron to the cabinet and minimizing gaps is important.īedposts and pilasters are usually solid. The apron can be attached to the drawer like a false front. To add a toe-kick drawer to a project you’re building, just make a box for the drawer and mount it to the cabinet with drawer slides. And they’re easy to include in just about any cabinet that has an apron at the bottom, as you can see in the main drawing. Toe-kick drawers can provide a lot of room to hide valuables. Still, some secret spaces can be disguised in plain sight by using cleverly hidden panels or shortening deep or long spaces, like those in a drawer. It’s pretty easy to use these dead spaces to build in hiding places while you’re designing the project. If you think about it, in any given piece of furniture there are usually “dead spaces.” Like an inch or two behind a piece of molding or the space between the top of the drawers and the underside of the top.

Plus, with a little discretion, no one will ever know their location. But secret hiding places in furniture are exciting to find and fun to add to projects. Today you won’t earn much interest on money that’s stowed away in a desk or a bedpost. Of course any piece of furniture with drawers or doors could be made to tuck away valuables in a hidden drawer or disguised panel. And desks with multiple cubbies were made too for those who wanted to hide their fortunes. A bedpost was a good place to hide money and other valuables. You can find these hiding places in all kinds of furniture. So it was common practice for cabinetmakers to incorporate hidden compartments into furniture. you can keep your depressing Prime Suspects/Trial and Retributions - Michele Morgan knocks them all into a cocked hat.Before the days of banks and safety deposit boxes, people often kept cash and valuables hidden at home.

I can really recommend this wonderful series/film. In particular, the gorgeous Marie France-Pisier, as Morgan's eldest daughter, is excellent and very funny (though not exactly a comedy-drama, The Secret Drawer has many funny moments and is played with a very light touch). What is so clever about The Secret Drawer is the genuinely believable interplay between Morgan and her three screen children, all of whom have interesting personal lives which run parallel to the sleuthing being done by their mother. The only trouble is they refuse to believe what is happening, so she basically has to unravel the mystery alone, until she meets up with a figure from her husband's past, Vivi, played by Jeanne Moreau. She is followed, discovers more secrets than you can shake a stick at, turns detective, travels to Geneva and Rome, and can trust no-one except her three children and her ex-husband, a high ranking policeman. From then onwards Morgan's life becomes the stuff of detective novels. Whilst his bureau is being taken away a secret drawer is discovered, containing a wallet with mysterious contents. Shortly after the funeral her world is turned upside down: bailiffs arrive at her apartment to repossess her furniture: this wealthy widow is, in fact, broke - her late husband has taken out loans in her name, and forged her signature to do so. Morgan plays a glamorous psychologist whose businessman husband (her third) is killed in a plane crash. Michele Morgan is an absolute triumph: what a truly stunning actress she is. I don't think it has ever been released on DVD, but if it ever does become available - grab it. This excellent mini-series was screened by BBC TV in 1987 as a three hour, 40 minute TV movie! And it holds the attention throughout - I have watched it four times over the years thanks to video.

Secret drawer