I built homes for over 20 years. It was very common to get request's for secret passage ways or hidden doors. Panic rooms were sometimes hidden behind built in cabinets.

One thing we came up with was a strong way to hinge the cabinet to the wall without big clumsy hinges. If you have a smooth floor you can install casters to the bottom of the cabinet then hinge with standard door hinges.Then you install trim just a bit above the floor to the hide the casters.

Gimpy

I have a small unit in my bathroom,that at the press of a button,can make a stool disappear.
(Sorry,the temptation was too much)
Ray.

Somewhere around here there used to be a house like that around here and a hill that looked like it was going up but was really going down. THere was a sign that instructed you to put your car in neutral and it would roll "uphill."

Good luck with it.

Ahhh, the ol' "gravity hill" spook! There's a bunch of those here in PA and NJ. It's all an illusion (then again, this IS the Café) as the "hill" is actually downhill but appears to go UP based on the surrounding environment.

So true. I work in a restored century mansion, and the president of our company was smart enough when he renovated it, to have access panels installed for all of the utilities. They are well-hidden, but have saved our company thousands of dollars in maintenance costs.

When I was little (back in the 70s), my Dad built a porch in the back yard. In the wet concrete off to one side of the porch he put a magnet. When the cement dried the magnet was just under the concrete. He had two round metal balls of the same size. One made of steel, one made of aluminum.

When people came over to the house and they were out back, my Dad would draw a line on the porch and have a contest to see who could roll the ball closest to the line without going over. Obviously the line was right where the magnet was. The other person always got the aluminum ball while my Dad got the steel ball. Rolling the steel ball slowly would insure it would always stop right on the line. The aluminum ball just kept rolling past it.

tot he best of my knowledge, that porch is still there, complete with the magnet that the new owners of the house still don't know about!

I seem to remember an old magazine article about Randi's house having a front door with the doorknob and the hinge on the same side.

Also (I believe in a movie) a double sink bathroom, where the handles on one sink controlled the water to the other sink.

Motion sensors could cause the doorbell to ring BEFORE guests pushed the button.

A micromotor hidden in the wall could make a picture always hang crooked. Even when straightened, it could tilt itself when no one was looking.

A vanishing medicine chest in the bathroom wall. Now it's empty; now it's full.
(Same thing with kitchen cupboards. Now there are dishes; now it's empty.)

While magnetizing your bar, don't forget the reed switches. Simply moving a magnetic based trophy, coaster or what have you causes something to happen elsewhere in the room.

Not exactly a trick, but a hidden door/passage could be fun. I suppose if you did it right it could be used as a wall-penetration sort of thing.

Cameras are pretty small these days and you could probably do some interesting mentalism stuff with that, if your willing to go to that level.

Myself, Id be tempted to build in a deployable pepper's ghost or scrim-screen and a video projector to project interesting things onto it.

Hey, guys, my brothers and I have talked about this kind of thing before, only we were just trying to make it strange, not magical. I won't tip all my ideas, but here's one.

Have a "company room" all fitted up nice for hosting guests. On the door to the room, install 4 door knobs at different heights, so that it will take at least two people (you and your guest) to turn the knobs and get into the room.

Let us know if you actually do any of this.

For ideas, take a tour of Teller's house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoksoGBtpJ0

:magicrabbit:

You should check out Kirby VanBurch home in Branson, Missouri. It has some pretty awesome "magical" features built into the home.

rick

I guess you are a magician. Therefore what about adding a small platform in your livingroom or your library where you can perform magic. The platform should fit the room design and should not be an obvious stage. But - you could have a trap door for a Dekolta chair, some secret exit/ entrance in the back of that platform (maybe the fireplace), some tables mounted at the walls with secret access for assistants behind, a thread system for a levitated sphere, some hidden rig for an Asrah levitation... Your private performances could become legendary.

Saw this a while back, but still don't have it.

The House by Ray Cooper

Sounds like this would be perfect for any magic room. Out of sight out of mind, until you want it.