RPG Basement - Secret Entrance

Just leaving the open entryway to the room seemed lazy, and quite frankly too boring, so we decided to build a "secret" entrance. In concept it sounded somewhat easy enough, in execution...well, we shall see how it turns out in the end. 

Step1) Look on the internet for hidden doors etc. 
Step 2) Realize that prebuilt options are waaaaaaaaaay out of our price range. 
Step 3) Decide that "we can do this"! 
Step 4) Find shelves at Ikea that happen to have the right measurements. 
Step 5) Assemble shelves. 
Step 6) Erect structure through a combination of hinges rollers and good fortune. 
Step 7) Try to figure out how to hide a multitude of errors. 

Step 8) Decide step 7 is an issue for another day. 

Prebuilt or custom made solutions were definitely out of our price range, especially as we didn't want anything too fancy, which led me to two shelves, where one can manually be moved as a door. In its concept, this didn't sound any crazier to me than any of the ideas before, so what could go wrong...?

I found that the Billy shelf from IKEA had the right height and close to the perfect width for our entry arch. 

So the first step in all this was to assemble the shelves. I know some people hate this, but I love assembling Ikea furniture, so this part was therapeutic for me. The next steps were not as fun, to be honest, but oh well. 

First, I had to build a support structure under the "non-moving" shelf as I was building directly onto the rather plush carpet, and I wanted to make sure that it would not budge at any time. In my case, a slab of 2x6 in connection with a 2x4 did just the trick. The "non-moving" shelf received some screws directly into the arch to be anchored as much as possible. 

Now to the more difficult part, the "door shelf". 

I had found a set of caster wheels that happened to come in the right height (opening - shelf height) and are rated to 200lbs weight, which is hopefully enough for this shelf. 

The issue really came in attaching it to the shelf as the bottom is somewhat hallowed and not necessarily built to add wheels. 

My trusty 2x4s came in handy once more! Aligning them at the far corner allowed me to add the wheels with most of the pressure being under the actual main structure of the outside shelf wall. 

To facilitate the opening and closing of the door, I found some regular door hinges to connect the "non-moving" shelf to the "door"shelf.

So far so good. We will most likely try to stock the "door" shelf with the lighter items, to not introduce more weight than necessary, but the crude mechanism seems to work. 

The next steps will be to add a frame on the face of the shelves to hide the gaps and make it seem more inconspicuous, and adding some form of decoration of the back of the shelf to blend in with the room. - Stay tuned!