Secret compartment book

You can buy secret compartment books, usually with a velveteen lining, in plenty of stores. However, they tend to be made from books which were expected to be best-sellers. These books are often connected to politics or current events (for a long time, they were all by the prosecutor in the original O.J. Simpson criminal trial).

I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of book I ever buy: a "secret compartment book" made from one of them would probably stick out like a sore thumb, even in my extensive personal library. It looks like I'm just going to have to make one of my own. This Secret Compartment Book video from MAKE could help... and I can help you make it even better, with the addition of a few more tools.

I don't have a sacrificial Haruki Murakami novel to use for this project -- you know, to really blend in with my collection -- but if you're a certain kind of reader, one who doesn't read best-sellers, this seems like the sort of thing for which the cheap hardcover classics sold by every chain book store would be great. Find a good, thick Tolstoy or Dickens (lots of room in those!) and go to town, or choose something long and boring that's already taking up space on your own shelves.

This would make a great gift... or an amazingly sneaky gift box. If you'd like to know more, please join me after the break.

[suggested via BoingBoing. Thanks, Ryan! I'm not saying Tolstoy and Dickens are boring, but rather that their books aren't in short supply.]

There are several ways to make these books, involving varying levels of refinement. Is it lined or not? Does the compartment have a lid or does the book cover serve as a lid? Am I using a drill to hollow the pages out, or a craft knife?

If you want to be a little more methodical about the process than poor Bre Pettis was in the video (caught out in Berlin without a glue brush!), try using a foam brush. Be sure you use the appropriate blade for your craft knife: use a heavy one meant for cutting small pieces of wood, not the fine one meant for cutting out detailed paper shapes. The project will go faster with the correct blade, and it's safer for you.

You may also need:

• Screw clamps: piling other books on top of your book will work in a pinch, but clamping the pages is also good, particularly if you drill the section out (pull the covers aside, glue and clamp the page block you want to cut, mark off where you want your compartment to be, and drill through each corner of the compartment). See the comments on this Lifehacker post for more details on the drill method.
• A metal straight-edge or triangle will help you position the compartment and cut it out.
• You can use a glue like Yes! paste with less water added than in the video, or you can use acrylic gel medium (Golden is a good brand).
• Flocked paper, sometimes available at scrapbooking stores, makes a great lining.

If you want padding inside, cut pieces of thin cardboard to the dimensions of the inside of your compartment, glue thin batting to one side of each piece, wrap velveteen (about an inch larger all around than the board) around the batting, clip the corners of the fabric diagonally to the corners of the board, and glue to the back of the board. Trim the edges of the velveteen. Glue the messy side of the board to the interior of the compartment: start with the bottom piece, then do the sides.

Finally: if you surprise someone with a disguised gift this year, please don't forget to tell us all about it!

Source