The inaugural post of Batdad Cave is also undoubtedly my greatest achievement in the Batdad Cave. Dual functioning and super awesome bookshelf doors. I came up with this idea almost as soon as we moved into the house but I wasn't sure how to actually execute the vision. When one random day the family and I were walking through the local Ikea and a bookshelf happened to catch my eye. I measured it and it was almost perfect I knew this project was destined to come to fruition.
The doors in the Batcave go from the main Bat living area to the back Bat workroom (don't worry, I'll stop saying Bat before things). So it was a perfect place not only for the size and the shape of the doors but also because it is necessary for hiding the opulence of Wayne manor from the secret cool Bat workshop. The doors were roughly 24"x80" so I had to find a fairly narrow bookshelf in order to make it work. In every furniture store I went to I would be scouring the bookshelves to try and find one of close dimensions but most would be too wide or the wrong height. Until that fateful day when the Swedish Gods answered my prayers. The bookshelf in question was a 23.5"x16"x75" Besta shelf unit. By that time, the dimensions 24"x80" were burned in my mind so I knew this unit would be a good candidate because they were almost the perfect width and the 5" space in the height would give me room to attach casters to the bottom. So I immediately bought 2 units and could not wait to get back to try them out.
I went to Home Depot and cleaned out their 4" casters. With the mounting bracket they were almost exactly 5" tall so they would make the total bookshelf with casters exactly 80" tall. After I assembled the bookshelves I put the casters upside down on the bottom shelf to drill the holes leaving enough room around the edges for the casters to spin all the way around. Then I attached the casters underneath with standard bolts.
Bottom shelf with casters attached
Next I attached the hinges to the bookshelves. I had a spare hinge from a bathroom remodel so I didn't have to take the hinges off the old doors. This way, if I sell the house I can put the original doors back on but seriously, who is going to want regular doors when they can have secret doors. Then I assembled the hinge, lined the bookshelf doors up, and attached the bookshelf.
Hinge attached to bookshelf
Bookshelf doors 85% completion
As you can see it looked pretty good but there was a gap at the bottom that exposed the casters and the room behind the doors. So my lovely assistant went back to the local Ikea and found "maple effect" scrap wood pieces in the as-is section for 3 bucks each. They happened to be the exact width so I cut them to size and attached them with "L" brackets.
The boards for the toe kicks
The toe kicks attached with "L" brackets...
...and here is the final product...
....Batman not included.
So the whole projects cost:
Bookshelves (2 @ $85): $170
Casters (8 @ $13): $104
Nuts, bolts, washers: ~$10
Toe kick boards (2 @ $3): $6
Total: $290
Not bad to have total security and awesomeness for your house. Next step, designing a locking system that is activated by a random pattern of piano keys...oh and buy a piano.
