Make a Secret Safe Book

The first thing you have to do is find a book that you can use for your Secret Compartment. Without a book, you can't make a secret compartment. There are several places you can get one of these books:

1. Use one you already own and don't plan to read again (If you have read it in the first place). The more boring the book, the less likely it will be for someone to pull it off the shelf and open it. That is the goal for this book. You want to have something no one wants to read. Get something about crazy math equations or something of that sort (unless your friends are Harvard Math Students).

2. Go to a yard sale and pick one up for ten cents or a quarter.

3. Go to GoodWill. They always have books and they usually charge about a dollar for the hard covers.

4. I guess you could buy a new book, but why would you want to spend so much money on something you are just going to tear apart.

You will want the first few pages of your book to look like a real book. If the pages flip, maybe if someone does pick it up and read the inside flap and put it back down, they won't notice that the book has a compartment inside of it. Leave the first 20 or so pages loose and readable. They will also serve as a cushion for whatever you have inside your secret compartment.

When I choose a book for this project, I like to ponder what people would overlook. I want to find a book that people will not pick up out of interest. Some of the things to think about is the color of the cover and maybe even the title.

I have seen versions of this compartment book where the inside compartment is cut about a half inch from the edge of the pages. I think this might not be enough space. There is little room for support. What if your book is taken off the shelf and used as a step stool. Soon as that person steps on it, there goes the compartment and everything inside it.

I think the compartment should be about an inch or even more inside the edges of the book. Make sure it is big enough for whatever it is you are trying to conceal.

It doesn't have to be a square either. You can fit the hole to whatever shape the item is you are trying to hide. This will keep the item from sliding around and making noise and it will also provide more support and cushion in case the book is dropped.

Take some Elmer's glue and add a little bit of water. The instructions I found said to use a 50/50 mix between glue and water. I found that the more glue I used, the better results I got. In fact at the end, I was just applying strait Elmers glue to the edges.

Place a piece of parchment or wax paper or even a plastic bag between the loose pages you set aside and the rest of the book. This will make sure the first few pages will not be glued to the rest of the book.

With a brush you don't care about, paint the glue mixture to the edges of the pages, in effect gluing all the pages together. Close the book with the parchment paper protecting the first few pages and lay several books on top of your Secret Compartment book. This will make sure the book stays as tight as it can be.

When the glue is dry, paint another coat of the glue mixture onto the edges of the pages again. I like to do this several times to make sure the glue is holding the pages securely.

With a fresh razor blade, exacto knife or box cutter, you are going to cut out the compartment you decided on earlier. If you are using a square shape, use a straight edge to make the first few cuts into the pages. This will make sure your box is straight. Taking your time to be as exact as possible, cut through several pages at a time, making sure the corners are as clean as possible.

You can go as deep as you would like, but you might as well go all the way to the back cover. This will give you as much space as you can get with that particular book.

Again, this will take some time if you are taking your time and making your cuts clean and precise. You want the edges to be a straight as possible so they will glue well together in the next step.

You are going to do the same thing to the inside of the compartment as you did to the outside edges of the book. Now that the compartment has been cut out, take that glue mixture and brush it on the inside of the compartment to glue the inside pages together.

Placing that parchment between the compartment and the loose pages, lay a few books on top of your compartment book once again to make sure the pages are laying as flat as they can be. This will make for a solid compartment.

Coat the inside of that compartment to make sure the pages will not come apart. You want the book to be a safe place to hide your stash of... Whatever.

Go to the fabric store or any place that might have felt. Most craft stores have a little bit. Pick a color you like and bring it home.

Cut strips of the felt to fit the edges of the inside of your compartment. Coat the inside of the compartment once more with your glue mixture and apply the felt. When you have all the edges done and the inside bottom of your compartment, let the glue dry. Then you are ready to place in your valuable goods and slide the book onto the shelf with your other books.