Hidden Pantry Compartment Opens With A Puzzle!

winerack

What’s the number one thing kids always dream about for when they have their own house someday? Hidden passages? Revolving bookcases? Closets that lead to Narnia? Secret compartments? Well, [TracRat] has lived out at least one of those dreams by making his very own Myst inspired hidden pantry compartment!

His pantry is located under the stairs and to make use of the awkward space, he decided to build a wine rack. He still had a lot of unused space so he decided to take it a step further. He’s built a wooden puzzle combination lock consisting of four colored knobs that slide back and forth in grooves. When the correct combination is made, pressing on the square symbol at the top rolls the entire wine rack backwards, exposing a secret side cabinet. It’s an absolutely gorgeous piece of woodwork and we’re totally impressed by the perfect execution of it.

Do you love Myst too? Check out this awesome Myst inspired Myst(ery) box [Michael] made for his girlfriend’s birthday! Or how about a leather-bound Myst book that lets you play Myst on a computer inside of it!

20 thoughts on “Hidden Pantry Compartment Opens With A Puzzle!

    1. I’d love that. I’d build a little hidey-hole then hide inside all day. Even if nobody else was in the house. Some books and a computer and a few snacks, ah back to the womb I go!

  1. Little improvement might be to make the base of the knobs bigger, so they cover the groove. The existence of a groove implies slideyness, having 4 implies a code, and there’s only 16 codes possible. If it were a computer game I’d be clicking all over those.

    Then again if he wanted real security he’d just buy a lock, so I can’t criticise too much.

    1. Actually there are far more than 16 codes. the wooden pieces seem to slide around freely back and forth, but I think that also means that if you pushed the button and just wiggled them around you’d exploit flaws in the spacing and it would unlock easily.

      Original designer: if you’re reading this, cut grooves that bind the mechanism so you can’t slide the parts around while pushing and holding.on the button.

      1. You can’t slide the knobs if you press the button. So there is no way to put light pressure on the button and figure out the combination. The button binds the levers immediately. Besides, there is an additional feature with the blue lever that avoids the issue of being able to guess. I mention it a bit at the end of the instruct able. But glossed over it at the end.

  2. Nah. You can’t guess the combination. You have to figure out the puzzle. The blue knob has to be unscrewed and moved in order to get to the right combination. I wanted to eliminate guessing. You have to understand the code in the leafed trim.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.