Now you have received your safe or made the decision to buy one. One last thing you need to decide is where to install it, and more importantly where to hide it. When I received my first safe, I found it difficult to choose the right place to install it and thought about many possibilities. I definitely didn’t want to have it in plain sight.
Where to hide a safe in your home? Easiest way is to hide your safe in your garage. Alternatively, under the stairs is a good place. You can hide your new home safe in a wall or in the floor if you don’t mind a more difficult installation. A more creative way to conceal a safe is in a closet, a piece of furniture or shelf.
Even if it is not that difficult to hide a safe, any hideout is not recommended. Whether you hide your safe to a potential burglar or anyone (family and friends) coming into your home is a completely different thing. I will take into account different practical cases: whether you want a complete secret case or just a good discretion.
Should I hide my home safe?
More and more people consider a safe to be a furniture like any other, and some safe makers (for example Burg Wachter) sell really beautiful safes with a paint finish that resemble high-end cars. In those cases, the safe is put (secured of course) in plain sight: in the corner of an office at work or at home. Why not? It won’t make much difference in the case of a burglary. The safe will be as difficult to open or take away as if it was hidden somewhere more difficult to find.
But many people don’t only think about burglars. They just don’t want the safe to be in the sight of any guest in the house: family or friends. They fear that many will extrapolate on what can be in the safe and don’t feel comfortable with that. In those cases, a hideout is more for discretion than secret.
Think for yourself.
The 3 easiest ways to hide a safe
- Shelf in your garage: It is a good and easy way to hide a safe in a garage as a garage is usually a messy place. What I have done is to just put a safe on a shelf, secured it on the wall, and hide it with random stuff put in front and on top of it. Quick and easy. And you have another reason not to tidy up your garage just yet.
- Furniture in an attic: An attic is, just like a garage, one of the messiest room in a house. If you have decided to put it in a piece of furniture, you have to cut out the back of it to have the safe rest directly on the wall in order to secure it properly. Inside, it is once again easy to hide it with random things, furthermore, you can close the doors of the furniture.
- Box on the floor: You can put your safe on the floor and secure it. You can conceal it with a big box; you can put other boxes on top of it. In the corner of your garage, spare room or attic, that box won’t be easy to find.
4 ways to hide your wall safe
In the case of a wall safe, the difficulty is not to hide it but rather the installation itself which requires serious skills or the help of a professional.
- Wall Safe in behind a bookshelf: If you have a wall safe, your safe is well secured in a wall and not to difficult to hide (if your DIY skills are enough for a wall installation). Of course, you can hide your safe with a mirror or a painting. I am not sure this is the best way to hide it. What I recommend is to put a bookshelf in front of it. You will only have to remove several books to gain access to the safe.
- Wall Safe in behind kitchen shelves: In the same way, if your safe is installed in the wall of your house, if it happens to be in your kitchen (main wall, not any wall, remember?) you can put your kitchen furniture in front of the door. You will be able to open your safe after removing a pile of plates.
- Wall Safe in a closet: Lastly, it is easy to install your wall safe in a closet. You can hang shirts, trousers in front of it, or piles of socks etc. Even if the main bedroom is a room that a burglar will definitely visit, a wall safe sealed in the main wall will not be easy to open or take away. You can be reassured.
- Wall safe in the floor: This is an underfloor safe. It is easy to conceal in any cupboard or spare room. The wooden floor has to be removable, at least a couple of floorboards. Either it is built this way or you have to cut your floor in a way as discrete as possible. Once again, it is more difficult to install it than to hide it. Bear in mind that you must keep the lock, door, and hinges clean to operate them properly.
Ways to hide a large safe
In the case of a really large safe or gun safe, you just can’t hide it with cardboard boxes in front or on top of it. It is more complicated than that. You have to think ahead of the time you eventually decide to buy your safe. Usually, a good way to proceed is working with the help of a carpenter. You have to integrate the safe in a room where you plan to build storage all around it or on one wall. The safe will occupy one unit and a wooden door will allow access to it. The symmetry of the furniture will hide the safe as there will be several identical doors.
The additional wooden door can be in front of the real steal safe door. In that case, you will have to open two doors one after the other. Another clever way, much more difficult but doable if your carpenter is an artist, is to glue the wooden door on to the steel door and hide the access to the lock in the new furniture. This can be done but a double hinge is necessary with a sliding link between both doors. That way, your large safe will be well concealed and easy to access: a must.
Tips and tricks to hide your safe
- Avoid jewelry box with a lock: it will find its place in a burglar’s bag and will be opened elsewhere.
- Avoid hiding cheap safes in walls because you will risk a failure or breakdown. It will be really difficult to service or replace those safe once well installed and concealed and you will eventually lose a lot of time doing so.
- Consider using a decoy safe with some cash and jewelry you don’t like or of poor value. Don’t conceal too much that safe. A burglar will lose his time with it, leaving your well hidden big safe alone where your main cash and beautiful jewelry will be. Remember: a decoy safe is of much utility in the event of a home jacking If a burglar is in your home with you present or your beloved ones, threatening, you will have no other choice than to lead him to your safe, hidden or not. A decoy safe will save your day.
- I do not recommend to hide things outside of a safe unless you know really good hideouts. Burglars take everything to the ground: books, plates, clothing, food… Everything that has been hidden underneath, behind or in those things will be discovered in the case of a burglary. The mattress will be removed and paintings as well… A safe is a better place to secure your valuables, even in plain sight, than easy and well-known hideouts like under your socks…