How to Hide a Safe in a Closet: Securing Your Gun Safe

It is a terrific feeling when you buy a gun safe to store your firearms in. This is a purchase that is going to put a smile on your face but do you want to go a step further and put the safe in the perfect location for even more security?

There are a couple of different ways of locating your safe at home. You can either leave it in plain sight or else hide it away out of sight. With the second of these choices, finding how to hide a safe in a closet is a popular move.

There are different reasons for choosing either of these approaches, so it makes sense to think about which is best for you. The method of securing your gun safe that you choose will largely determine what model of safe you choose, so this should be one of your very first steps.

Why Leave a Gun Safe in Plain Sight?

Some people want to make their safe a feature in their home. This is typically the case when you have an attractive safe, such as one that displays your firearms through glass.

Even all-metal safes can look very good if added to the right room. They now come in different shapes, sizes, and colors, so you can choose which one best suits your home. This is something that you might like to do if you are a keen rifle collector or love hunting and are proud of your hobby.

Yet, more people get a gun safe in their house purely for increased home security than for any other reason. This means that the number of gun owners who want to leave out their safe for visitors to see and appreciate is probably relatively low.
Another reason for leaving the gun safe where everyone can see it is if more than one person uses it. It is going to be a lot more convenient for them all to access the guns if it is clearly visible and in a good location.

In addition, you might also find that it is a lot easier to access in case of an emergency. If your safe in intricately hidden in a secret spot then you could lose valuable seconds going to get a firearm from it when you hear an intruder breaking in.

Why Hide Your Gun Safe?

Ok, so what reasons are there for hiding your gun safe out of sight then? The first one to consider is purely aesthetic. Perhaps you simply don’t want a big, bulky metal safe occupying a prime position in your home.

Equally, you may think that it is better for intruders to not be aware that you have guns at home. If they see a safe then they will have a good idea that there could be guns or other valuables in there and may try to break in.

Someone who wants to steal your firearms will recognize a gun safe right away. Even the best safes can be eventually cracked open by someone who is determined, patient, and has the right tools to do it with.

Another reason to think about is that you may want the element of surprise if you are attacked at home. If your gun safe is totally out of their sight then they won’t know for sure if you have a gun or not.

Finally, what about the people who visit your home or carry out work in it? If they have bad intentions then they may be very interested in seeing that you have a safe in view, meaning that you probably have valuables locked inside it.

Even if they aren’t thinking of stealing from you, they may innocently tell someone else about your safe. It is easy to imagine a builder or plumber who is impressed by your safe telling a few friends all about it.

A hidden gun safe means that your firearm collection is known about only by you.

Why the Closet Is a Good Place to Hide a Gun Safe?

There are several popular places to hide a gun at home. These include places such as under the bed, in a closet and inside a nightstand drawer. What they places all have in common is that they are in the bedroom.

When you think about it, this room makes perfect sense for keeping your gun in. If you are disturbed during the night by the noise of someone breaking in then the chances are that you will be in bed at this time.

Out of all of these bedroom hiding places, the closest is the most convenient. The nightstand drawer is probably only big enough for a small handgun safe and it can be awkward to access a safe under the bed, check out our favourite nightstand gun safes here.

Most closets are big enough for a decent sized safe to be fitted there. From the outside and with the doors closed no-one will be able to tell that you have guns stored in there. If you need to get hold of your firearms then it will be a quick and easy task.

How to Hide the Safe

How will you hide your gun safe inside the closet? Will you have it simply sitting behind the doors, cover it with clothes, or perhaps you will build some sort of clever disguise so that means that it is really hard to find?

While all of these methods use the idea of hiding the safe in a closet, they are all very different in execution. This means that you need to think carefully about which one is right for you before you get started.

Again, the answer probably comes down to your own particular needs and wants. Do you just want to keep your house neater by hiding it, or do you want to make sure that intruders can’t find your guns even if they carry out a lengthy, exhaustive search?

You will also want to consider how easy you want the access to be. It isn’t the same thing opening the door and pulling out a gun as fighting through a stack of clothes or pulling off a false wall before getting to the safe.

For many people, the simple step of hiding the safe in the closet is enough on its own. They don’t feel the need to go any further than this. If this doesn’t seem secure enough for you then put some thought into how well you want to hide it and how easy you need the access to be.

What Kind of Safe Is Best?

There are numerous different types of gun safes now on the market. In order to choose the right one it is important to look at all of the details. This includes how suitable it is to hide away out of sight in a closet.

The first thing you may consider in this case is the size of the gun safe. After all, securing your gun safe in a closet requires a model that is big enough for your firearms but small enough to fit into the space you have for it.

After that, you will want to look at the same sort of features that you would look for when buying a safe for any other part of the house. It needs to be sturdy and tough to pry open, of course. You can’t simply rely on the hope that no-one will find it there in the first place.

Will this be your main gun safe or simply a way of keeping a handgun in your bedroom? Will your gun collection grow in the future or do you just need enough room for the ones you already own?

What Features to Look For?

Choosing the right features is vital when looking at how to hide a safe in a closet. This is because you will be more restricted in some ways than with one that sits out in the open.

For example, you will want to have easy access. You don’t want to be fumbling about inside your closet in the middle of the night during an emergency, do you?

This is why fast, reliable access with a biometric keypad is likely to be your best choice. These safes tend to cost a bit more but you can enter very easily just by scanning your fingerprint on the pad. Otherwise, a numbered keypad is also more efficient than a key operated lock in this situation.

Another issue to consider is that of the darkness inside your closet. Try looking in here in the dark of night and you will see that it is very difficult to even see your own hands in front of your face never mind finding and opening your safe rapidly.

Bearing this in mind, fitting a safe that has an interior light is vital. In this way, you will be able to find what you are after with absolutely no problems.

If it comes with a keypad then look for this to be illuminated as well. If it is opened with a key then look for some sort of movement activated light to fit inside the closet.

It is a reasonably simple task to fit an additional light to a safe. So, if you have one that doesn’t already have this then don’t assume that you need to replace it with a new safe.

What Type of Closet Do You Need?

It is easy to spend a lot of time thinking about the type of gun safe you need and forget all about the closet. Yet, it is also crucial that you get this aspect right first of all.

The main points to consider here are the size and strength of this piece of furniture. Many good gun safe and big, extremely heavy items that need to be placed on a strong, secure base.

When you are looking at safes you will see that their weight and dimensions are usually listed in the main details.

Therefore, your first step is to make sure that the safe you are interested in will fit into the closet.

If you have a flimsy type of closet then it isn’t likely to be able to support a hefty safe. Of course, there are some ways round this that you can try.

For example, if it has a wooden floor then you could cut this out so that the bottom of the safe sits directly on the floor of the room instead. Many of the best gun safes come with additional bolts to attach them to the floor, so the more solid the base the better.

In the case that you have a room you use as a walk-in closet then things get a big easier. Ideally, it will have a solid, concrete floor to bolt the safe to but this isn’t strictly necessary.

Looking for other places to hide your gun safe? Check out this awesome video below!

How to Fit It?

The next question you need to know about how to hide a safe in a closet is around how to fit it. This will come down to what type of safe and closet that you decide to use. Therefore, there are a few different possibilities:
Simply place the safe inside the closet. This is the easiest approach but the least secure. A thief will find it easier to just take away the safe with them if you do this.

• Secure it to the wall or floor. This is the recommended approach for ensuring that it isn’t easy for intruders to lift up and carry away the safe. However, it will require a bit more work to get it right.
• Design your walk-in closet cleverly. If you have a walk-in closet then the key is in designing it well. Where will the safe be most secure without getting in the way too much? This is usually in the corner, where it can be bolted to the floor and walls.
• Make your own safe. Another option if you have a walk-in closet is to make your own safe. This could mean pouring concrete walls and adding a strong door. Alternatively, you could fit a hidden safe into the wall where no-one can see it.
• Get a hidden entrance built for your closet. Maybe you could add a hidden entrance to your walk-in closet containing a gun safe, like in this example. If intruders can’t find the safe then they certainly can’t steal anything from it.

Make a Fake Closet

What if you don’t have a suitable closet? After all, not everyone has either a piece of furniture like this or a walk in space they can use.

In that case, you might consider building a fake closet. This gives you a place to hide your firearms that just looks like a normal closet. The problem with this approach is that thieves tend to look in closets when searching for valuables.

Given enough time, an intruder is probably going to find a safe that is hidden inside a fake closet. Having said that, if what you want to do above all is kept the house tidy then this is a good way of doing it.

Fit a Secret Door?

Another way that people hide their gun safes is by fitting a secret door. This is particularly useful when you have a walk-in closet that is big enough for your gun safe to fit in.

This door will typically look like a bookcase or a large mirror. There is something very exciting and movie-like about using a secret door like this in your own home.

These doors need to be designed perfectly in order to carry out their function. Any gaps or other tell-tale signs will mean that the secret door is easy to spot. It also needs to be strong, preferably with keypad or biometric pad access.

In fact, if the door is strong enough you might not need to even use a safe inside. The whole closet behind the door will be the gun safe in this case.

This all makes it a very demanding task to get just right. It is ideal for someone who loves testing themselves on tough DIY jobs, though.

What Other Options Are There?

If you like the idea of securing your gun safe but aren’t sure about doing it in a closet then there are plenty of other ways of doing this. People hide their firearms in safes under beds, in the floor and in walls among other places.

As we saw earlier, the secret is in finding out what suits you best. If you take some time to consider what your needs are then it will be a lot easier to choose.

Once you have done this it is a question of going around your home and looking for the ideal spot. Is there somewhere that is perfect for putting your gun safe or could you convert part of the house with a little bit of work?

Conclusion

Buying a quality gun safe will make you feel a lot more relaxed about your safety and security. However, for some people this isn’t enough on its own.

By discovering how to hide a safe in a closet you can go a step further and get a firearms storage that truly suits you needs and lets you breathe more easily from now on.