I love creating things that may appear to be one thing, but in fact are something else. You can use this to hide valuables, a router for your Internet or many other things.

The entire project cost $8.95 to do.

Supplies needed

Items I purchased:

• 4 hard back books — $1.99 each at Goodwill

• 1 wooden crate — 99 cents at Goodwill

Items I already had:

• X-acto Knife

• Cutting Board

• E6000 Industrial Strength Glue

Directions

1. Before getting started, make sure you have plenty of books available. For my project, I only need the four to cover the long side of my crate. You may need more or less depending on the size of the wooden crate you choose.

2. Use your knife and place your first book onto the cutting board. Open the front cover and run the blade of your knife right where the front cover meets the pages. Repeat this step on the back side.

3. Typically the binds of the books are glued to the pages. Once you have separated the from and back from the pages, you may need to slide your knife along the edge of the book and detach the glue that holds the cover and spine together.

4. Repeat this step on all of your books. For the center books, you will be using just the spine of the cover, but for the outside books you will also be using one of the flaps. Determine which book you are using on the ends and for the left side keep the spine of the book cover and the back cover attached. For the right side keep the spine of the book and the front cover. When you are gluing, you can have the front and back covers wrap around the sides of the crate to help conceal your area even more.

5. Once everything is cut out, begin applying your adhesive to the crate. Place your spines onto the crate and let dry. Once the spines are dry, repeat this step and adhere the sides in place.

6. Once everything is dry, you are ready to use your hidden crate and display it on your bookshelves.