How to: Make a Secret Compartment Plywood Lamp

Chris in How To

2/7/14

[updated: 1/5/21]

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Delno, a maker from the Twin Cities, MN, built this guy above…which looks like a simply plywood box with a lightbulb inside. But, the project is actually a great experiment in hiding secret compartments inside plywood….and this rather small shape is clandestinely housing a surprising amount of stuff.

Look at all that hidden storage:

Delno says,

The real purpose… is to demonstrate how to put secret compartments in plywood. I wanted to prove the concept and see how far I could take it, so I made a lamp using four different compartment styles, and added a secret stash lightbulb and keychain to go along with it.

The designs are meant to be extrapolated and improved upon, so if you want to make an entire plywood desktop, the general concepts should be the same. Check out the video below for a quick demonstration of the lamp, then let’s start building…