Published 10.12.2021 | Updated 1.8.2023
Gun safes are an excellent way to protect firearms, precious metals, family heirlooms, and important documents. Because your safe is used to house such critical items, we strongly recommend you install it in a location that’s convenient for you to use and access.
While many of our customers consider their safe a key fixture in their home, you may be curious about how to hide your safe. In this article, we cover how to hide your gun safe in plain sight and why you might consider doing so.
Why Would Someone Want to Hide a Safe?
Are you thinking, “Why would I care about how to hide a gun safe in plain sight?”
With enough time and the right tools, any safe is penetrable. By hiding your safe, you reduce the risk that anyone can even attempt to break-in. If they don’t know your safe is there, they can’t try and get inside.
You hide your safe to reduce the chance of even dealing with the after-effects of a break-in or attempted break-in. Even if a thief doesn’t get inside your safe, they often damage it to the point that it’s no longer functional. At the bare minimum, you’ll likely have to hire a gun safe technician to open your safe and repair it. But generally, customers have to buy a new safe after an attempted break-in.
Is It Common for Someone to Hide a Safe?
It’s certainly not uncommon for someone to hide a safe. That being said, no one here does. In fact, most of us have installed our safes in our garages, living rooms, and second-story bedrooms.
The vast majority of the safes we carry feature high-end finishes and fixtures that make them a handsome addition to your home. In fact, many customers like the opportunity to show off their safe rather than keep it a hidden secret.
7 Ways to Hide a Gun Safe in Plain Sight
We always recommend picking where you want your gun safe installed before it’s delivered. The following are some of the best places to hide a safe in your house, townhome, condo or office:
1. Use a Hidden Alarm Clock Gun Safe
What if your gun safe didn't look like a gun safe? What if your gun safe looked like an everyday object anyone would have sitting out in their home? Vaultek's DS2i Smart Station Safe looks like a digital bedside clock, because it is. But it's also a high-tech storage solution for securing your personal defense handgun.
These ultra-modern, bluetooth equipped safes are designed to hold a full size pistol (up to 9 inches), additional clips, extra firearm, and personal valuables. They open with virtually no noise using a biometric reader and are outfitted with an LED interior light to ensure you're not fumbling in the dark.
2. How to Hide a Gun Safe in a Closet
Simply putting a gun safe in a closet with a closed door is hiding it on some level. The closet will need to be big enough to hold the safe with the closet door closed. Additionally, you’ll need to consider the door swing of your safe. For your safe to be as functional as possible, you’ll need to be able to open the safe door completely, without any obstructions.
Generally speaking, most home security experts recommend against hiding valuables in the master bedroom closet. This is one of the first places a burglar will look. Instead, consider placing your safe in the closet of a different room.
3. How to Hide a Gun Safe in the Garage
The easiest way to hide a gun safe in the garage is with a safe cloak (aka a gun safe cloak or safe cover). These covers simply slip over your gun safe and make it look like a cabinet. Are they ultra convincing when you get up close? No. But from the street, most people would simply think you have a large wood cabinet.
A large storage cabinet could also be built to house your gun safe. If you go this route, consider building a cabinet that also stores other things, as this will make it even less conspicuous.
Alternatively, you could use the safe’s original packing box. Typically our delivery crew will remove all packaging material so that you don’t have to be hassled with it. But some customers have requested to keep their box and use it as a concealment tool. Upon your request, our delivery crew can cut a ‘door’ in your box making it easy to access your safe while keeping it covered.
4. How to Hide a Gun Safe in Your Office
Generally, office gun safes are smaller so they don’t take up as much real estate. This is why wall safes and floor safes are such attractive options. Wall safes and floor safes can be installed in nearly any room and discretely hidden.
Consider hanging a picture or mirror over your wall safe. To hide a floor safe, place it beneath a coffee table or office chair that can be easily moved.
5. How to Hide a Gun Safe in Your Bedroom
Yes, the master bedroom and the master bedroom closet are the most likely places to be ransacked during a break-in. They are also where you want to have a personal defense weapon during a break-in.
Quick access safes can be discreetly mounted to a bedside table or wall, giving you easy access while keeping your firearm from curious fingers. You may also consider bolting a floor safe to the floor beneath your bed.
Learn more about the top home defense weapons and how to store them.
6. How to Hide a Gun Safe in Your Pantry
The pantry is one of the last places thieves look for valuables. It’s an ideal location for a smaller safe that can fit on the bottom shelf of a cabinet system or in the space behind a door. These are inconspicuous locations that often will go unnoticed.
To further hide your pantry gun safe, you may consider placing pantry goods in front of them, such as canned goods or cereal boxes.
Top Gun Safes to Install in Your Pantry
One word of caution with these smaller safes — due to their smaller size and relatively smaller weight, a thief could carry them out of the house. We strongly encourage you to bolt them to the floor or mount them to the wall to prevent them from being easily removed.
7. How to Hide a Gun Safe with Your Christmas Decorations
You know that storage cabinet with all the Christmas ornaments and Halloween costumes? Nearly all of us have one, whether it be under the stairs, in a back bedroom or in the garage. And, most thieves aren’t going to go rummaging for your great grandmother’s nativity — no matter how precious your wife may believe it to be.
By installing your gun safe at the back of this storage space, you reduce the likelihood that a thief ever sees it. Would you wade through all those boxes? The only trick is making sure you can reach it and open it when you need to.
Could You Just Use a Tactical Wall to Hide Your Guns?
Yep. You sure could. Tactical walls are a really cool way to hide guns in plain sight by creating hidden compartments within everyday objects.
Unfortunately, tactical walls aren’t gun safes. They do not meet the legal criteria for securing a firearm. And once they are discovered, obtaining the firearm from the secrete compartment isn’t difficult.