How to make a secret door using paintings in Minecraft

An extremely important aspect of multiplayer Minecraft is knowing how to safely store rare and valuable items from other players. One of the oldest and easiest methods to do so is to add a hidden painting door to a base. These secret passageways take advantage of the fact that players can walk through paintings but can't see through them.

This essentially means that unless someone knows the door is there, it's impossible to find. The process for making one of these classic hidden doors can be found in detail below.

---

How to make a hidden painting door in Minecraft

1) Craft a painting

The crafting recipe for paintings (Image via Mojang)

In order to make a secret painting door, your first step will be to make the painting that is eventually going to hide the passageway. Thankfully, paintings don't require much to make, costing players only eight sticks and a piece of wool. This means that even a simple Minecraft farm for wool will provide plentiful paintings to players.

---

2) Craft some signs

The crafting recipe for signs (Image via Mojang)

The next thing you'll need to do is make some signs. These items are also, thankfully, very cheap to make. You'll only need a single stick and six of the same wooden planks. It's worth noting that these signs are only hidden from the front, so try to pick a wood type that matches the rest of your Minecraft survival base's style.

For a hidden double door, you'll need to double this material cost, since Minecraft signs are made in threes. This will also leave you with two signs, perfect for making a secondary hidden door.

---

3) Create the doorway

The sign setup for a hidden double door (Image via Mojang)

Next, you have to make the doorway itself. Start by punching a hole in the wall that you want to add the secret door to. Then place the signs within this gap in the wall. This will give the paintings a "block" to cover, but still let you walk through.

---

4) Place down the painting

A hidden painting door from behind (Image via Mojang)

The final step to creating this secret door is to place the Minecraft painting. Different placement spots will result in different-sized paintings. Additionally, different-sized walls will result in different-sized paintings being placed, so be sure to experiment to see which style you like most.