Learn how to quickly and inexpensively hide your wall safe behind a canvas of a photo or painting.
You’ve viewed the scene in old movies – the dapper, wealthy man, perhaps dressed in a silk robe, sporting a pencil-thin mustache and aristocratic accent, moving an old painting to reveal his concealed wall safe that was nestled behind the canvas.
As we have mentioned in previous blog posts, concealment of your valuables is a critical defense against most home property thefts. A great form of concealment of your BlumSafe is to mount it in a closet or other non-apparent space, like in a child’s room (most burglars make a bee-line to the master bedroom as the likely source of easy-to-find valuables, and move in and out of the house very quickly).
Concealing your BlumSafe provides an extra degree of protection. You may not have a valuable oil painting of an old ancestor to hang in front of your BlumSafe, or may not wish to draw attention to your BlumSafe with a wall hanging that is too attractive or potentially valuable. Fortunately, remarkably cost-effective alternatives are available today to conceal your BlumSafe.
For less than $100, a company can print canvas for you from a photo or other image that you upload or email (or you can choose one of their images). We prefer these lightweight canvases over a picture mounted in a heavy frame. After looking at several of these companies, we were very satisfied with the quality, multitude of choices, and speed provided by Canvas Discount, but many companies offer similar products.
Concealment of your safe behind home decor such as canvas print, painting or picture is a great form of protection. We found that a 24” X 36” canvas, hung vertically and centered over the frame of the BlumSafe, perfectly covers our deep wall safe. It is light enough to swing to the left or right on a pair of normal two-inch hinges from a hardware store (of course, you can just hang the canvas on the wire and a hook, but we prefer the convenience of hinges). You should order a 1.5” deep plain canvas, where the back of the canvas is “open” and unlined, to allow plenty of room for the keypad and handle without creating a bump in the surface of the canvas. We prefer to get the canvas with the optional black edging, to conceal fingerprints from opening and closing the canvas (and we think the black edging looks sharp, especially on a black and white photo canvas).
Just upload or email them a photo or image you like, and you are in business.
NOTE: because your picture will be blown up to 24’ X 36”, try to use an image or photo taken with a higher megapixel camera (a good photo at full resolution from a late-model iPhone or Android phone is fine).
We mount the hinges on the back of the wood frame and to the wall (see photo). If there is a stud in the wall to attach the hinges to, great; if not, just put some light anchors into the wall for the hinges to screw into. The hinges should be on the side away from easy sight by a stranger – even though the hinges will be mounted “blind”, they will still be visible to a careful eye. For example, when hiding your safe, if the entry into the room is from the right of the canvas, mount the hinges on the left side of the canvas, so the right side shows no hinges and the canvas will swing to the left.
That’s really all there is to it. For less than $100, you get a nice piece of artwork or photograph on the wall, and concealment for your BlumSafe. We highly recommend this solution.
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