Found out my hallway wall is 4 inches thicker than I thought, dumbfounded

Was poking around my closet last weekend in Wichita, just looking for a stud to hang a small shelf. Tapped the wall, sounded hollow, then I noticed the trim around the door frame. Measured it with a tape, the whole partition is 9 inches deep. Standard interior walls are like 4 or 5. So my blank wall isn't just a blank wall, it's a fake wall. There's probably a dead space behind it, maybe an old chimney or a stairwell that got boxed in. Now I'm wondering what to hang there, a big canvas would look weird floating, but a shallow floating shelf might actually work since there's real depth. Has anyone else found a hidden cavity behind their blank wall and used it for something cool?

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the_wren26d ago

Wait, is your house old enough that they just built walls over whatever was there before? I found the exact same thing in my place a few years back, except my wall turned out to be hiding an old dumbwaiter shaft. Tapped around and realized the closet was way shallower than the wall depth next to it, so I cut a small access panel just to peek inside. Ended up lining the whole cavity with some cheap plywood and turned it into a hidden gun safe, put a magnetic latch on the panel and now you can't even tell it's there. Honestly, the best part is the extra storage, I keep my winter boots and a few tools in there too. Your floating shelf idea sounds way cleaner though, especially if you can anchor it into the real framing behind that dead space. Just make sure you know what's back there before you start drilling, might be a vent or a pipe hiding in that gap.