A (Hidden) Room of One’s Own

It's often said that every house has its secrets. But if you ask Arizona-based engineer Steven Humble, a house should be nothing but secrets. His dream home, he says, would have trapdoors, secret slides, and a hidden room that is safe from evildoers.

Steven Humble, builder of trapdoors and hidden rooms.

"People like to feel prepared, to feel like they're ready for anything," says Steven Humble.

Is he a superhero? No, he is the owner of Creative Home Engineering, an Arizona-based company launched in 2004 that specializes in custom trigger mechanisms and automated secret entrances to hidden rooms. Humble has designed it all, from bookcases that open when you knock on them the right way to walls that swing away when you scan your fingerprint. Finally, a place to keep all those Spidey suits . . .

Humble, 28, is a mechanical engineer who discovered a few years ago that he wasn't the only one who had a fascination with hidden spaces.

"People like to feel prepared, to feel like they're ready for anything," says Humble.

That's why he's designed several secret dressers in closets to protect valuables or hidden rooms in case of a home invasion. But if you're more inspired by Batman than Panic Room, you're not alone.

"Our business is founded on [the idea that you can create] whatever you've seen in a movie," says Humble. "For instance, we get a lot of requests for Batman's Shakespeare bust." (In the movie, the statuette is the trigger to open the door to the Bat Cave).

Currently, Humble is working on a handful of projects that seem straight out of a comic book: a pool table that emerges from the floor in a game room, a slide that carries houseguests silently from the second to the first floor . . . imagine it, and he'll figure out a way to make it real.

Sometimes, however, a simple, old-fashioned hidden bookshelf is really all a person needs. In this case, Gary M. Katz is the go-to guy. This California-based finish carpentry specialist is a master at turning wooden bookcases into portals to hidden passageways.

Prefer having hidden doors? At HiddenDoors.com, you can purchase prefabricated ones designed to mask the entrance to closets or wine rooms.

If you're ready to build your own, Katz recommends starting with SketchUp, a free 3-dimensional drawing program available from Google.

Before you know it, your house will start looking a lot like Steven Humble's dream home - or at least you think that's what it'll look like inside. To find out, however, you're first going to have to find the front door. . . .

Posted on June 05, 2006