Secret rooms are becoming popular with homeowners

Secret rooms are becoming popular with homeowners

Everyone loves a secret room.

Hidden rooms and passageways might seem like the stuff of a Victorian murder mystery, but these spaces are increasingly popular in homes, with owners installing them for reasons of design, security and just plain fun.

“No one knows it’s there,” says Jerry Stubbs of the secret room he built under the garage of his Spanish Fork, Utah, home. “I put valuables in there, and our food storage and guns.”

Mr. Stubbs, a general contractor, excavated the space, then bought a Creative Home Engineering bookcase with a secret door for access to the room.

Since launching in 2004, Gilbert, Ariz.-based Creative Home has sold about 500 secret doors, says founder Steve Humble. Sales have increased in each of the past three years, he says, with 2014 on pace to be its best year.

Security is a prime consideration for many customers, Mr. Humble notes, but hidden spaces aren’t all a matter of safeguarding against potential intruders.

Hidden wine cellars and children’s playrooms are homeowner favorites, adds John Witt, president of Witt Construction, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Secret rooms aren’t Witt’s focus, but with word-of-mouth driving demand, the company takes on several such projects a year, he says.

Cardok, based outside Geneva, builds garages that rise out of the ground on hydraulic lifts, allowing owners to tuck their cars neatly out of sight when they aren’t in use. “It saves space, and it’s a very discreet design,” says Izabela Waligora, a project manager at the company. “It doesn’t spoil your entrance or your garden.” Let us know if you have a preference or idea for your own secret room. We would love to hear about it.

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