Creative Home Engineering is the world’s most famous company dedicated to making hidden rooms and secret doors. From wannabe superheroes, to wealthy businessmen looking for a safe space for their prized art collections, they all turn to this particular company when they want one of those fancy hidden doors that you see in the movies.
The idea for Creative Home Engineering was born in 2003, when founder Steve Humble was working as a mechanical engineer designing surgical lasers for a medical device company. He had always been fascinated by hidden doors and passageways, and that year he decided he wanted one for himself, but realized there was no one to build it for him. “I was renting a large house with a bunch of my friends at the time, and we had some extra rooms that we weren’t using. I thought it would be fun to have a secret door like I had seen in the movies, but when I did a little research I was surprised to learn that there was no company anywhere that specialized in hidden passageways,” he recalls. Soon after, Steve quit his job and started building motorized secret passageways for people out of his parents’ garage in Arizona.
Humble got a special contractor’s license created for designing secret lairs, and went on to create over 150 custom installations for clients all over the United States, before expanding globally. Today Creative Home Engineering is the world’s premier designer and manufacturer of motorized and high-security secret passageways, with a portfolio of over 500 satisfied customers from all walks of life.
Photo: Creative Home Engineering/Facebook
“We have built many, many secret doors that access home theater rooms and I have built secret doors for many famous people and for elite homes all over the world,” Steve told CE Pro Europe. “Although I am not at liberty to mention names, I can tell you that our secret doors can be found in at least one Middle Eastern royal palace, as well as many of the homes of many of the people on the list of the world’s wealthiest people. Additionally, we’ve built secret doors for high-ranking state officials for numerous countries, lots of celebrities including professional athletes, race car drivers, Hollywood actors and directors, musicians, famous artists and founders and CEOs of some of the world’s most recognizable companies.”
Photo: Creative Home Engineering/Facebook
“The activation method can be anything the client wishes; iPad control, hidden button, remote control, twisting a candlestick, hidden fingerprint scanner, pulling a book – you name it!” the mechanical engineer adds. Each client brings a unique set of challenges, but Humble and his team always find a way to meet their clients’ expectations.
Photo: Creative Home Engineering/Facebook
It may seem that only real-life Bruce Waynes can afford the sophisticated solutions thought up by Creative Home Engineering, but their prices are not that outrageous. For example, $2,500 can buy you a specially engineered mirrored doorway that can installed as the entrance to a secret room. Humble says that customized secret spaces average about $7,500, while a complex doorway concealed in a wooden bookcase will set you back $10,000 – $12,000.
And, just in case you’re wondering, Steve Humble and his team have worked on Batcave-like projects like “like “an underground complex with 10 secret-passage doors made from Kevlar-steel ballistic armor, blast-resistant hinges, and multiple redundant locking systems.” We can only hope that the owner is a mysterious superhero, not a super-villain.
Sources: Review Journal, WIRED
