Popular Woodworking Magazine: November 2016

The November issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine just mailed to subscribers, and it’s live now in our online store. There’s a lot of great content in this issue (the campaign Danish modern dresser is a lovely piece, and one I hope to make someday), but the article I keep thinking back to involves a secret – or, rather, a few secrets.

In “Art of Concealment,” Matthew Dworman shows readers how to make a Shaker-style side table with hidden compartments. I’m not a devious person in the least – my poker face is only good at losing me money – and I don’t own any valuables worth hiding (I hocked my Hope Diamond some years back), but the idea of secret spaces really speaks to the 10-year-old boy I used to see in the mirror.

Like many kids, I loved secret spaces. I never missed an opportunity to construct labyrinthine living room tunnels from boxes, couch cushions and blankets, secret kingdoms of which I was the ruler and sole inhabitant (until my younger sister stormed the gates, which she always did). One of my fondest childhood memories is clearing a space in the back of my closet, hauling in a lamp and spending many hours of a rainy Saturday afternoon reading Detective Comics. And now that I’m a parent, I watch with pride as my eldest child transforms her closet into a “reading nook,” crammed full with POP figures, books and piles of comics.

You’re never too old for secret spaces. Imagine your friends’ faces when they compliment your new Shaker table and you pop open the side to reveal…well, what you hide in there is up to you, but they’ll be delighted to see it.

Dworman’s business, QLine Design, specializes in custom furniture with hidden compartments, and he even builds secret passageways, such as bookcases that function as doors. Secret passageways – I’m tempted, I really am. I’m pretty behind on my Batman comics.

Check out the secret compartments and more in the November issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine.