Amish-made furniture has secret spots to hide items
Until the spring of 2009, Jill Herro had never touched a gun, she said.
“On a lark, I took a concealed-carry class with two of my girlfriends,” Herro said. “I really enjoyed it. … I found it to be empowering and kind of fun.”
Shortly afterward, the Summit County resident unexpectedly embarked on a new career. That’s because within months of getting her concealed-carry permit, Herro lost her job of 12 years in pharmaceutical sales when her entire division was laid off as part of a corporate merger.
At the same time, Herro was looking to buy quality furniture that had a secret compartment. She wanted something in which to hide a handgun that would be readily available if needed — but she also wanted something that looked nice.
She didn’t find anything that she wanted to buy and put in her and her husband’s home in the Akron suburb of Silver Lake. A lot of furniture “looked like some guy’s garage project. It didn’t look very nice,” she said.
Herro, now 56, speculated then that other people must be thinking the same thing. Out of that, Secret Compartment Furniture was born on the last day of 2009.
“More and more women were getting into the shooting sports. And more and more women were purchasing firearms for self-protection,” Herro said. “More and more women are living alone. And so I thought there would probably be a need or desire for it.”
Herro seeded Secret Compartment Furniture with $10,000 of her money. Her vision was designing and creating stylish, Amish-made hardwood furniture — with the requisite secret compartments — that would last generations.
“I didn’t take out any loans,” Herro said. “I didn’t get any investors. I wanted full control so I didn’t have to answer to anybody.”
The timing could have been better: The country was still reeling from the Great Recession. But Herro persevered. Sales slowly grew.
One problem. She soon learned that buyers loved their custom furniture but typically didn’t tell anyone that they had it, she said.
“I got no word of mouth because nobody tells anybody what’s in the furniture,” she said. “It makes it really hard to grow the business.”
But the business has grown. Herro typically markets her furniture at major gun shows around the nation.
Herro said 2017 is the first year she has drawn a paycheck. Secret Compartment Furniture was profitable from the beginning, but she reinvested all profits in the business to grow it, she said.
Herro comes up with the concepts and designs, but it’s up to Andy Troyer, owner of Peach Tree Woodworking in Holmes County, and his staff to make the furniture. The wood shop is about an hour’s drive south of Herro’s home.
Troyer, 53, who is also a bishop in the Amish church, recalled the first time he and Herro met.
“Right away, I sensed the lady knew what she was doing,” he said. “The relationship just kind of built up from there. ... We have a good business relationship.”
Kay Connor, from the Cincinnati area, remembered seeing Herro’s furniture for the first time.
“My husband met her at one of the Ohio gun shows and was totally enthralled with the concept and the quality,” Connor said.
She bought pieces and keeps buying Herro’s furniture to give as gifts.
Connor's son-in-low, Carl Schneider, 34, a retired Marine, also owns a Secret Compartment Furniture piece. No one who has visited him and his family can tell that it has a built- in hiding place, Schneider said.
The furniture can be used for more than concealing weaponry. People also buy her pieces to hide jewelry, money and other valuables. Prices range from $169 to a few thousand dollars.