The first place luxury homeowners typically choose to put a security door is at the main entrance. The front door is often the most urgent priority because it’s the most visible. After that, people may upgrade their side doors, garage fire doors, and sliding doors leading to their patios.
Interior security doors aren’t always a priority for our clients. Their security needs vary based on their unique situation.
Some are perfectly satisfied with exterior doors. In some cases, the client doesn’t even care that it’s a security door — they come to us because they want Italian craftsmanship and customization. They want a really beautiful door and we can create that for them.
But others are survivors of violent acts or harassment. Some have had people break into their homes while they were going about their day and ended up hiding in a closet while dialing emergency services.
For them, exterior doors aren’t necessarily enough to help them feel safe. They want one more barrier between themselves and a possible intruder, and fortunately, we can help with that.
Here’s how interior security doors can help keep you and your family safer.
Advantages of Having Interior Security Doors
Our clients have given us plenty of different reasons behind their requests for interior security doors. Most of the time, it’s all about having backups in place and providing space where you and your family can feel safe until the authorities arrive.
Having a Second Line of Defense
Most of our clients have alarm systems and cameras on their property. It seems like a given at this point, especially with Ring Doorbells everywhere. (Not that we’d ever recommend such a thing — we don’t.)
While alarm systems are meant to be an alert for homeowners to tell them when security has been breached, they do little to protect people once the alarm has been activated.
The best way to keep intruders away from you if they’ve already managed to get into the house is by creating additional barriers. Interior security doors are a great way to provide a second line of defense against intruders.
Our clients don’t often get security doors put on every one of their interior openings. They typically pick and choose the most important places or easiest places to hide. This could be a den, office, or designated safe room. (To be totally honest, we don’t love the idea of panic rooms, but we’ll get more into that later on.)
Giving Everyone a Safe Place to Go
If someone does manage to get into your residence, interior security doors can create safe spaces for you and your family members.
Something we recommend to all our clients is a solid plan of action in the event of an emergency. Everyone who lives in your residence needs to know what to do and where to go if an intruder enters the home. (We can connect you with a team that can help you develop a plan — more on that below.)
Again, everyone’s needs are different, but some clients choose to install one or two interior security doors on every floor. This configuration ensures they have access to a safe room of sorts no matter where they happen to be in the residence.
If everyone in the house knows the plan is to get to one of these rooms — the closest one, most likely — then there will be less confusion if the situation arises.
Custom Bedroom Security Doors
Bedrooms are one of the most common types of interior security doors we make. The thought process behind bedrooms security doors is that they protect you when you’re most vulnerable — when you’re sleeping.
If you’re awake and someone breaks into your home, you probably have a chance to react — to run to a safe room, hide, call the police, etc. If you’re sleeping and someone breaks into your home, you may not know it unless they make a mistake (like breaking something or making too much noise) or they’re already standing in your bedroom.
This hits particularly close to home for people who have (or have in the past had) stalkers or documented threats to their safety and security.
We’re not in the business of scaring people into buying our security doors. However, we do find a great deal of satisfaction in helping people sleep better at night. In fact, we’ve had clients tell us that their custom bedroom security door allowed them to get their first decent night’s sleep in years.
Creating a Bedroom Sanctuary
We said before that we don’t love the idea of safe rooms or panic rooms. Regardless of whether you embrace the more positively connotated term safe room or the more negative connotated panic room, the fact remains that both are a waste of valuable floor space.
Most panic rooms are just boring rooms that are too small to be used for anything other than hiding. They’re barren because you hope you never need them. It’s not a room that you decorate and live in. It’s just a space you set aside.
Instead, we prefer to build a customized Sanctuary™. A Sanctuary™ is a functional safe room that doesn’t waste floor place. Even in a luxury residence with plenty of square footage, you wouldn’t want to waste it on a room that isn’t functional or appealing in any way.
Building a Sanctuary™ — as opposed to a safe room — is centered around two main principles:
- Making good use of the space you have
- Creating a calming environment in which you can spend time during an emergency
Because bedroom doors are often the route people take for interior security doors, it makes sense to apply the concept to that room.
First of all, your bedroom should already be a place where you feel safe and sound. Maybe your bedroom is filled with calming colors, photos that make you happy, and decorated with soft textures that make you feel relaxed before you fall asleep.
If you already feel safe in your bedroom, it’s the most logical place to create your Sanctuary™. The room can be customized in any way that makes you comfortable. You could have snacks stashed, a mini-fridge for refreshments, and any other items that will help you remain calm. Your master bathroom would already be accessible to you, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that.
Elements of the Sanctuary™ System
Our full Sanctuary™ System would include an interior security door, security windows, BallistiCrete, and our state-of-the-art biometric technology system.
The biometric security measures we always recommend to our clients include facial recognition software. A panel is installed on the wall next to the door that quickly scans your face to allow entry.
If access is granted, the door will open automatically using a motor (motorization is required for facial recognition use). The door will close and lock automatically with our Stealth Closer™.
The final piece of the puzzle is the Sanctuary™ Management System. This technology allows you to see the status of your Sanctuary™ no matter where you are in your home.
Using a designated tablet, you can see the status of your doors and windows (locked or unlocked, open or closed), and make adjustments as necessary. If you have more than one interior security door — or if your front door is also a security door — you can manage all of them into this one system.
The Sanctuary™ Management System will also notify you if someone tries to enter the space. For example, if someone stands in front of the facial recognition panel and is denied access, you’d receive a notification.
With all these pieces in place, your bedroom becomes an impenetrable fortress. No one will be getting in there unless you open the door or you’ve previously authorized access during that specific time.
If you don’t feel that it’s all necessary, you can select the features that best fit your needs. While people like the sound of having a bulletproof safe room, the reality is that you may not need it.
Some people are in greater danger of gun violence than others — it depends on your own unique situation. Your security team can help you determine the types of threats you need to be aware of.
If you need assistance in that regard, we can connect you with people who can assess your situation and coordinate with your security team.
Safety Doesn’t Stop at Interior Security Doors
Remember that keeping your family safe doesn’t stop at security doors and windows.
When your kids are little, you do all kinds of things like this. You teach them your address, your actual names (not just mom and dad), and maybe point out landmarks near your house. You teach them not to go anywhere with strangers. To not play in the street.
Most parents remember things like this that seem obvious, but forget that they should have a family safety plan in place for emergencies.
What happens if there’s a fire in your home? Do you have an evacuation plan? Does everyone know where to go, regardless of where they are located in the house? Do you have a place to meet up once you’re outside?
What about a tornado or hurricane warning? Does everyone know what the procedure is? Where they should go in the house?
And what if — somehow — someone does get into the house? Where should you go? What should you do?
Being Prepared with Comprehensive Home Security
There are plenty of ways to protect yourself and your family that have nothing to do with potential intruders. And in many cases, some simple preparations can give you precious time and save lives.
The questions above are exactly the reason we’ve partnered with the crew at LionHeart International Services Group. This elite group of experts is comprised of former Secret Service, FBI, CIA, and military personnel who have been trained to keep people at the highest levels of clearance safe.
When you purchase security doors or windows from FBS, we can connect you with the LionHeart crew. They can work with your existing security team to look for holes in their procedures, create emergency plans with you, and even teach you how to keep your data safe.
All of them are highly knowledgeable about security and have been working with us long rough to know how our products work and what makes them so much better than anything else on the market.
Between the physical upgrades of security doors and windows (and BallistiCrete, if necessary) and the emergency LionHeart will help you put into place, you’ll have a comprehensive security plan.
Get Started On Your Interior Security Door Design
We make more interior security doors than you might think. We have a lot of photos on our website of front doors because they’re often the most elaborate. People love looking at them, marveling at the stonework or the technology that has been integrated.
What you may not realize is that our interior doors can do everything our exterior doors can. No matter where you choose to put one, it can be motorized, integrated with facial recognition software, and contain hidden panels for safe storage of family heirlooms, weapons, and/or personal documents.
And of course, they can be designed using any of our covering options. Whether you want your interior security door to blend into the wall or stand out on its own, we can create exactly what you’re looking for.
When you’re ready to discuss your security door design, our architectural designers will talk to you and your design team. They’ll get a feel for your taste in design and what you’re looking for, and then draw up some sketches for you.
They’ll make material recommendations based on your design aesthetic (and the location in the home) and once everything is settled, we’ll send it to our artisans in Italy for final approval. They’ll make sure they have everything they need to build your door and order what they don’t have.
When all is said and done, the artisans hand-finish your custom security door. Upon delivery to your residence (anywhere in the world), we’ll supervise its installation to make sure it’s done properly.
We’re so proud of what we do here at FBS — in large part because we help people feel safer, rest easier, and allow parents to know they’re doing everything within their power to protect their kids.
If you’re ready to design your interior security doors, contact us today!
