There’s no doubt that the most important aspect of any home security component is that it’s effective. Perhaps the second most important aspect is that it’s hidden.
People with traditional home security alarm systems often put that little sign out in front of the house to signal that the home has an alarm on it, which has varying degrees of success in diverting intruders. And perhaps if you’re a regular person who doesn’t live in the limelight, and petty thieves are the only people you’re worried about breaking into your home, that’s enough.
But if you live your life in the public eye, or you have other reasons to be concerned about your personal safety, that little sign may not be sufficient. If someone is specifically targeting you or someone in your family, that little sign won’t make any difference at all.
Furthermore, you don’t want to let anyone know what you’re doing to protect your home. Broadcasting your home security measures is essentially inviting people to learn how to game them. People who are determined enough will figure out how to disarm the alarm or not trigger the sensors. Having time to plan means they’re more likely to be successful, so it’s best to keep your home security plans under the radar.
And let’s be totally honest here: security cameras and alarm panels are ugly. Who wants to build a five-million-dollar home and have that gorgeous, clean facade ruined by cameras?
Great architects probably know already that it’s possible to incorporate effective security measures without compromising the design of the home. But in case you haven’t quite seen it done, we’re happy to provide some examples of the work we can do with our high security doors, windows, and a wall finish that will make a home completely secure, fortified, and bulletproof.
Home Security Doors
Most of our clients come to us with questions about our fortified security doors. Sometimes, when we sit down to design a door with clients, architects, or interior designers, they don’t know where to begin. There’s certainly an element of enormity paralysis involved, which is perfectly understandable given all the variables and options we offer, including high end finishes like leather door panels, marble, and fine stone. However, interior designers and architects will have already chosen other features for the home — textures, color palettes, and materials that all point us in the right direction. This helps us eliminate options that wouldn’t match well or fit into your overall home design.We take great pride in being able to match anyone’s decor or personal style. Some of our clients want exact matches to the other doors, as was the case with the large wood veneer pivot door in one of the homes featured in our promotional video with Jon Douglas Rainey on our home page.Again, in order to make your home security strategy as effective as possible, it should be invisible. And what better way to incorporate security doors than to make them look like any other door in your home — like they were made at the same factory on the same day using the same materials. But of course, those are all superficial aspects. Beneath the surface, our doors are completely different. For example, our security doors are most often made from steel due to its durability and formidable nature. Regular doors in a luxury home are typically made of wood that is stained or painted (depending on the decor choices), but our custom-designed doors are so strong that they’ll stop a semi-automatic rifle’s bullets. Trust us when we say that no one can kick them in. One of the most intriguing features we offer for our home security doors is keyless entry, which eliminates the annoyance of having to carry keys around. This is the case with some of our external entry doors — like front doors, sliding doors, or garage doors leading into the home — but it’s also very common on internal doors. Who wants to carry a key to their bedroom Sanctuary around?Besides, keys are just another way for someone to gain unwanted entry into your home. Keys can be lost, duplicated without permission, or stolen. Keys are a failure point in security. But a retina scanner? The only way that door is opening is if the scanner can confirm that your retina is in front of that panel. We also have sensors that recognize faces and fingerprints, as well as keypad entry devices that only require a code.
Additionally, we can motorize just about any door you’d like. Upon confirming that you or someone you’re specifically allowing entry to your home is trying to get in, the door will swing open on its own accord — there’s no need to set down your shopping bags or suitcases because you don’t need a free hand. The door knows it’s you. Not that you need additional reasons to love our home security doors, but the icing on the cake is that they’re handcrafted in Italy — and also hurricane-certified.
Home Security Windows
While high security doors are perhaps the flashiest, most visually impressive part of our business, our bulletproof windows are also an important factor in creating a fortified and secure home. Intruders are typically looking for an easy entrance into a home — they don’t want to break glass or kick a door in because they want to sneak in, as opposed to alarm the inhabitants and risk them calling 911. Forced entry can also risk injury, which will slow them down at best, and leave evidence of their presence at worst. Therefore, they’ll often look for a window (or door) that’s been left unlocked and gain entry that way.However, if someone is extremely motivated to get into a home and nothing is left unlocked, they may opt to break a pane of glass. The good news is that no one is breaking or shooting through our windows. On our Windows page, you can see a video of two grown men trying to break through one of our windows by hitting it with an axe and then a sledgehammer, and then both tools in alternating blows. As you’ll notice, the men hit that window 450 times — and it never broke. (What you don’t see in the video is that the men actually asked to stop. They were tired.)Much like our high security doors, we take great pride in making sure our windows are just as gorgeous and versatile as you’d expect high end windows to be. Whether fixed or casement windows, we can tailor the triple-layer glass to be exactly the finish you want, including transparent, satin, reflective, or printed.
High End Finishes
Luxury home design should be perfectly finished from top to bottom — after all, you’re paying top dollar for it. Barring circumstances beyond your control, there’s really no reason you shouldn’t be able to get exactly what you want. And that’s why we make sure to have a variety of high end finishes on our doors so you can customize your interior and exterior doors to match the decor and color palette chosen.We offer multiple types of coverings at FBS ranging from essential to extravagant. Essential coverings are recommended for indoor surfaces only (even the interior side of an exterior door), and include the basics, like wood veneer, laminate, and lacquer color that can be matched to any Pantone color you’d like. You can see a gallery of examples here. Enhanced offerings include patterned wood veneer and aluminum, which you can see here.
But the really gorgeous, jaw dropping, I-can’t-believe-that’s-a-real-and-functional door work we do is with our elegant and extravagant offerings. Elegant finishes are where we get into solid wood, gres, and glass. The extravagant finishes include hand-stitched Italian leather, marble, and precious stones (such as onyx, obsidian, and agate). You can find plenty of examples in our photo galleries, and we highly recommend you take a look. The extravagant doors are really something you have to see to believe. Some of the doors we’ve created look like they belong in a French chateau — Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would have loved them.But in many ways, the simplest doors are some of the most incredible because they look exactly like every other door in your home — perhaps a simple solid wood door stained to a walnut shade. An intruder wouldn’t be able to tell your bathroom door apart from your bedroom door. Sometimes elegance means being understated. Much like any other product we create, the high-end finishes on our home security doors are completely customizable. The possibilities truly are endless — we once made a door finished with Swarovski crystal!
Bulletproof Walls
After you’ve fortified your home with security doors and windows, the last piece of the puzzle is the walls. Walls are often forgotten — they’re tougher to break though, no one can just kick them in or throw a brick through them. And while it’s true that walls are generally pretty secure, they’ll offer absolutely no protection against firepower. To solve this problem, we partner with a company called GigaCrete, which makes multiple products our clients like to use, including BallistiCrete, which is a finishing coat put over an existing wall that protects up to NIJ Level 4 (the highest protection level possible at this time). Adding BallistiCrete to your walls is the final step in creating a completely secure home in an invisible and elegant manner. Depending on the level of security you require, BallistiCrete is either sprayed onto the wall or layered on with a hand trowel, as you would with spackle or plaster. BallistiCrete can be applied to most surfaces walls are already made of, including drywall, stucco, plaster, or cinder block. The only surfaces it won’t work on are metal (it literally eats through the material), but the chances are pretty slim your walls are made of metal, anyway. Installing BallistiCrete is completely discreet. When the installation experts arrive, they carry buckets into your home, mix the product onsite, spray or layer it onto your walls, and leave. To anyone watching, it will look like a regular part of your construction or paint crew. No one will know you’ve done anything special to reinforce your walls. 
The other amazing part of BallistiCrete is that it’s completely invisible inside as well. After the solution has fully cured, you can paint over it as you would any other wall surface. By contrast, it’s also a beautiful finish on its own, so if you like the color once it’s completed, you can leave it. You can also hang art or photos on the wall like normal. It has all the attributes of regular construction materials, so no one inside your home will ever know the difference by sight.
Perfecting the Art of Home Security
We pride ourselves on making an art out of home security. What better way to do that than to craft beautiful doors with high-end finishes, install flawless triple-pane glass windows, and fortify your walls with an invisible, elegant finish? We believe invisibility is one of the most important aspects of home security because that’s how you keep your family safe — no one cares about your valuables when your personal safety is at risk. Not allowing people to plan for your safety contingencies is the best way to make sure you’re covering all your bases.If you’re interested in seeing more of what we offer and the custom work we do, get in touch with us today. We’re always happy to talk on the phone, but we’d also love for you to make an appointment at one of our showrooms. And please feel free to check out our common questions page to see if we’ve already answered any of your questions there.Regardless of your personal style preferences, we’re confident we can create home security door and windows that will fit into your decor perfectly. The security aspects will be invisible, but the style certainly won’t be.
