It’s something you don’t often think about when looking at a home – the doors. Every house has them, and many people buy and sell a house without ever changing them, or even considering them as anything other than a practical necessity. Yet, what in your house can have such a huge impact on both the aesthetic and the security of your home? A chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and you could spend all the money you have on Aarnio, Starck and Eames furniture and still lose it all to a swift firm kick on an inadequate door.

One could argue the same about windows – they offer security, and they impact the aesthetic of a home massively. However, you can’t incrementally improve a house one window at a time, unless you want your abode looking like something out of a cartoon. One can treat oneself so a bespoke door from a company like Silvelox and know it’s probably the cleverest investment they can make. A beautiful door is pointless if it’s not even class 2 burglar proof. Equally, for a home, no one wants a door that looks like something out of Fort Knox – homes are meant to be inviting after all, you just want to choose who’s invited.

There have been recent trends of using bespoke doors internally - Silvelox have reported an increase in bespoke doors being used for protecting goods. Sometimes a solid door and sophisticated lock is all that is needed to deter an opportunist burgular - if it takes a lot of noise to get through, then it isnt worth it. Two other uses of high quality class 3 or 4 doors is in gun protection and storage, and as secure doors for designated retreat rooms. This isn't the Panic Room of the movies, or of LA lawyers, just a normal room with a phone and a door that'll take a lot more than a shoulderbarge to open - make it the study and you also combine excellent security for private papers and personal computers.

Finally, and my wife tells me this is a man thing, though I'm sure she's going to be happy when I get her a beautiful front door: these doors look fantasticly hi-tech when viewed from the right angle - the ones with the 4 or more bar locks look like something Batman would have on the Batcave door - the good thing is, while this sort of quality doesnt come cheap = you wont have to be Bruce Wayne to afford them.

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-joel