Ariete Security Doors

Black armoured door

The colour that silences everything else, the armour you never notice.

You design your black armoured door to measure, in the exact depth you have in mind: jet black RAL 9005, the matt that absorbs light, or graphite black RAL 9011, a little softer. You can choose it on every model in the range, internal and external alike. Want the whole entrance to match? Have the frame in the same black. We build it in the most requested sizes, 80, 85 and 90 cm wide, or to a bespoke size that fits your opening. And you can see it and touch it for yourself in the showroom, before you decide.

See your black armoured door before you choose it

Black is the colour that changes most with the finish: the same RAL looks deep and velvety in matt, sharp and mirror-like in gloss. That is why the photos here show real doors, fitted in real homes, on smooth panels and on routed panels. So you know what your black armoured door looks like before you even walk into the showroom.

Black: perception, history and style.

We asked colour designer Chiara Bevegni to tell us what black really is: why our eye reads it as bottomless depth, how it went from being banished from the home to becoming the colour of space, and what happens to an entrance when you put a black door in it.

Black is not a colour: it is the absence of light.

Every other colour exists because a surface reflects part of the light spectrum back to your eyes. Black does the opposite: it absorbs almost all of it and sends almost nothing back. You are not looking at a shade; you are looking at the point where light stops. It is a physical difference, not an aesthetic one, and it is why black resembles nothing else.

A door that seems to have no bottom.

In front of a black surface the eye cannot read outlines or depth: it has no reflections to derive the shape from. The result is a sense of absolute depth, almost of emptiness. A black door stops being a panel and becomes a threshold, an opening: like the mouth of a cave, beyond which the eye loses its way. Wonder, and a touch of unease, together.

From banished colour to the colour of space.

For centuries black stayed outside the home, confined to mourning, wrought iron and ceremonial decoration. What brought it back indoors was the twentieth-century avant-garde, through the insights of designers such as Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, who used it as a graphic element that broke with convention. But it was only with the minimalism of the 1980s and 1990s that black was accepted completely and became a byword for abstract elegance and radical sophistication.

You choose the right black next to your wall.

Against a white wall black is the minimalist statement par excellence: a sharp graphic contrast, a formal purity that leaves no room for mistakes, and the entrance becomes an architectural frame with nothing superfluous about it. Next to bright, saturated colours, on the other hand, the space comes alive: the door acts as a backdrop and the entrance turns into a personal art gallery. The wall you already have decides which black is right for you.

Visual silence or theatrical drama: it depends on the house.

Black has a quality no other colour has: it silences the distractions. In a minimalist house it is the silence that holds everything together; in a house full of objects from different eras it is the dramatic backdrop that makes them stand out. Same door, two opposite stories, and in both cases it is the door that is in charge.

Buying a black door or designing your own.

This is where the difference shows. Buying 'a black door' is a catalogue choice, the same as a thousand others. Designing your own black door means choosing between matt and satin, thinking it through for the light in your home and for your wall, and entrusting it to people who know that on black even the finish changes everything. The first you can find anywhere. The second we build together, made to measure.

The colour designer

Chiara Bevegni

Interior and colour designer, Genoa

She designs the colour of spaces by listening first to the people who live in them, working across colour consultancy, interior design and home staging. She is the voice behind the colour section of this page.

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You can have black on any Ariete armoured door

You can choose black across the whole range, from a flat’s front door to the entrance door of a detached house, right through to the sliding door that disappears into the wall. The armour under the panel changes from model to model, and you are still free to have it in the black you prefer.

Every style has its black.

Black does not decorate: it decides. The same door is a sharp graphic mark in a minimalist house and a theatrical backdrop in an interior full of objects from different eras. Here are the four styles where black is at its best, so you can see straight away which one suits your home.

Minimal chic

This is the style black belongs to by right. It strips the space of everything superfluous and takes it to a level of pure abstraction: no decoration, no visual noise, just the door and the wall. In a minimal chic house a black door is not a dark detail: it is the proof that every line was decided on.

Modern and contemporary

Against a white or neutral wall the black door becomes a sharp graphic mark, a line that cuts the wall and reorganises the whole room around it. The interior architecture turns into an exercise in geometry and chiaroscuro: every edge, every volume and every alignment reads better precisely because black brings them out.

Contemporary eclectic

This is where black does the job no other colour can: it holds things together. In a house that mixes antique furniture, iconic design pieces and contemporary art, the black door is the visual glue that keeps the whole from looking chaotic. It becomes a dark backdrop that brings out the colours and textures of everything else, and gives the entrance a theatrical elegance.

Industrial and loft

Black and iron have always gone together: railings, frames, industrial windows. In a loft of brick, concrete and exposed structure, a black door never jars, because it is already the colour of the material around it. It is the most coherent choice of them all, the one where the door looks like part of the building rather than something added later.

How to choose the right black for your home

With black the choice is less about the shade than about the finish: the references we start from are jet black RAL 9005, absolute and deep, and graphite black RAL 9011, a touch softer. From there we calibrate them with you, according to your style and the wall in your home. This is how colour designer Chiara Bevegni recommends using them.

If your style is	The black to choose	Ideal wall and materials
Minimal chic	matt RAL 9005, pure abstraction	white, smooth surfaces, no decoration
Modern, contemporary	full black as a graphic mark	white, neutrals, concrete
Contemporary eclectic	matt black, a backdrop that holds everything together	neutral wall, objects from different eras
Industrial, loft	graphite black, a cousin of iron	exposed brick, metal, concrete
A house full of colour	absolute black as a frame	saturated walls, art, pop pieces

Which walls go with black?

The same black looks like a different colour depending on the wall beside it. The pairings that work, according to Chiara Bevegni.

WhiteThe minimalist statement: a sharp graphic contrast.

Concrete and neutralsPure geometry, architectural light and shade.

Pale woodBlack acts as an anchor and the room stays warm.

Exposed brickAn industrial soul: black is already the colour of iron.

Bright, saturated coloursThe entrance turns into a personal art gallery.

Black armoured front door

Do you want it to vanish, or to cut the wall in two?

Before you choose the exact finish, decide one thing only: should the door vanish into the wall, or cut it in two? Everything else follows from that.

The door vanishes, the line stays

Matt black against a dark or deep grey wall. The door does not stand apart from the wall: it merges into it. What is left is the line of the frame and an entrance that looks carved out rather than added on.

The door cuts the wall and commands the scene

Full black against a white or pale wall. The contrast is sharp and deliberate: the door becomes a graphic mark that reorganises the room, and the eye goes there and nowhere else.

The blacks you can choose for your armoured door

There is more than one black, and what changes it most is the finish: matt absorbs light and looks bottomless; satin softens the effect; gloss reflects and turns almost into a mirror. These are the references we start from most often. We calibrate yours from here, in the showroom, next to your wall. And if the shade you have in mind is not among these, we produce it in any shade on the RAL and NCS scales.

Three things that matter more than the colour

Elegant to look at, impossible to force.

Behind a panel this uncompromising there is first of all a real armoured door, in burglar resistance class RC3 or RC4. You choose the black for the style; what protects you is the lock, the cylinder and the steel you cannot see. You look at the colour every day; the security is what you feel.

Italy's most secure armoured door

A chrome-steel and nickel cylinder, and a square defender with chamfered corners that nobody else makes: it cuts off the scaffolding-pipe technique. No attempted break-in has ever succeeded on an Ariete door.

The quiet you take back

The fire-resistant mineral-wool insulation stops the noise of the stairwell, the lift and the street. Close your front door and the noise outside drops away at once: sound reduction reaches up to 44.8 dB. Very few doors insulate as well as this.

Goodbye draughts, inside and out

A double seal and a draught-excluder blade with five air chambers seal the opening: the warmth stays in, the cold of the landing stays out, and smells from the stairwell disappear. A lighter bill, more comfort, twelve months a year.

What Ariete puts behind every door

Black: upkeep and durability

It does not shift in tone or go grey

The powder coating, baked in an oven, is stable under UV rays: the black stays deep and even over the years, without the drift towards grey that gives cheap paints away.

Choose matt, not gloss

This is the difference that really counts on black. Matt and satin forgive fingerprints, dust and smears; gloss is more dramatic but behaves like a mirror and asks for a great deal more attention.

Simple to clean

A smooth surface: a damp cloth and you are done. No special products. Just avoid abrasives, which on a matt finish leave shiny marks that are hard to put right.

Frequently asked questions about black armoured doors

Does a black armoured door get too hot in the sun?

This is the one thing that genuinely needs care with black. Black absorbs more heat than a pale shade, so in direct sun the surface gets hotter: that is why on external models facing south we use specific paint cycles and panels designed to cope with solar radiation. In the showroom we tell you honestly whether your aspect calls for a different finish.

Does black show fingerprints and dust more?

It all depends on the finish, not on the colour. Gloss black is a mirror: beautiful, but it shows every fingerprint and smear. Matt and satin black, which are what we recommend on an armoured door in almost every case, behave far better: a damp cloth and you are done, with no special products. If you have children or pets at home, the advice is blunt: matt.

Can I choose the exact shade and finish of black?

Yes. The most requested references are jet black RAL 9005, absolute and deep, and graphite black RAL 9011, a touch softer, each available in matt, satin or gloss. Beyond those, we can produce any shade on the RAL and NCS scales. If you already have a black at home, in the window frames or in a railing, we compare it in the showroom and calibrate the door to match.

Does a black door make the entrance smaller or darker?

It is worth thinking about, and the answer changes with the wall. Black does not advance towards you the way red does: on the contrary, it tends to recede and create depth. In a narrow entrance with pale walls it works beautifully, because the contrast lengthens the perspective. In an entrance that is already dark, with dark walls and little natural light, there is a real risk of weighing it down: there you either keep the wall pale, or you go for graphite instead.

Can I have the door black inside and another colour outside?

Of course, and it is a very frequent request on black in particular. The inner and outer panels are independent: inside you put the black you have in mind, and outside the door can stay the same as the others on the landing or take a different colour, whichever colour your building requires or best suits the facade. Our in-house joinery workshop makes both to measure, including a faithful reproduction of the building’s standard panel.

Is black a choice you tire of?

Black is the opposite of a fashion: it is the colour minimalism made permanent, and in forty years it has never left our homes. You tire of it when there is too much of it, that is, when it takes whole walls and whole rooms. On a door, no: there it works as a mark, and a mark holds up over the years. If anything it is the rest of the house that changes around it, and black still works.

Can I have a black armoured door with glass?

Yes, and it is one of the finest combinations you can get. You choose the glass on the Luce and Aurora models, and it is anti-shatter and anti-sledgehammer: the light comes into the entrance without taking anything away from the armour. The contrast between the solid black of the panel and the transparency of the glass is exactly the graphic effect a modern home is after.

How much does a black armoured door cost?

A black Ariete armoured door starts at around €2,900 + VAT for internal models and goes up to €10,000 + VAT for external versions, with glass or electronic. The range is wide because every door is made to measure: the price depends on the model, the burglar resistance class, the dimensions and the finishes. In the showroom, or with a quote, we give you the exact figure.

Come and see your black armoured door in person

A black should be chosen with your eyes and your hands, not from a screen: the difference between matt and satin does not show in a photo; it shows when you walk around it. In the showroom you compare it with your wall, in your home’s light by day and in the evening, and together we find the exact finish and the right model for your entrance. Start from the showroom or from a quote request: there a consultant guides you through the choice. Once the door is settled, one of our in-house technicians (not a call centre, not subcontractors) takes care of the site survey and the installation.

Other colours for your armoured door

Black is one of many ways to dress an Ariete door. Under the panel the armour is identical: the colour changes, the security stays. If your home calls for another shade, here they are.