A Good Man Goes to Door
March 2013
Greetings, fellow Whovians...
Thanks for stopping by to see what I spent a good part of my winter creating.
I decided to build my own TARDIS door after being inspired by others I saw online, like
this and
this and
this...
Mine is a bedroom door at the end of a hallway.
Here is a long shot, in which you can see this is not the first instance of creative vandalism I have inflicted upon my home.
It is rather a colorful place.
A little bit closer...
One of my favorite aspects of how this turned out is the door's "Relative Dimensionality"...
Rather than just paint a flat normal door, I custom-built panels and details to make it a little more three-dimensional.
Even the top of the "light" is more than just a flat triangle.
It might not show up well in the photos, but there is actual glass (Plexiglas) in the windows,
Police Box sign, and roof light, as well as over the "Free for Use of Public" sign.
Another favorite touch is my own take on how one should gain entry to the blue box...
I have always felt slightly disappointed that the TARDIS key is just a rather plain-looking key of common type.
I always thought that such a special conveyance should be accessed by means of something a bit more stylish - such as this, perhaps:
So my TARDIS has a keyhole more appropriate, with a moving cover. (No actual hole behind it, however.)
I found that little piece on eBay, and it turned out the seller was in Manchester, England.
Sent to me via Royal Mail, I feel this one item puts the official stamp of British authenticity on my project.
Speaking of moving parts, this might be the best and cleverest bit:
The telephone door is indeed an opening door.
Alas, there is no phone behind it, just a flat space...
But more than enough to serve as a one-picture gallery where I can
exhibit a rotating display of various Doctor Who posters.
Her Majesty's REALLY Secret Service...
Keep Calm and Don't Blink...
Art Nouveau Amy Pond
Who-ops... how did that get in there?
That's more like it.
And I suppose that completes the tour. I hope you enjoyed seeing my handiwork,
and I hope maybe in turn this will inspire somebody else to give it a try for themselves.
Allons-y!
Come hang out with me on Twitter: Follow me @pumpkinsam
My occasionally updated music blog: discomoon.com
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I have a few photos from the construction process, if you are interested.
I kind of wish I had documented it more extensively, but here's what I have.
This started out as one of the original slab doors from my house.
All the others have been replaced with nicer doors, so I had plenty to choose from.
I cut pieces of half-inch plywood to make the "panels".
A most excellent coincidence occurred during this part of the project. I placed glue on the back of the boards, and secured them with a random but appropriate amount of screws - two for each of the smaller pieces, four for the larger horizontal pieces, five for the vertical ones, etc... When I counted up the total number of screws out of curiosity, I found that the complete assembly had required 63 screws. As you may be aware, Doctor Who aired for the very first time in... 1963.
Here is the rough door, laid out in preliminary fashion so I could imagine how it would look once finished:
And here's how it looked once covered in beautiful TARDIS blue. (The windows are at the near end now.)
For the record, if you like the color and need any TARDIS paint for your own projects, I used Behr Ultra, color S-H-560, "Royal Breeze", purchased from Home Depot.
Next I painted the window areas silver and glued down the Plexiglas. I cut the window "frames" out of quarter-inch plywood, painted them white, and glued them on top.
And that was just the door itself. I still had to make the Police Box sign and the roof light,
as well as the telephone door and the "Free for Use of Public" sign that goes on it.
What a huge undertaking!
Of course I can never leave this house now.