Jacobs Bedroom Door Tardis

[thomsk]

Hi all, I'm new to the board but wanted to post to say what a great resource this place is.

I came up with the 'novel' idea of converting my sons bedroom door into a Tardis and had already begun the work when I found this site and discovered that majorj0nny and flipperth had already done the same thing (and very well) long before I'd even thought of it

My son loves the latest Doctor Who, so my plan was to create a Matt Smith style Tardis door,  although I did make some small changes along the way such as using brass instead of chrome for the handles and lock, as I already had them available. Also after searching the web for an authentic looking light I decided to go for something fun instead.

My initial plan was simply to paint the existing door blue then paint some white windows and a Police Box sign:



I got as far as fixing a piece of MDF above the existing door frame before I decided that the panel sizes on the door would make for a lousy Tardis, so it was time for a trip to B&Q for a cheap internal door and some lengths of wood.



I wanted to get the 'windows' finished first as I knew they would the awkward bit, so I followed some grey undercoat with black acrylic and silver glitter paint.



Then I cut and attached some 2mm Perspex using impact adhesive around the edges and followed that by gluing on the strips of wood to form the six panels. I undercoated these strips and glossed them in position with the help or a roll of masking tape. This was a pain to do and with hindsight I would have glossed the wood strips before gluing them on then simply touched up and joints after they were fitted.

At this point I also added a Police Box sign (made out of self adhesive vinyl) and framed it behind more 2mm Perspex.



Then a quick coat of undercoat.



Followed by my chosen blue acrylic.

I typed up the 'Police Telephone' notice and photoshoped a black St Johns Ambulance sign to make it to the same shade of blue as the Tardis. Then I laminated them both and attached them with some double sided tape.



For the light I source a suitably size battery/mains/USB rotating blue police light which I inset partially into the wall.



The lights comes on whenever his computer is turned on and when combined with the Tardis sound effects which he has set for Windows start-up and shutdown it provides a pretty good effect.

The main thing is that Jacob seems happy with it...although his bedroom doesn't seem to be any bigger than it was before I started...strange  



Now it's time to build K9 I think...that should be a bit easier than a Dalek...

[DoctorWho8]

Cool digs, man.
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

[mordrogyn]

Very nice, great work.
Love the added effect that you can tell if he is on his computer in the middle of the night too lol.

[Scarfwearer]

Looks fabulous!
This is becoming a whole new sub-genre for the site.

Oh and, welcome aboard!

Crispin

[geminitimelord]

Welcome to the board.

Very nice construction!

[flipperth]

Hi. Thanks for the mention. That's a fantastic looking job there. Really sleek. I'm contemplating Matt Smithifying George's doors, but it's finding the time. Also I think a new coat of paint would be on the cards too.

PS did you have to put a hole through the wall for the light? How did you get it to link to your son's computer?

[thomsk]

Thanks all for the positive comments 

Did you have to put a hole through the wall for the light? How did you get it to link to your son's computer?

Yes, I made a cardboard template first to get it the right size and shape for the hole and used that to mark the plasterboard before cutting it. I fitted a small half-circle wooden plyth to the exterior of the Tardis 'roof' to support the front of the light and glued a bit more wood inside the wall to support the rear of the light. The actual light is held steady with a bit double-sided sticky tape on it's base.

Inside the bedroom I drilled a hole through the plasterboard to allow the power cable into the rear of the light and used a PowerDown energy saver plug to send power to the externsion cable feeding the light whenever the computer is turned on. Almost all the cables are tucked out of site inside a cupboard so it's not that noticable from inside the room.