Every girl dreams of the day the man in a blue box will show up and whisk her off to far away lands. I’d settle for out to lunch, but for now I’m painting my laundry room door. While a colorful door won’t allow me to travel through relative time and space, it will make my laundry room a slightly more exciting place to be, and opening the door “into” the TARDIS will take me out of the laundry room into a “space” that is bigger on the inside.
Ages ago I found a TARDIS door cling that would be good for the job — not quite perfect, as it was devoid of character and had an artificially pristine quality that no real TARDIS would posses — the things been traveling through space and time, it is bound to have a few dings, dents and wear! And $59.99? Seriously?! If the children left quarters in their pockets instead of bark mulch and pebbles, I’d be rich, as it is, I decided to improvise and make my own.
I found a diagram of the TARDIS scaled to a slightly smaller door, and modified it to fit my own, a few inches here, a few inches there, a few more internet searches turned up a nice sign and badge. We already had blue paint, although I’m not sure of the origins of this particular shade — it is not from Oliver’s dresser project. I also used a sharpie, black paint, spray adhesive, modge-podge, and some stuff I printed, cut and touched up with paint.
Gavin left for work and I got the laundry room door off it’s hinges. I took off the hardware and measured it all out per my modified diagram: a few inches here, a few inches there, some light tracing and then paint.
This is not going to be a step-by-step DIY tutorial, because I sort of improvised and made it up as I went along. I also had two little boys who wanted to “help” by stripping naked and playing in the dirt/mud.
For simplicity (and a bit of laziness), I decided to leave the white unpainted, after all, the door was mostly white to begin with. I left some lazy brush work, the thing is ancient and wooden-looking, it has character.
I traced some of the details in sharpie, and once the black paint had dried, I used spray adhesive to put on the signs and lettering. A light layer of modge-podge over the signs and letters offered a little extra protection.
I think the modge-podge was a mistake, it made the signs and lettering ripple a bit. It is going in my laundry room for my amusement so I’m not going to fret too much.
The TARDIS has landed in my laundry room, I’d say ignore the laundry, but this is a laundry room.
The first person through the TARDIS door was not David Tennant or Christopher Eccleston, it was Sasha, she’d come by to help me get it on the hinges, it turned into a two person job – the door kept slipping.
Oliver wants to know when the “garlics” will arrive. I told him to wait a few days, some may show up on the cabinets.