The basement is bigger on the inside…

This was the basement door when I bought the house. Ugly, rotting and two shades of beige(I believe these colors are “spoiled putty” and “depressing temp cubicle”).

The long term plan is to rip this whole thing down and rebuild it to be less terrible, but that is really far down the priority list, so in the mean time it needed some sprucing up. First I patched the rotted door & damaged sill with some aluminum, then I scraped all the loose paint off the door. You can see the doors are faced in T1-11, which is about the worst surface for the project, it is both a rough surface and has vertical grooves ever 5-ish inches. But sometimes you have to work with what you have.

Next came a coat of primer, tinted to help make the blue brighter. This was already a massive improvement. This and the blue were both slathered on very thick to try and fill the tiny cracks & splits in the wood to both smooth the surface and improve the durability of the whole project.

Then the blue, this was the first coat, it was too dark for pictures by the time the 2nd coat went on. The color is Behr “Sapphire Lace” from Home Depot, this or their “Jazz Blue” are good matches for Tardis blue.

Then came the masking. You can see I’ve already masked & painted the black for the “Police Box” sign at the top. This website was useful for doing the faux panels on the door.

Then the painting started. I’d love to say we had some plan for how to get to the various colors, but honestly it was a lot of “eh, that looks about right.” We took some of the blue and in one cup added white to lighten it, and in another added black. We painted the vertical lines, then added more tint to shift the colors further and once the first paint had dried we masked the corners and painted the horizontals. The window ”glass” is the same colors as the lower horizontal on the panels.

Painting completed. The window muntins were done slightly darker to make them stand out more. I ended up having to do a lot of touching up of paint bleeding under the tape due to the rough surface. I’m going to go back and edge the windows just to make them a bit crisper.

The sign lettering is simple stick-on vinyl lettering from Ace hardware. While the font isn’t perfect, it is pretty good, and the letters being slightly thick helps as this door is wider than the actual Tardis door.

With handles installed. Aside from the window edging this is done for right now. I’d love to add the door sign but the only one I’ve found that looks like it would stand up to being outside is 16” tall, and I need one that is 12-13” tall.

At this point you probably think I’m a huge Dr. Who fan, but actually I’m not. I like the show and enjoy it if I happen to catch it, but that is about it. I did this because a friend suggested it for that ugly door and it is exactly the sort of silly and whimsical project I love taking on. It is the same reason I make planters out of motorhomes, stick matchbox cars to my wall, and have teeth on my snowblower.