How to Decorate a Boy's Bedroom As the TARDIS

Turn a bedroom into the TARDIS with a little creative painting.

The popular BBC series "Doctor Who" features a time-traveling ship called the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, and looks like an ordinary British police call box. Inside the small call box is the vast interior of a futuristic room that serves as the Doctor's control center. You can create a replica of the TARDIS with paint and a few purchased items. While a TARDIS-themed bedroom won't be able to travel through space and time, with a little imagination, a boy can pretend it does.

Things You'll Need

• TARDIS door poster
• Blue paint
• 3-inch paint brush
• Wood molding
• White semi-gloss latex paint
• Paint roller
• Paint sponge
• Gold-tone latex paint
• Round table
• Gray latex paint
• Black latex paint
• Artist paintbrushes, assortment
• Table lamp
• Aqua-colored light bulb
• "Doctor Who" bed coverings
• Dalek alarm clock
• Sonic screwdriver

Instructions

1. Print out pictures of the TARDIS to use as a guide.

2. Cover the outside of the bedroom door with a TARDIS door poster. Alternatively, use pieces of wood molding to re-create the raised door panels of the TARDIS, paint the exterior of the door blue and use white paint to hand-paint the signage at the top of the door. You can also use stick-on vinyl lettering from a graphics store.

3. Paint the bedroom walls with a semi-gloss white paint, if they are not already a light color in a semi-gloss finish, then lightly sponge-paint a gold-tone latex paint on top.

4. Paint a 6-inch-wide gold-tone stripe from floor to ceiling. Make the stripe free-form and slightly uneven. Repeat the stripe at 6-foot intervals around the room.

5. Paint 12-inch-wide gold-tone hexagonal markings on the wall, following the design of the TARDIS walls. Fill in the center of each hexagon with a circle of white paint.

6. Make the control center by placing a round table in the center of the bedroom. Paint the top of the table gray and the perimeter gold-tone, then paint various dials and indicators on the top of the table.

7. Place a table lamp in the center of the table. Use an aqua-colored light bulb to duplicate the glow of the Time Rotor.

8. Decorate the bedroom furniture to look like pieces of equipment. Paint the dresser and nightstand gray, and paint any knobs or handles with markings to resemble controls and dials.

9. Cover the bed with "Doctor Who"-themed bed coverings and add "Doctor Who" accents to complete the TARDIS theme, such as a Dalek alarm clock and a sonic screwdriver.

Tips & Warnings

• Instead of hand painting the hexagonal wall markings, cut them out of gold-tone self-stick shelf paper. Make the center circles from white self-stick shelf paper.

References

• BBC Doctor Who: The TARDIS 360 View

Resources

• BBC Doctor Who: The TARDIS