Time and Relative Dimension in Space.....Shed...The Regeneration.

 So we left off last time with a shed on short legs, which clearly bore no resemblance to a Tardis, so this is where we get clever. One of the key idea's of the project was to keep it simple and affordable and in such we would use either recycled or off the shelf materials.
 The Tardis façade had to both look as authentic as possible and also double up as a deck which could be lowered like a drawbridge in fine weather. The basis for this would be a sheet of 8' x 4' marine plywood, which can be bought in any DIY store for around £30. This was shaped at one end to look like the roof of the Tardis and at the other it would be attached to the base of the shed with old recycled gate hinges.

  Once again the Campervan was pushed into service, this time as a handy workbench. On the front of the plywood sheet we glued and screwed a mixture of old and new floorboards which would form the Tardis doors and windows. This also had the added benefit of strengthening the façade as it also had to double up as the deck when in it's lowered position. I planned only one opening door so as not to weaken the façade/deck to much.

  The windows clearly could not have glass in , so they would be made with thin bits of strip wood which would then be painted. Talking of paint, getting the right shade of blue was critical for the right look. Fortunately Cuprinol do a great range of garden shades and their "Iris"blue was just perfect for the Tardis. Once painted with three coats of Iris blue it was beginning to look more like the Tardis.
 The cameras were back for when we were fitting the Tardis façade to the shed, which didn't go quite to plan when I'd put the hinges an inch to high and it wouldn't clear the tree branches above...Dohhh.
 However no Tardis is complete without the proper signs and this is where the internet and a laminator came in handy for the two sign on the doors...So they were virtually free. The large "Police Box" sign was more tricky and in the end I got a local sign maker to cut some vinyl lettering at just the right size. These I then fitted to a piece of wood painted black which was then fitted over the doors.

Time and Relative Dimension in Space.....Shed.

So our Amazing Space project was to be a TARDIS which is short for "Time and Relative Dimension in Space"...Shed ,from the BBC show "Dr Who". Now this isn't my first attempt at a Tardis, as in our last house I converted a pair of old Edwardian wardrobe doors into a built in Tardis/wardrobe for my daughter Erin. However this one was to be on a grander scale, though not much more of a grander budget.

  As the name implies the Tardis would be based on a converted shed...In fact our old allotment shed which we got for free about five years ago. Now clearly this 8x6ft shed looks nothing like a Tardis, but with the application of Yorkshire ingenuity and a whole load of recycled timber and assorted junk ,it would be transformed. The first challenge was to dismantle the Shed and transport it a mile across town to its new home at the bottom of our garden in a clearing on the edge of some woodland. This is where we pressed our trusty campervan into service to transport it before we could start to restore the shed.

 

 Simple as it sounds though, every stage of the build was being filmed for Channel 4's "George Clarkes Amazing Spaces" so we were forever stopping to film from another angle or to do a retake. This meant relatively a few seconds on TV could take hours to film, but it was fun for us to do.To make the Tardis stand out more we planned to build it on short legs, so when viewed from the house it would appear to be hovering just above the ground. Our next door neighbour gave us an old length of railway sleeper which we cut up to make six legs, which we then attached to the strengthened shed floor.