Late last year, I saw an ad on Craigslist for a custom bookcase made in this iconic shape:

I clicked “Contact” and a few weeks later I met up with Mathew Foster at Parka. Over coffee, he told me that he’d made one of these for his girlfriend as an anniversary present, and that he’s been making “whimsical furniture” and “all sorts of custom stuff” for some time now. With experience as a theatrical set builder, he’d already spec’ed out the entire piece in Google SketchUp – there were pages and pages. We struck a deal and he got started building version 2.0. Over the next weeks, I started to get pictures such as:

and…

Finally, a February thaw melted the snow enough for Mathew to dig out his trailer and make the delivery. The bookcase is constructed in 5 pieces, plus the doors. The shelves are adjustable, and (per my request) strong enough to hold vinyl records.

Click the picture to see the construction process

The top has a light inside to illuminate the “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” sign with a slot cleverly cut to light the top shelf below. Special stuff has begun to accumulate there.

At night, it faintly lights up the entire room. I didn’t expect it would be so comforting to walk into my office at night and see the glow. “Oh, the Doctor must be here… everything’s going to be all right.”

On the other hand, as a friend commented: “..the Doctor tends to arrive just in time for universe-threatening disasters, so, um, it’s both “Oh, good, the Doctor is here,” and “Oh, shit, the Doctor is here!”

If you’re interested in having anything like this materialize in your universe, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Mathew. Now I’m interested in adding some electronics so I can push a button, flash the lights, and hear this:

or perhaps this: