Steampunk is an alternate history subgenre of science fiction that mixes motifs from the Industrial Revolution with mechanical and electrical elements from the Victorian era. It’s a pretty niche genre, but it has some cool aesthetics. The one drawback is that it can be a little difficult to work with when designing your own characters. Fortunately, there are a few tricks you can use to give your character a steampunk vibe even if they don’t have any actual steam equipment on hand. Here’s how you can steampunk a door in your home without spending tons of money on expensive materials and without having to find special sources for parts:
Create A Base
The first step is to make a base. You can use plywood, particle board, or any other material you like–just remember what base will go with the door you’re planning on making. The base shouldn’t be too heavy because it needs to be able to be moved around easily.
Add Color
A color is a great way to add a steampunk feel to your character without the complexity of acquiring materials. It’s also a fun way to make your character stand out.
If you’re more concerned about having an accurate steampunk door, then go ahead and get all of your materials from specialty stores or markets. But if you want to create something on the fly, then just use some spray paint or whatever else you find around the house. You could use any color you like as long as it fits with the overall theme of steampunk and doesn’t look too tacky.
Contrasting Materials
One way to give your door a steampunk vibe is with materials that are contrasting. For example, you could use a bulky material like wool to cover the top of the door while using more delicate materials like lace to cover the bottom. Another option is to use iron on one side and wood on the other.
Incorporate Gears
and Iron
An easy way to add a steampunk vibe to your door is by incorporating gears and iron. You can try different methods of adding elements like the gears, such as paint or stickers. If you want to give the door an old-fashioned look, you might consider actually painting it black with white accents– that would make it feel more like a wooden door. One last thing to keep in mind is that this trick will only work if your door has decorative elements on the sides and top that mimic those found on steampunk doors.
Wrap up with a Bowtie Seal
If you want to give your character a steampunk vibe without really working with steampunk materials, wrap up the door with a bowtie seal. This is a nice way to add some color while still playing it safe. You can easily find these seals in any craft store. The cool thing about this design is that the bowtie seal looks like it’s made off of metal but is actually made out of cloth. This makes it so that your door doesn’t look like any one particular historical era and also helps avoid the problem where you might accidentally mix-and-match pieces from different eras.
Take a step back and admire your work
One of the most important things when designing a character is to take a moment to study your work and think about what makes it unique and appealing. For example, with this steampunk door, I took a step back and examined the design from afar. What do I like about it? The design of the door has some interesting curves that give it unique aesthetics. This made me want to use curved edges in the pattern on my door, so that’s what I did.
I also liked how the core structure of the door was constructed out of thin metal bars. These metal pieces are spaced evenly apart and attached together by screws or nails at regular intervals. This gives the entire door-frame a busy but cohesive look that adds visual interest without being cluttered or messy.
To make this kind of detail, you’ll need access to thin metal sheets (they can be found at welding supply stores), a circular saw and drill, a hammer drill bit for drilling through metal sheeting, screws, nails and masking tape, a measuring device for cutting circles out of paper or cardboard, scissors for trimming paper scraps into circles (optional), wire cutters for cutting wire into strips (optional), spray adhesive for adhering paper scraps together onto one another (optional), small pieces of scrap wood as spacers between each piece of metal on your door frame (optional)
