Orange Darkroom Walls, Why not?

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Funny Kirk!

Like many, my darkroom walls are a nice, soft, pale yellow - it is a nice place to be on a cold winter day. Like Bruce, I have knocked down the light leaks on my LPL with gaffers tape and cloth. No problems with fogging that I have noticed.

[Kirk Gittings]

If all you do is work under the safelight, it might be an okay idea, but the problem I see is that when you turn on the room lights to inspect your prints, if there is too much of a brightly colored background, your eyes will cause you to perceive the compliment of the orange (blue) when looking at something other than the walls and that may influence how much to tone the prints. I would stick with a light or medium grey and flat black immediately around the enlarger.

Working in the darkroom today and contemplating this question. I do think if you tone that room color would be a real issue.

[Tin Can]

Found an old thread on painting Darkrooms. Good to read.

Being 1/2 Norweigan, fond of Red, and Ole always has good advice, I am going to paint the walls behind my enlargers Matte RED, some of the enlargers cannot be completely sealed.

The wet side will be matte white and in my multitasking manner, I realized Darkroom will be Tornado room, as i am covering the window inside and out with well-fastened plywood wall mounting the Beseler V-XL 8X10 enlarger over the window.

In my one year here, 2 tornadoes passed within 2 miles. I have some faith this 100-year-old home somehow is just out of the alley...

I Duck & Cover

I can't remember what mine are!

But I do know that the wall immediately behind the enlarger is fire-engine red. I painted that myself - the rest is as they were. Off-white? Pale blue? Gungy brown? Hospital-corridor green? I truly can't remember.

[Drew Wiley]

AA recommended beige in order to efficiently reflect orange safelight illumination. I took that horrible advice in more naive years. All my enlarging and film
equipment is in a totally black room, and my color viewing area and mounting areas contain either black or white surfaces, depending. But I've never gotten
around to repainting the beige enamel behind the sink itself, which can be pretty deceptive when it comes to fine-tuning the effect of toners. But I've kinda
gotten used to the bias, so can subconsciously offset it. Ordinarily, I undertone a bit anyway. Then once the prints are totally dry a couple days later, I reevaluate them under quality lighting, and if necessary give a little more toning in the next session.

[Tin Can]

Right now the walls are a horrible beige/yellow!

My first and probably best choice is matte black on 2 walls and matte white on the wet side.

Fortunately, the ceiling is a clean matte white. I do only B&W.

I don't like painting anything.

I also need to oil the 100-year-old hardwood floor. When that drys in 6 months I will put down a pad.

[Drew Wiley]

Nice to have a vintage floor, though I hope you can keep it dry. I carry a vintage 1970 Norma monorail - a very clean one - in a vintage 1970 pack, a classic California-made Kelty, which I found brand new, totally unused, a few years ago. Now I should remake the ash handle to my vintage '66 ice axe which broke in half in a tumble a couple decades ago. Then I'd be fully stylish. But frankly, I'm not quite into ice climbing with big packs like I once was, and even if I was, I'd be using my modern fiberglass handle axe instead for the obvious reason. Skidding down several hundred feet right into ice water kinda reinforces the memory. But at least it was the shallow end of the lake, so none of my camera gear got wet. But if necessary you can find A&B catalyzed floor finishes which
will cure in a day. They're fussy and expensive, but I used to sell them all the time for restaurants and other high traffic areas which needed to be back in service within 36. Or easier, there are quite tough dual-drying water-based floor finishes now that dry very quickly, and will fully cure within a week. I have
them on my own kitchen floor and various furniture.
hours.

[Tin Can]

This floor seems uncoated with any modern finish. It's not fine woodwork. The boards are rather coarse 3-1/4" with slightly beveled edges. I am not resanding it or repairing any flaws.

Considering using local Tung Oil and Citrus per this guys application advice. https://www.realmilkpaint.com/shop/o...ung-chinawood/
The oil and solvent may dissolve any old wax and make it simple. If not, no big deal.

The former living room is now the shooting room. No furniture, just the huge S11, lights, and backdrops. 11 ft ceiling. Darkroom has 10' ceilings. Somebody put crap laminate over the hardwood! But the S11 rolls nicely on it.

[Drew Wiley]

No,no,no, Randy. Ha! The multitude of horror stories I could tell! Ironically, milk paint is often marketed to people with environmental sensitivities; but it turns out lots of them are allergic to milk protein too, so the concept backfires. It can also turn rancid on the walls. I realize your are looking at clear finishes and not milk paint per se. But snake oil advice tends to get all bundled up together by certain kinds of people. Using "Pure Tung Oil" is an old myth. It's not meant to dry and will remain sticky. It needs to be significantly processed, and the driers are usually incorporated in an added ingredient like phenolic or urethane. Worst thing possible for a darkroom floor. I have no idea what the product being advertised actually is. In the peri-paint industry, and well as in retail paint itself, the BS coefficent tends to be very high except for the most reputable brands. But none of the serious paint, marine, or flooring dealers in our area carry this; a couple of "iffy" places do. Another myth: don't use Murphy's Oil soap to clean the floor, like many recommend, because it will leave a residue that can inhibit a finish from sticking.

[Tin Can]

Drew, the name of the co is Milk Paint. I have no intention of using any milk or cleaning anything. I will vacuum.

He advises his 'real tung oil' "...all coats of oil should be cut 1 to 1 with thinner. Thinner can be mineral spirits (paint thinner), citrus solvent (all natural thinner), odorless mineral spirits or turpentine. I prefer not to use Naphtha, as it seems to dry too fast. "

5 coats over several days

Let dry and walk on wax paper while waiting.


https://www.realmilkpaint.com/help/t...pure-tung-oil/

I have worked in, on, and lived in old machine shops with wood grain end up block floors that are heaviily oiled from 100 years of usage. I bet they used old engine drain oil.

I don't like the smell of drain oil.

My Chicago condo conversion was an old escalator manufaturer with a rail car siding in 1915. I found pics. It was 2 stories of 6" thick end grain up floors with massive wood beams. I got pissed when they cut a stairs into and didn't reclpicate the old trusses. No more rail cars on the second floor. I got a new slab of concrete. Cutting it for a sewer repair was a big job in the middle of my brand new studio. Somebody during construction sabotaged the sewer pipe...


I was living in it while the original plumbers dug 10 feet down. Plastic sheet stuffed in the main pipe with a 2X4. We couldn't figure out what it was with the snake cam. I never backed up but the rest of the west building did. I am so glad to be out of there. 2013-2017. Hell is a condo!

1-DSCN1512 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

1-DSCN1524 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

[faberryman]

My darkroom is a multi-purpose workroom as well, and I often work in it with the lights on. Needless to say, the walls are off-white. I couldn't tolerate orange.