New darkroom

[Eric Woodbury]

I think my drywall screws were every 8" in the field and 6" on the edges.

Sure looks like a nice space.

[Eric Woodbury]

Here's a couple of pix of my darkroom. It is 9' wide, 12' long, and 7.5' high. Main sink is 8' long. These were taken few years back and it looks about the same in there except the negs on the counter are deeper and there is a wash sink at the end of the other sink now. I've replaced most of the large safelights with a single string of LED Christmas lights. Pix are taken with a 58mm lens on 5x7.

[Merg Ross]

Kurt, that looks like a really nice space you have designed. Over the years I have built and worked in many darkrooms. One thing I learned along the way is that big is not necessarily better. Yours looks like a good size. I once had the opportunity to build a large darkroom and later regretted it. Too much time was spent moving about. My present darkroom is very compact (70 square feet) and perhaps the best yet. There were some pre existing conditions that limited a more expansive room. But with this one, everything is within arms reach or a few paces. The sink is "L" shaped resuting in a 10' length. Of course, just a little bigger would be nice! Have fun with your project and keep us updated.

[k_redder]

Here's a couple of pix of my darkroom. It is 9' wide, 12' long, and 7.5' high. Main sink is 8' long. These were taken few years back and it looks about the same in there except the negs on the counter are deeper and there is a wash sink at the end of the other sink now. I've replaced most of the large safelights with a single string of LED Christmas lights. Pix are taken with a 58mm lens on 5x7.

Eric,
Nice! I notice that you have quite a few white lights in your room (at least it looks like all the lights on tracks are white). Are these for inspection or do you do some other work in there that requires lots of white light. My darkroom itself is just 7'6" x 7'6" and I have one ceiling box from which I plan to put a track light with 2-4 heads for white light and 2 fixtures for safelights and I was starting to wonder if I may find myself wishing that I had allowed for more. So I thought I'd ask you (and everyone else) how much white light/safelight do you think is enough for a given size space? Thanks.

[k_redder]

Kurt, that looks like a really nice space you have designed. Over the years I have built and worked in many darkrooms. One thing I learned along the way is that big is not necessarily better. Yours looks like a good size. I once had the opportunity to build a large darkroom and later regretted it. Too much time was spent moving about. My present darkroom is very compact (70 square feet) and perhaps the best yet. There were some pre existing conditions that limited a more expansive room. But with this one, everything is within arms reach or a few paces. The sink is "L" shaped resuting in a 10' length. Of course, just a little bigger would be nice! Have fun with your project and keep us updated.

Merg,
At 56 sq ft, my room will definitely be cozy. I think my biggest challenge is going to be having enough space to store things. I will have about 12 ft of base cabinets, 5 ft of wall cabinets, and maybe a few little shelves wherever I can find a spot for them. The angled ceiling over the sink area really cuts down on available space for more cabinets or shelves. Like you said, there are pre-existing conditions that dictate all kinds of stuff. The whole process is a long series of compromises. You just make decisions as best you can and hope that you end up with a space that you can work in.

[Merg Ross]

Kurt, your space is 20% smaller that mine , if my math is correct. For general illumination I have two 100W hanging fixtures, plus two safelights and a 40W over the sink for inspecting prints. For inspecting negatives (after fixing) a 5x7 white light is over the sink with a 25W bulb and an additional safelight over the printing area. There are different opinions as to wall color, I have always used white with black around the printing area. Some of what I have described may be visible in the photos which I attached.

[Eric Woodbury]

Kurt, with my slightly short ceilings, I didn't have much room for light fixtures to hang down. I like a bright room w/o total shadows and the track lighting gives me this and allows the flexibility to set them up how I want. They are mostly 20W bulbs in the tracks. A couple 50W. For print inspection, you will notice a goose neck lamp over the long sink. It about the middle. I set a piece of white plexi against the shelves and can bring the print up out of the drink and stick to the plexi to view. The lamp turns on with a footswitch. These goose neck lamps are available through Grainger.

My previous darkroom was about 8 x 8' with a low ceiling. The sink just fit and I only had one enlarger. It could have been a little narrower and the 8' counter on one side was luxury. If you have a small darkroom, make small prints. Now, I can make 16x20 comfortably, but I don't much. It is nice to have a little extra room in case I have guests. My kids often help, so there is enough room for all.

[photographs42]

Kurt,
Looks like you’re coming along nicely. I have a couple of suggestions, however, that you might consider. First, think about moving the enlarger to the center of the dry side. Besides not having to work in the corner, you would have more freedom when dodging and burning (elbow room).

Next, unless you REALLY need the storage space, think about not putting the wall cabinets in. The room is small and the wall cabinets are going to make it seam smaller. Your office space is pretty large and whatever you plan to put in the wall cabinets could probably go there or in the storage room.

Seriously consider Clay’s suggestion to put the door on the other end. There are two advantages to this. One, making the door light tight will be much easier because the dark storage room will be on the other side. Second, the office/work space will be more flexible without the door.

Finally, the sink depth (front to back) looks a little tight. It’s hard for me to judge but it looks like you have a 2’-6” or 2’-8” door to the darkroom. This could be 2’-0” or 2’-2” and the sink could be a bit deeper. Remember the faucet or faucets are going to hang out over the trays.

Jerome

Oh, it’s a little late now but I hope you were listening to cowboy music when you did the drywall finishing. If you didn’t, I think the tape will all fall off.

[k_redder]

Kurt,
Looks like you’re coming along nicely. I have a couple of suggestions, however, that you might consider. First, think about moving the enlarger to the center of the dry side. Besides not having to work in the corner, you would have more freedom when dodging and burning (elbow room).

Next, unless you REALLY need the storage space, think about not putting the wall cabinets in. The room is small and the wall cabinets are going to make it seam smaller. Your office space is pretty large and whatever you plan to put in the wall cabinets could probably go there or in the storage room.

Seriously consider Clay’s suggestion to put the door on the other end. There are two advantages to this. One, making the door light tight will be much easier because the dark storage room will be on the other side. Second, the office/work space will be more flexible without the door.

Finally, the sink depth (front to back) looks a little tight. It’s hard for me to judge but it looks like you have a 2’-6” or 2’-8” door to the darkroom. This could be 2’-0” or 2’-2” and the sink could be a bit deeper. Remember the faucet or faucets are going to hang out over the trays.

Jerome

Oh, it’s a little late now but I hope you were listening to cowboy music when you did the drywall finishing. If you didn’t, I think the tape will all fall off.

Hey Jerome,
I was thinking about the possibility of moving the enlarger to the center of the dry side as elbow room is in short supply in the corner. My thinking was that the 5 ft of uninterrupted counter top would be better for loading film and or hangers, also the enlarger baseboard sticks out 7 inches farther than standard counter top depth into an already narrow walkway so it seemed to make more sense on the end rather than the middle, but I'm certainly open to other opinions on that since this would be a fairly easy change to make at this stage.
As far as storage, most darkrooms that people have posted pics of seem to have stuff on shelves and or cabinets just about everywhere so I was afraid of leaving myself short on storage space, again I'm open to different opinions on that too. The office space is funny, on paper the dimensions make it seem big, but between the full width bench under the window (duct work) and the angled ceilings, it feels a lot smaller in reality.
The door is 2'6", and the sink depth is just enough to fit trays for 16x20 prints which I don't foresee doing too often but like everyone says, leave room enough just in case. So it may be a little tight for 16x20 but should be fairly comfortable for most of the sizes I'm most likely to do.
About that cowboy music. Never heard that one. I hope "Cowboys from Hell" (Pantera) will do, cuz that's as close as I can get, but since I'm still doing the finish coat on the drywall, maybe there's still time.

Kurt

[k_redder]

Kurt,
Looks like you’re coming along nicely. I have a couple of suggestions, however, that you might consider. First, think about moving the enlarger to the center of the dry side. Besides not having to work in the corner, you would have more freedom when dodging and burning (elbow room).
(clip)

Maybe something like this might work. It leaves the walkway 30 in at its narrowest point. I like the way it looks on paper and it definitely helps with the elbow room.