Sewing/craft room darkroom combo

[Genevieve Ness]

I am setting up a darkroom for the first time, and the best available space seems to be my sewing room. It will be a dry wet darkroom. I have Kodak Autofocus 5 x 7 that is working but rough shape cosmetically, I think I may paint it dark purple as the room is light purple. It's in the basement, once the windows are blocked, I think I can get by with not painting the walls black, or curtaining off the enlarger if I have to.

My questions: A) Is there anyone else with this particular mixed use combo, or with a purple enlarger
and more seriously B) Any advice for a dry wet darkroom in terms of transporting and dealing with the wet chemistry. I have a lovely long table to put trays on, and a fair amount of workspace, but the table also gets used for cutting fabric and quilting and all kinds of other uses. And it has carpet which my husband is reluctant to seen thrown out.

[Steven Tribe]

Genevieve!
Bathrooms are popular for a good reason - very little dust and surfaces that can be wiped down. A sewing room is probably ( or a bedroom) one of the most difficult places to keep dust free.

[Steve_Renwick]

Actually this does not sound like a great combination. Too easy to get lint and dust on your negatives and spilled chemicals on your fabrics.

[Jon Shiu]

I have had a darkroom in a spare bedroom. It worked fine. Didn't have any dust problems. You would need to put some plastic down on the floor and on the table to prevent any drips from getting on them. I also put a few layers of newspaper under the trays to catch any spills. Use a bucket or pitchers to dump your chems in before pouring into bottles. Less spills that way. When trays are empty, stack them up and rinse them out in the sink.

Jon

[Genevieve Ness]

Film will be developed in the bathroom. The bathroom is our only bathroom and too small for the enlarger; no room for the enlarger in any other room on the main level of our ranch house. The garage is off limits as that is my husband's domain and the entire basement is carpeted and divided into bedrooms, except the laundry room. The laundry room has a drain, and running water but is located under the stairs of the basement and not is not light tight and has no doors and is tiny, being under the stairs and most importantly my husband has strong opinions about that space as well. We almost don't have room for the laundry in that room. I wouldn't bother with a darkroom if we had community access to a college darkroom anywhere near here, but there isn't anything near here. Not an ideal combo, but one I need to make the best of. Besides, if I do paint that monster purple.....

[DanK]

Double trays work well, place your chemical trays inside larger empty trays to catch drips and spills....

Probably suggest covering the enlarger when not in use....may keep the dust down....plus a purple cover might be easier than painting the enlarger purple

I have light blue walls in my darkroom (leftover paint), and don't have problems - just keep plenty of room between your enlarger (lightsource) and the walls....

And a small rubber backed rug, may be best below the table - little nicer standing on than plastic, less dust prone, absorbs drips, and can be rolled up....

Can't remember who said this but....

Do what you can, where you are, with what you have

Thanks,
Dan

[Genevieve Ness]

I have had a darkroom in a spare bedroom. It worked fine. Didn't have any dust problems. You would need to put some plastic down on the floor and on the table to prevent any drips from getting on them. I also put a few layers of newspaper under the trays to catch any spills. Use a bucket or pitchers to dump your chems in before pouring into bottles. Less spills that way. When trays are empty, stack them up and rinse them out in the sink.

Jon

Thank you! lovely images!

[domaz]

You could do rotary processing of prints in drums. It's potientially a lot less messy than trays. You can use Jobo Print Drums on a Uniroller for instance. Have a bucket to dump used chemicals in. Very minimal fixer fumes this way too so you don't have to worry about installing a ventiliation system.

[John Koehrer]

Protect the tabletop with sheet plastic or linoleum. roll up waterproof carpet beneath the table as used in retail stores during rain/snow. It's rubber backed with a nubby fabric surface.
Dump the trays into a pail to empty them, empty the pail into the laundry sink = )

[Brian C. Miller]

The one thing that I would do is while the room isn't being used as a dark room, run an air filter unit. These are really good at picking up lots of lint in the room, and they can be quite cheap.