Building my Darkroom What color should I paint the walls?

[GabrielSeri]

Hi,

I'm building my darkroom in my parents garage. What color should I paint the walls? In school the walls were flat black, is this still the norm? Maybe a dark grey? I was thinking about painting this weekend.

Thanks

Gabriel

[cowanw]

If you can handle it , red.
Any reflected light will be safe (ish).
Flat black around the enlarger is traditional.

[jp]

It's not necessary, but I used black, and it sure looks purposeful.

[Terry Hayden]

If your safelights are safe - then white works great. As was mentioned, black around the enlarger is a must.

[GabrielSeri]

Red might be interesting.. a dark red?

[Merg Ross]

Flat black around the enlarger, the rest of the room flat white.

Here is an old thread with more ideas:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...darkroom+walls

[Ari]

Paint your walls as light as possible, white is good. When the safelight is on, all sensitive materials will be safe in that light, and you can actually see them. Don't fumble around in a red-coloured room with black walls.
All you need to do is make sure it's light-tight, then you can paint it any colour you wish.
But definitely go as light as possible.
You could go with black around the enlarger, but only if your enlarger spews light in all directions.

[GabrielSeri]

Oh cool thanks Merg. I apologize I did a search but it didn't seem to get the topics I wanted. I'll take a look right now, why should the rest of the room be flat white?

[GabrielSeri]

Paint your walls as light as possible, white is good. When the safelight is on, all sensitive materials will be safe in that light, and you can actually see them. Don't fumble around in a red-coloured room with black walls.
All you need to do is make sure it's light-tight, then you can paint it any colour you wish.
But definitely go as light as possible.

Genius! I get it, that makes a lot of sense.

Thank you.

[Leigh]

White



Install a Thomas Duplex safelight (upper right here, just out of the photo) and you can read the small print on any chemical bottle anyplace in the darkroom.

Back is just an excuse for not fixing light leaks.

- Leigh