8x8 darkroom setup help?

teepoe · Jan 24, 2012

I have recently finished building a 8x8 shed in my backyard. It's lightproof and ready to go. I am building a 6 foot long darkroom sink out of plywood and marine paint and planning on building a desk for the dry side as well. It's a square room so I'm trying to figure out whether to set it up with traditional wet/dry sides, or to build it in an "L" shape and try to maximize space a little more. Would that be a terrible mistake? Thought I'd ask folks who'd done it before for some advice. thanks!

alex66 · Jan 24, 2012

I have before set up a darkroom in a downstairs toilet and had to lay things out pretty much in an l shape, If you have the space between the electrical part and the water I can't see any thing wrong with it. What do you think will work best for you? Can you lay the dry side in some form of movable units then you could try out each option and see which works for you? Im jealous though it gets too cold for us to use a shed as a dark room, I have to improvise in the loo.

Wade D · Jan 24, 2012

I'm building a shed to use as a darkroom of that size also. My idea is to have both wet and dry sides separated by a walk space. The dry side will be 2' x 7'5". Big enough for my Beseler 45 and accessories. The wet side will be a sink 30" x 7'5" which I made many years ago. More than enough for the largest print I might make.
I made a craft paper template of the table and sink in the space available. There was too much open floor space with the L shape and less counter space. The walk space with the separate wet and dry area is almost 3'. Plenty of room for 1 or even 2 people to move around in.
I had a nice setup in the 2nd bathroom (8 x 10 room) which was working out well. My wife decided it needed to be a bathroom again.

Sundowner · Jan 24, 2012

I would set it up in terms of workflow. My work order is: paper safe -> paper cutter -> enlarger -> chemicals -> sink -> drying area. That ends up being about a 270-degree circular rotation, for me: my darkroom is in the older of our two kitchens, so I was kind of pinned in by a sink. I built the arrangement around that...so, don't confine yourself to C-shapes, or I-shapes, or L-shapes. Just get started working and move things around as you need to do so...it won't be in a "final" configuration for a long, long time. There's no best layout...just the best for you. My layout is sort of an L-shape, with my medium-format enlarger occupying the empty corner of that arrangement...it works great for me. Experiment. See what happens.

Bill Burk · Jan 25, 2012

My darkroom is a 6 x 6 region of my garage drawn dark with curtains. The sink is 6 on one side. Not much choice there, need a long sink. I keep a clear walkway in front of the sink. At the end, where you are thinking L, I have a tall but shallow cabinet for chems. Then to the right of that is the enlarger turned to the side on a small bookcase. (So kind of an open-ended J layout.)

So the sink, cabinet and enlarger are permanent. A small end-table gives me a place to put the paper.

teepoe · Jan 26, 2012

Awesome ideas. thanks. thinking about the workflow is helpful. I sort of neglected that step Good idea laying out the paper to get an idea of space. I'm gonna do that before I commit to screwing anything down. cheers.

Henry Alive · Jan 29, 2012

These are two posts I made in Apug someday. They show how my darkroom is nowadays. I hope it could be helpful.
Henry.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

graywolf · Jan 29, 2012

Every time I read a thread like this, I wish I had money (GRIN!). My darkrooms have always wound up being 8' x 5', and dual use as a bathroom. They would get more use if all I had to do was walk in and pour chemicals in the trays. I will admit that I have thought many times of building one in a trailer that I could haul anywhere.

darkroom_rookie · Jan 29, 2012

Mine is 7x8 feet, no plumbing, no windows. Wet side shows three self-made trays next to each other. Paper sheet in the last tray is sized 20x27 1/2" (50x70 cm).

jeffreyg · Jan 29, 2012

Here's a simple way to add counter space for when the sink is not in use. Since the sink is going to be custom made (6ft) design it so that three two foot pieces of plywood can be placed on top of it giving 2,4 or 6 extra feet of counter. Build it at counter height and I would suggest that it be 10in deep. Also I recommend using marine polyester instead of paint. Put concave molding along the seams with marine epoxy before coating. Fiberglass strips along the seams will add some re-enforcement. Design storage space under the sink for chemicals etc. Include an exhaust system as well.

Enjoy.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

8x8 darkroom setup help?

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