Making a room light-tight, or blocking out a doorway rather..

Phillip P. Dimor · Jul 27, 2006

I am in the middle of reassembling my darkroom after having moved.
We have this three-room kind of space that branches off of our bedroom.
Basically i'd have my enlarger in the closet, and would walk 12 feet to the bathroom where my trays would lie in the tub.
In between the closet and bathroom is a doorway which opens up to the bedroom.

I need to black this doorway out somehow and was wondering if anyone has a good idea?

I thought of getting some screw-hooks and hanging a comforter up in the doorway although i'd probably have to print at night.

Also I need to black out a bathroom window but that I can solve. black felt-fabric on some plywood, cardboard or whatever with a handle..

reellis67 · Jul 27, 2006

Blackout fabric works well for me. It is available at most any fabric store and is much lighter than a comforter. I have mine up with thumbtacks. I use a curtain for the door and a double layer over the window.

- Randy

Nancy · Jul 27, 2006

I just picked up some black vinyl on the scrap table back in the upholstery section of a fabric shop to block light coming in around and under a door. It works great to tack up, doesn't tear and wipes clean. Plus, it was cheap, about $6 for a large piece.
Previously I had weather stripped the door with that foamy tape stuff and still had light coming through.

juan · Jul 27, 2006

I have both a window and a door blacked out. I made wooden frames out of 1x1s slightly smaller than the opening, then stapled blackout cloth over them, leaving plenty of cloth overlapping the edges so I can stuff it in the cracks.

The blackout cloth is the material made to sew into drapes to block sun from coming through.

I've tried many methods of darkening temporary darkrooms, and this is the best by far.
juan

Peter Williams · Jul 27, 2006

reellis67 said:
Blackout fabric works well for me. It is available at most any fabric store and is much lighter than a comforter. I have mine up with thumbtacks. I use a curtain for the door and a double layer over the window.

- Randy

I also use blackout fabric - sold to be used as window shades. I use three screw type hooks over the doorways and hang the fabric over. Works great and the hooks are very unobtrusive when the blackout is down. The standard width of the material is fine for most doorways, but be sure to leave and extra three feet at the bottom - this usually takes some extra material to completely black out.

Peter

reellis67 · Jul 27, 2006

Peter has a solid point about the bottom. Mine gathers up at the bottom of the door to block out the light. When I first did it I had the fabric ending about 3 inches down and it wouldn't stay put.

- Randy

Paul Howell · Jul 27, 2006

I use weather striping on the bottom of my door, my darkroom is in a bathroom which is tiled and the door leads to a bedroom which is carpeted, the door opens inward into the bathroom so the weather striping butts up to the carpet and overlaps the door jam, the door is light tight.

SteveH · Jul 27, 2006

I have this issue too...This is what I did:
I couldn't find black out fabric anywhere. I did find marine grade black vinyl, which is light proof. I taped it around the window, and there it has been for about a year. For the doorway, I tried a couple of different approaces, as taping it up all the time is time consuming, tape consuming, and just a pain in the butt. My solution was to go out and purchase some plastic 'U' channel from Home depot. Its about 1/2" wide, and about 1/8th" thick. I then installed this on either side of the door. I cut a piece of vinyl that would fit into these channels in the moulding. Finally, I cut 6 pieces of 1/8" MDF approximately 4" wide, and as long as the distance in between the channels in the moulding. I then contact cemented the MDF to the vinyl.
So basically what I have is a sort of garage door, where I can slide the vinyl into the channels when I wish to black the room out, yet when its not in use, the vinyl still rolls up nicely and fits in the closet. Its sort of hard to explain, but I can furnish some photos if you like.

DirkDynamo · Jul 27, 2006

depending on how temporary your set up needs to be, here's what I do:

i take a fitted twin size bedsheet - the kind with elastic in the corners - and put it on the door when its open. when you close the door it gets pinched and acts like weatherstripping - but is a lot easier to use. if you have thin sheets, you could double it up.

and your family can also see not to open the door because its got a sheet on it.

hope this helps

DBP · Jul 27, 2006

I went the weather stripping route, pretty easy to do.

Donald Qualls · Jul 28, 2006

I've got weather stripping around my bathroom door, and then (because the door is a cheap panel door and I can't make permanent alterations in this rented house) added matt board strips over the edges at the top to cover light leaks there the door wasn't compressing the weatherstrip enough for a good seal. I cover the bottom with a dark colored towel, bunched or rolled (long way around the roll), which is just long enough to overlap both ends of the door nicely. I get a room that isn't absolutely dark (after fifteen+ minutes unloading film holders and developing film in trays, I can see my hand movements as I agitate, in peripheral vision only -- though much of that is the glow from the luminous hands of my darkroom timer) but doesn't produce significant fogging even with ISO 400 film and processes that give a true speed of 800 or higher.

Making a room light-tight, or blocking out a doorway rather..

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