I've "broken ground" on my basement darkroom project. I'm documenting the progress here to keep me motivated to actually finish it in a reasonable amount of time. I'm also interested in the thoughts and suggestions from others as I go along.
This is a compromise design at best. My basement is a finished walk-out with windows and a door. For marital bliss reasons, I won't be building any walls to enclose the darkroom into a dedicated dark space. I'll have to deal with temporary solutions to blackout the windows of the entire basement and probably work after dark. I have some ideas, so more on this later.
I also can't make it super ugly. So, no exposed 2x4 sink stands or miles of exposed plumbing. Of course this requirement competes with yet another constraint of a limited budget. On the other hand, I'm reasonably handy and I'll use this opportunity to practice my skills at cabinetry, plumbing, and maybe some ceramic tile. I've remodeled other parts of our house, but always left the high skill stuff to the professionals. Practicing my skills in the basement, where the finished product needs to be good, but not great may give me the confidence to tackle our master bathroom remodel all by myself in the future. (Or it may convince me to hire professionals.)
The general idea is to build a general purpose slop sink useful for paint brush cleaning and other odd washing jobs plus have some features useful for darkroom work. The sink is a $100 Craigslist find from a local restaurant.
It's 4 feet long and 30" wide (45" x 27" inside dimensions). The bowl on the left is 8" deep and the right side is 3" deep. It's sitting on some chairs for perspective. I plan to build base cabinets that extend a counter top to the left by at least 24" and to the right as much as the angled wall will allow. I'll make the counter top 36" high for easier work while standing. As much as I'd like to have an 8' long sink, there isn't room along the wall where I need to put it. I have a three-tier rack that holds trays up to about 17x25 in a staggered stack for tray processing. The rack and stacked trays will fit in the 24x27 right side of the sink. The largest prints I'll make regularly will be 11x14 with the ability to stretch to 16x20 on occasion.
I've started removing the carpet and trim from the wall where the sink will be installed. The back side of the wall is bathroom, so there's lots of access to existing plumbing right there. The next step is to remove much of the drywall to gain access to the house plumbing. After that, I'll need to draw a simple plan and file a plumbing permit with the county. They required such things as vented drains (for good reason) and I'll have to get it inspected before I close the wall back up. I also plan a new electrical circuit to add GFI outlets above the counter top level and additional lighting about the sink. That's another $50 permit. Might as well do it right.
In addition to the faucet on the sink, I plan to run a tempered water panel ($$ Intellifaucet $$ I hope $$) above the right side of the sink. I'll finish it off with a long shelf above the sink and built-in drying racks in the base cabinets below it.
The overall space is a niche in the corner of the basement. The double doors are access to crawl space storage, so I can't block them. I'll probably move the refrigerator (almost dedicated to film storage) and install a set of base cabinets along that wall for a long counter top. The rest of the carpet will be removed in the niche and some type of vinyl flooring will go down with a transition strip to the carpet in the rest of the basement. This is where I'd like to build a wall with a door to enclose the area, but I can't. I've considered some type of blackout curtain arrangement, but I haven't found anything that looks decent and is affordable. Making everything dark is still a design work in progress.
This is a compromise design at best. My basement is a finished walk-out with windows and a door. For marital bliss reasons, I won't be building any walls to enclose the darkroom into a dedicated dark space. I'll have to deal with temporary solutions to blackout the windows of the entire basement and probably work after dark. I have some ideas, so more on this later.
I also can't make it super ugly. So, no exposed 2x4 sink stands or miles of exposed plumbing. Of course this requirement competes with yet another constraint of a limited budget. On the other hand, I'm reasonably handy and I'll use this opportunity to practice my skills at cabinetry, plumbing, and maybe some ceramic tile. I've remodeled other parts of our house, but always left the high skill stuff to the professionals. Practicing my skills in the basement, where the finished product needs to be good, but not great may give me the confidence to tackle our master bathroom remodel all by myself in the future. (Or it may convince me to hire professionals.)
The general idea is to build a general purpose slop sink useful for paint brush cleaning and other odd washing jobs plus have some features useful for darkroom work. The sink is a $100 Craigslist find from a local restaurant.
It's 4 feet long and 30" wide (45" x 27" inside dimensions). The bowl on the left is 8" deep and the right side is 3" deep. It's sitting on some chairs for perspective. I plan to build base cabinets that extend a counter top to the left by at least 24" and to the right as much as the angled wall will allow. I'll make the counter top 36" high for easier work while standing. As much as I'd like to have an 8' long sink, there isn't room along the wall where I need to put it. I have a three-tier rack that holds trays up to about 17x25 in a staggered stack for tray processing. The rack and stacked trays will fit in the 24x27 right side of the sink. The largest prints I'll make regularly will be 11x14 with the ability to stretch to 16x20 on occasion.
I've started removing the carpet and trim from the wall where the sink will be installed. The back side of the wall is bathroom, so there's lots of access to existing plumbing right there. The next step is to remove much of the drywall to gain access to the house plumbing. After that, I'll need to draw a simple plan and file a plumbing permit with the county. They required such things as vented drains (for good reason) and I'll have to get it inspected before I close the wall back up. I also plan a new electrical circuit to add GFI outlets above the counter top level and additional lighting about the sink. That's another $50 permit. Might as well do it right.
In addition to the faucet on the sink, I plan to run a tempered water panel ($$ Intellifaucet $$ I hope $$) above the right side of the sink. I'll finish it off with a long shelf above the sink and built-in drying racks in the base cabinets below it.
The overall space is a niche in the corner of the basement. The double doors are access to crawl space storage, so I can't block them. I'll probably move the refrigerator (almost dedicated to film storage) and install a set of base cabinets along that wall for a long counter top. The rest of the carpet will be removed in the niche and some type of vinyl flooring will go down with a transition strip to the carpet in the rest of the basement. This is where I'd like to build a wall with a door to enclose the area, but I can't. I've considered some type of blackout curtain arrangement, but I haven't found anything that looks decent and is affordable. Making everything dark is still a design work in progress.
I sent them an email and they confirmed the price increase and said it was due to a large increase in their health insurance costs. It was a luxury item for me to begin with and now I think I'll look for a less expensive water tempering solution. I wish I had ordered it a week ago.
