Filmus Monochromus
About | Monochrome-iPhone | Web Site | Project Double-X | Archive | ????
-
Darkroom Project - Part 1
Had so many people asking to show the darkroom build that I thought I would devote the next few Saturday posts to what has been happening.We moved in to our four bedroomed bungalow last March (2011). As the place was only built in 1998 it is spacious and has plenty of good sized rooms: lounge, dining, kitchen, utility, two bathrooms (one en-suite) and a cloakroom/toilet. It also had two garages. One integral to the house and a detached one. The guy who had the house built repaired vintage Jaguars, hence the detached garage.
The integral garage is approx 5.5 x 2.6 meters. What helped us decide on the house was not only its beach location but the fact we had a space we could convert in to a darkroom, study and sewing room.
Our first priorities though were to replace all the external windows and doors as they were softwood and starting to rot from the salty sea air. We also tore down the conservatory - same problem - and rebuilt that. Next we sorted the kitchen to accommodate a new range cooker. We managed to get all that done before Christmas so that at the start of this year we could get on with the final bit of the plan and convert the garage.
Originally the darkroom was going take up half the available space but I revised that when I picked up an automatic film and print processor. The Jobo will do B&W, C41 and E6 film developing as well as developing wet prints. So I didn’t need so much space.
First stage was to clear the garage of all the shelves and brackets, then brick up the door and add a window. It was important to try and balance the brickwork and window to fit seamlessly in to the front of the house.
