The Steampunk Darkroom Project

Chapters:

  1. The Beginning
  2. Getting Rolling
  3. Frustration
  4. Glue
  5. Paint it Black!
  6. Paint
  7. Let There be Light-Fixtures!
  8. A Sinking Feeling
  9. Cabinets
  10. Plan C
  11. Not Much To Report
  12. They Said The Water Would Be In By April
  13. Electric
  14. Tap Tap Tap Tap...

The darkroom is done. I've already been working with it, and everything's functionally perfect, the only thing left to complete was the paint and now that's all finished. There's some touch-up I could do, but it will wait - I am sick of painting.


(Finissimo!)

I think the green floor was just the right touch. I may still make a curtain to go around the enlarger table (not that it would serve any purpose at all) and I will eventually paint the white standoffs on the bottom of the sink black, and a few other things like that. But I am quite sick of painting and anything more can wait until winter.

The frock coat I am wearing is a one-off made for me by the wonderful folks at Kambriel. I asked about a "steampunky official darkroom frock coat" and we went back and forth a couple times and I mentioned that anything in a darkroom has to expect to have wet hands and chemicals wiped on it. Towel! We'll make the frock coat out of towel - so, that's exactly what they did. It's really plush and snuzzy and warm, too, which will be much appreciated in the winter. I have an official "steampunky skull and crossbones black velvet darkroom fez" which I am not wearing in this shot because it was at home (on my hat-rack where it belongs!)

See the little white box clipped to my pocket? That's a radio remote for a Lutron Maestro light controller/dimmer. It's wonderful because one of the nastier parts of working in a darkroom is you're always turning the lights up and down and on and off. The controller lets me do it from anywhere with a fingertip, and I have a separate viewing-light with a floor switch by the sink so I can check and see how plates are coming out.

On the left cabinet, by the speaker, you can see an angled black box; that's a DJ's red laser scanner/light doodad that I got on ebay for not very much. It's red laser (won't mess up my plates that way!) and it makes all kinds of cool pulsing light shows on the front of the room (and, because it's a laser, it doesn't reflect much) The speakers are Alesis M1s, which put out enough oomph to make it unbearably loud in the room.

I started this project in November of last year, and today I offically stick a stake in it and call it "done"!