I want to rent, like, a shed or something
March 16, 2023 8:16 AM Subscribe
I've got a hobby that needs some dedicated space that we just don't have in our home. I've been idly thinking about finding space to rent. How would this work?
What I really want to do is build a photographic darkroom. Let's take it on faith that our current living situation cannot support building out a darkroom in our condo. There are a decent number of empty retail storefronts around here, and it got me thinking about leasing a small commercial/industrial space to build out a private darkroom (and potentially down the road convert it to shared/community space, but let's not focus on that for now).
How would someone go about finding and renting a space like this as an individual that is not trying to actually run a business? Is it possible to do this in a cost effective way? I've already looked at artist studios in the area and have decided that they're probably not appropriate (long wait lists to get in, as well as lack of water/ventilation or ability to completely black out the work area). I really don't need a ton of space, but it does need to have running water and be completely dark.
What I really want to do is build a photographic darkroom. Let's take it on faith that our current living situation cannot support building out a darkroom in our condo. There are a decent number of empty retail storefronts around here, and it got me thinking about leasing a small commercial/industrial space to build out a private darkroom (and potentially down the road convert it to shared/community space, but let's not focus on that for now).
How would someone go about finding and renting a space like this as an individual that is not trying to actually run a business? Is it possible to do this in a cost effective way? I've already looked at artist studios in the area and have decided that they're probably not appropriate (long wait lists to get in, as well as lack of water/ventilation or ability to completely black out the work area). I really don't need a ton of space, but it does need to have running water and be completely dark.
Instead of a storefront maybe look for a room in an office-type building. One problem with that is that darkroom chemicals have a strong smell that some might object to!? Ventilation may be key. If you're still in Somerville here are a bunch of possibilities.
Figure out the minimum square footage you need and put an ad on craigslist?
posted by mareli at 8:34 AM on March 16, 2023
Figure out the minimum square footage you need and put an ad on craigslist?
posted by mareli at 8:34 AM on March 16, 2023
Honestly I'd let someone do this in my basement for like $50 a month depending on how often they expected to be there. I live one town away from Somerville, if you're interested!
posted by mskyle at 8:43 AM on March 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mskyle at 8:43 AM on March 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
I worked in a darkroom in a converted house for 3 years. To make the space work, my room was essentially an old closet in the center of the house. Significant alterations had to be done for both ventilation and blocking out light.
The plus side is just like you said-- a dark room doesn't need that much space. A storefront would be overkill and you'd have to deal with people thinking it's a photography studio and you'd have people trying to book you to shoot their weddings.
Not sure where you are, but my area has a professional photographer collective that has a dark room(s) that you can rent in several hour blocks. Your nearest school might have something similar. It would be an easy way to try it out before embarking on something more permanent.
It might be worth posting this somewhere local- "artist seeking dark room space to sublet" - Many photographers I know at one time or another had dark rooms they'd totally rent out to people. Try checking out this link and seeing if any are near you. darkroomlocator.com
Hope you can find a space!
posted by haplesschild at 8:48 AM on March 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
The plus side is just like you said-- a dark room doesn't need that much space. A storefront would be overkill and you'd have to deal with people thinking it's a photography studio and you'd have people trying to book you to shoot their weddings.
Not sure where you are, but my area has a professional photographer collective that has a dark room(s) that you can rent in several hour blocks. Your nearest school might have something similar. It would be an easy way to try it out before embarking on something more permanent.
It might be worth posting this somewhere local- "artist seeking dark room space to sublet" - Many photographers I know at one time or another had dark rooms they'd totally rent out to people. Try checking out this link and seeing if any are near you. darkroomlocator.com
Hope you can find a space!
posted by haplesschild at 8:48 AM on March 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
My wife and I rented a 'workspace', which was just a big room, something like 20' x 30', with a heater and electricity and lights with a human-sized door and an overhead door, in a big building in an industrial park with a dozen other spaces like this. Most of the neighbors were people doing automotive work, another was a floral distributor, one was car detailing, and a variety of others were mysteriously dark always or full of boxes. We would, periodically, find UPS shipments left at our door for previous tenants. I think we paid something like $500 a month (6 years ago), but we moved so our needs changed and stopped renting it.
One thing we ran into was that the landlord required us to have special insurance on the space, which took some work to find the right thing (prices ranged from insanely high to reasonable) and since we were doing paint/woodworking the insurance company we went with required us to have a fire-tolerant storage for solvents and a sawdust collector. Nothing too difficult to get set up, but it was a bit more complicated than just "write a check, start doing the hobby in the space".
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:56 AM on March 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
One thing we ran into was that the landlord required us to have special insurance on the space, which took some work to find the right thing (prices ranged from insanely high to reasonable) and since we were doing paint/woodworking the insurance company we went with required us to have a fire-tolerant storage for solvents and a sawdust collector. Nothing too difficult to get set up, but it was a bit more complicated than just "write a check, start doing the hobby in the space".
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:56 AM on March 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
As a person who once had to go to the ER for an absolutely intractable migraine after spending a long time in a photo darkroom (it was in college, I had a project due, and yes I was there way too long), please prioritize the ventilation aspect. Make sure you're in a spot where any neighboring artists/workers/offices will not be impacted by the smells coming from your area.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:58 AM on March 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:58 AM on March 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Some people rent out garages!
posted by erattacorrige at 9:34 AM on March 16, 2023
posted by erattacorrige at 9:34 AM on March 16, 2023
I think the trick is get the sink as well as the ventilation. I know that former medical offices often have a sink in each exam room so that might be lead although I'm guessing you would still have to add adequate ventilation.
posted by metahawk at 3:16 PM on March 16, 2023
posted by metahawk at 3:16 PM on March 16, 2023
It's overkill for a hobby, but if you want to rent out commercial space check out Loopnet. It's the Zillow of commercial real estate. Search "Industrial" or "Flex" use, and select for the square footage you need.
posted by hovey at 8:12 PM on March 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hovey at 8:12 PM on March 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
A quick google shows that my city has a couple of photographic darkroom & studio rentals listed as well as several listings for photography and darkroom classes. Is there a university with an art department around? What about working out something with an existing makerspace?
If none of these suits, perhaps there is a need for a darkroom facility that you can fill by leasing a small studio or industrial office. If you did some light advertising and opened it up just one day a week for a couple hours to other people wanting to do small personal developing projects, you could write off the cost of your rental and equipment.
Mr. BlueHorse had a darkroom in our basement for years, so I understand what you'd be looking at for your own setup. Four big issues will be ventilation, access to water and sinks, complete darkness, and chemicals disposal. From what I understand, a lot of the chemicals used now aren't as nasty as thirty years ago, but they still have to be disposed of properly. Mr. BH didn't want to put anything into our septic system, so he used five-gallon containers for chemical collection and disposal at one of the large photo studios. He had an agreement with them for silver recovery as well. His darkroom had blackout curtains across the window and entrance (in case the kids tried to open the door). His red light was a simple wall plugin. Ventilation was a jury rig blacked out fan in the window. Although he had a dry closet, his biggest trial was trying to dry photos and keep dust off because, basement.
His darkroom wasn't really upscale, but highly workable and easy to put together. Tearing it down was the hard part. He sold almost all of his equipment, including his cameras--35s, 120s, large format, a big aerial camera--on eBay, but still has a couple enlarger dinosaurs and a light table simply because nobody wants to pay shipping.
I haven't thought about those evenings and weekends with the bracing odor of acetic acid wafting up the stairs for a long time.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:15 PM on March 16, 2023
If none of these suits, perhaps there is a need for a darkroom facility that you can fill by leasing a small studio or industrial office. If you did some light advertising and opened it up just one day a week for a couple hours to other people wanting to do small personal developing projects, you could write off the cost of your rental and equipment.
Mr. BlueHorse had a darkroom in our basement for years, so I understand what you'd be looking at for your own setup. Four big issues will be ventilation, access to water and sinks, complete darkness, and chemicals disposal. From what I understand, a lot of the chemicals used now aren't as nasty as thirty years ago, but they still have to be disposed of properly. Mr. BH didn't want to put anything into our septic system, so he used five-gallon containers for chemical collection and disposal at one of the large photo studios. He had an agreement with them for silver recovery as well. His darkroom had blackout curtains across the window and entrance (in case the kids tried to open the door). His red light was a simple wall plugin. Ventilation was a jury rig blacked out fan in the window. Although he had a dry closet, his biggest trial was trying to dry photos and keep dust off because, basement.
His darkroom wasn't really upscale, but highly workable and easy to put together. Tearing it down was the hard part. He sold almost all of his equipment, including his cameras--35s, 120s, large format, a big aerial camera--on eBay, but still has a couple enlarger dinosaurs and a light table simply because nobody wants to pay shipping.
I haven't thought about those evenings and weekends with the bracing odor of acetic acid wafting up the stairs for a long time.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:15 PM on March 16, 2023
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posted by The_Vegetables at 8:18 AM on March 16, 2023