That is the size of the darkroom that I have used for years with a Beseler
45mcr in it. My biggest problem was the height of the ceiling. The Beseler
when raised to the top required a lot of space.
I made a wooden sink for the wet side and could easily do 16x20s.
Michael

I think you have enough room. My 45MXII sits on a
32 inch counter allowing me a good 2 feet of space
for working. I find the 2 feet of standing space
more than adequate for 16x20 printmaking. 20x24 is
a bit tighter, but doable. In an 8x8 space you
should have room for that on the dry side plus room
for a large 2&1/2 by 8 foot sink opposite on the wet
side with about 3 feet of standing space inbetween
separating the two sides, if you use a conventional
design, that is.

OTOH, you don't need 8 linear feet for the enlarger
plus the planned sink size may vary. You could put
the wet area along one wall and the enlarger area on
the perpendicular wall at a right angle. That might
give you more standing space and a feeling of openness.

I know a photographer who shoots and enlarged 11x14
and has a space no larger than yours. It's all in the
design.

I have a darkroom that is 8' x12'.  I use a linear rather than a two sided
work flow.  The enlarger is in one cormer of an L shaped bench around one
end and 1/2 way down one side.  After a partition there is room for a 4 ft
sink.  Plenty big enough for two people to work with tray us to 16 x 20.
Ample storage space.  I think 8x8 ft would be plenty big enough with a
smaller sink and some creativity in tray stacking, etc.  We'd all love to
have an Ansel Adams darkroom, but I started in an interior bathroom with the
enlarger perched on the toilet.  Made some good prints, too....
There are some excellent books on adarkroom layout.  Check your local
bookstore, Amaxon, or the library.  Heres one:

The New Darkroom Handbook by Joe Demaio, et al

I have used it to design mine and found it helpful.  It covers everthing
from temporary bathroom setups to production facilities.

Bob -

You can do a lot with an 8x8 space.  The end result may not be a spacious
or as luxurious as the space over the garage, but it can be just as
workable.

Suggest a few things.  First, decide what size prints you want to limit
yourself to.  You can always improvise to make larger prints, but choose
a maximum standard size.  Then, purchase the trays.  Lay them out on the
floor (the living room works very well for this as long as the spousal
unit is not home), and measure the footprint of the full complement of
processing trays (developer, stop, fix and rinse).  Those dimensions
determine how big your wet side sink needs to be.

Then, take a good, hard look at the 8x8 space.  Are there constraints
that you need to work around?  Are their ceiling obstructions or basement
windows that you need address?  Where are the plumbing connections?  
Either sketch this out on paper, or better yet, get some kind of
sketching software that you can use to lay out the room.  Then, start
sketching how you would fit the darkroom components into the room.  

Spend some time at Home Depot or Lowes to see what is available -
shopping for ideas.  

One subtlety that you need to be aware of is that a 4x5 enlarger requires
a lot of head room.  What is the ceiling height in the 8x8 space?  What
kind of counter height allows you to get maximum extension on your
enlarger column without forcing the head through the ceiling of the room.  

Finally, don't constrain yourself to simple rectangular layouts.  There
is a lot that can be done with corners.  In my darkroom, I opted to use
two inexpensive kitchen cabinets on either side of a corner, with the
corner blocked in to form a counter for my enlarger.  I mounted the
enlarger directly to the counter, and braced the column into the wall to
eliminate vibrations.  Because I have a ceiling height constraint (due to
a structural beam that passes through the darkroom space), I built a
recess in the ceiling to allow the enlarger head to move to the top of
the column.  The result is that I have lots of space around the enlarger
for all the clutter that builds up during printing.

jan2205 from Lloyd Erlick,

An 8x8 space is pretty big, considering the places most
darkroom types have used in their past, youth, or even
present.

Give some thought to working single-tray. It can be a
real space (and effort) saver. I've written an article
about it on my website, under the 'technical' heading
in the table of contents.

regards,
--le

For many years I used the closet under the stairs with an Omega D-3.  No
ventilation, no electricity [ran an extension cord] and no water.

Edward Weston would drape coats over a card table and crawl underneath.

Did I mention how deep the snow was when I had to walk 15 miles to school
through the Beartooth Mountains ...

For enlarging & wet work I would not have any trouble with 8x8: Counters
and sinks in a U and a 3x3 square in the middle to stand.  A small
kitchen stool is nice in cramped quarters, if I were doing it again I
would get a fancy-shmance pneumatic laboratory stool.

If you have an 18x24" table light-box, a 36" Ingento cutter, an Arkay drier,
a pair of old Macbeth densitometers and a dry mount press then
things will get tight.  With the lightbox on the wall, the densitometers
on a shelf, a rotatrim sunk into the counter and dry-mounting and framing
done somewhere else I think it would work fine.

You have 18-20 (depending on how you count) feet of counter.  With
6 for the sink, 3 for the enlarger that leaves 9 for everything
else.  A trick will be finding a use for the corners: paper washer
(though that can go under the sink), storage (though it is a waste
of work space), paper space for the paper cutter ...

There are some pretty good books on darkroom layout, including photos
of the darkrooms of the stars.  Lloyd Erlick's site is worth a look, as is
Claudio Bonavolta's.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer:  Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
Remove spaces etc. to reply: n o lindan at net com dot com
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

What sort of enlarger comes with a yard x yard base? I've
not sized bases lately but doubt the standard base for a 4 x 5
runs any more than about 24 x 30 inches.
Personally I'd like to see my 6 x 9 Omega B8 attached to a
few inch riser and that a part of the bench itself. I don't
think I'd go so far as to wall mount.
I'll second that single tray suggestion. I shelved several
trays and my darkroom got a whole bunch bigger. Lloyd reuses
chemistry while I use it, metered, one-shot. Metered and
with the least fluid practical, the chemistry is always
fresh. Less waste I dare say than the "let a bunch of
chemistry sit around in the trays way".
BTW, 27 inch benches may be just right. I'd consider an
8 foot plus a 4 foot counters.