Originally Posted March 4, 2020
Sometimes, no matter how good my intentions are to work out it’s a struggle to go to the gym to exercise. Rick works out daily. Ella and Jenna are both currently training to run a full marathon this April in Nashville. Hayden and Libby are in their off seasons for their college sports and still working out daily. I seem to be the only one in the family not motivated to get a good work out in on a regular basis. In my defense, I used to work out A LOT (remember…the Ironman thing…haha). Since reaching that goal I’ve had zero motivation to work out (nor have time between working, DIY projects, house updates and the blog). When I do find the time and energy to exercise, I’m way more likely to get a work out in if I can do it at home.
So, the pathetic space in our basement that we were calling a home gym needed an update. As you can see from the “before” pictures of what the space used to look like, the new and improved space is definitely more functional and inviting. Like most of my DIY projects, the goal is to create something useful and not spend a lot of money. Here is how I created a DIY home gym on a dime. It turned out so well, I may even start using it on a regular basis!
BEFORE
FLOOR
A lot of money was saved by installing the foam gym floor myself. In under four hours Jenna and I were able to install a foam rubber floor over the entire gym space for under $400. I wrote a blog about the installation with a detailed review and product links. DIY GYM FLOOR click here.
MIRROR WALL
After pricing out a mirror big enough to cover the back wall of the at home gym, I was motivated to come up with a less expensive DIY alternative. Who knew large mirrors were so expensive?! I was able to come up with a solution to cover 80% of one gym wall with mirrors for under $100. The blog DIY MIRROR WALL click here.
EXISTING EQUIPMENT
We already had a treadmill, recumbent bike, TRX and a few other exercise equipment pieces. Those were all put back into the space. A metal shelving unit was also reused in the space (did not have to purchase…was able to use a storage rack from the unfinished part of the basement). This is used to contain and organize some of the smaller gym equipment pieces.
LIGHTING
Lighting and the right lighting fixture can take any room up a notch. In this case, this new gym light fixture took the room up 10 notches. I just love the design of this fixture. It is also extremely bright. I removed the existing fan/light (re-installed it in another part of the basement, so it did not go to waste) and installed this new light fixture myself. This light came completely not assembled (see picture) and needed to be put together. The instructions were not great and if you have never worked with electrical/lighting, this may not be the fixture for you. I was able to put it together based on my moderate electrical knowledge in about 30 minutes (it needed to be hardwired – not a beginner DIY task).
PRIVACY ROOM DIVIDER
I had to come up with a way to give the home gym privacy from the rest of the finished basement. The basement is “L” shaped and the area designated for the gym is the bottom part of the “L” therefore 3 sides are walls. For the open side, I was able to use three three panel folding screens to create a false wall. This was a perfect solution to offer some privacy and divide the gym area off away from the rest of the finished basement space without construction and expense of building an actual wall.
NEW EQUIPMENT
Two purchases and one DIY project were made to take this home gym up a level to make it a space that will replace the need for going to an actual gym. The first was a bench press with weights, the second was a weight storage rack that organizes dumbbells, kettlebells and weight plates. The last is a DIY project I created that I call a WORKOUT POSTER HANGER.
DIY EXERCISE POSTER DISPLAY
With the treadmill, weight bench and numerous other exercise equipment in the DIY home gym, there was a missing element. What to do with all this stuff? The solution was to buy these QuickFit exercise workout posters. These posters are a home gym MUST and so cool. The 10-pack poster set shows all the exercises (with pictures)! This opens a whole combination of different exercises with different components. No excuse for what to do or how to do it! The info is right there on the posters! The posters are titled: Bodyweight Volume 1&2, Dumbbell, Suspension, Kettlebell, Resistance Bands, Stretching, Barbell, Yoga Poses, Exercise Ball. No more wandering around the space aimlessly trying to figure out what to do with the kettle ball or dumbbells. Grab a poster and go!
The trick was coming up with a way to display the posters that make them easily accessible. They are rather large (18×27). They come in paper for $19.95 or laminated for $29.95. I purchased the laminated set (well worth the extra $10). At first, I considered framing them and hanging on different areas of the gym. However, this would not allow the versatility to move them around if needed. Therefore, I came up with this easy $30 DIY EXERCISE POSTER DISPLAY idea. See the blog about it HERE.
SHOP THE DIY HOME GYM
