It’s been a few months since we put a small home gym in our basement (sharing a space with the storage room, no less!) and we have been loving having the dedicated space to sweat it out, slightly away from the rest of the house. We have even been able to cancel our gym memberships! I haven’t shared photos because, honestly, it’s not the most photogenic space we’ve ever put together, nor did we attempt to make it so. However, this is a purely functional area of the house for us that we have been enjoying so thoroughly, we couldn’t not share it any longer. There’s a lot packed in the 7×7 space.
We started with just a treadmill. Brand new treadmills are $$$$, so we immediately went to Craigslist. There always seems to be 100 people ready to sell you their treadmill, but during our search, we found there was actually a warehouse in our area that sold slightly used, refurbished or factory extras for 30-70% retail (Quality Home Fitness in Idaho Falls, for you locals) and we were able to pick up this NordicTrack for a steal. It even has a TV that we plugged a Roku stick into, so we can stream Netflix or Hulu while working out, which is pretty much my only motivation to get on it 8 months pregnant.
Across from the treadmill, Chris hung a speed bag (attached to this speed bag platform)–which I’m embarassingly bad at. And below, there’s a fold down bench that’s actually a shower seat!
It folds up and out of the way when we want it to, or down when we need a quick rest or a place to sit.
The interlocking exercise mats we laid down on the floor add an extra cushion when we’re using the stability ball, working the speed bag, doing a few burpees or even using the ab roller.
We keep smaller exercise gear including the ab roller, ab straps (that we use with the pull-up bar) and weights tucked away in a basket on the shelf–plenty of those in here. The last major piece of equipment we managed to squeeze in was a pull-up bar. Luckily we have a strong joist running right through this space that we mounted the bar directly to.
As a finishing touch, we mounted a few frameless cheap mirrors to the wall to watch for proper form. Is it weird working out among seasonal storage? Haha, not really. We’re just grateful we were able to maximize this room so much in the past few months, first by adding the shelves and now this little gym area. And because the room is tucked away (under the kitchen area upstairs), we can come down early in the morning, turn on some music and workout without disturbing anyone. Anyone else have a home gym? Or do you prefer to go into the gym? Does this even count as a home gym?
Sources:
Wall Color: Benjamin Moore White Dove | Floor Paint: Benjamin Moore Ice Breakers | Wall-Mounted Seat | Pull Up Bar | Ab Straps | Interlocking Exercise Mat Floor Tiles | Speed Bag | Speed Bag Platform | Speed Bad Gloves | Roku Stick | Stability Ball | Ab Roller | Frameless Mirrors | Door Knob | Ceiling Light
This space is awesomely efficient!!! Love the shower seat idea!
A little off topic but what emergency food do you use and where do you buy it? We live in Texas with hurricanes and I’m researching some options now and would love the name of the brand you use and where you buy it. Thanks!
Shower seat = genius! I’ve been wanting a folding seat in our small kitchen but never figured out how to make it happen.
How is the bathroom progress going? Now that is a well used small space!
It’s going! We had the last of the faucets arrive today and hopefully we’ll have a tile update for you next week.
oops hit wrong reply, I hope it goes smoother from here on out.
Wow, that has been a major project. It must be hard using one bathroom for bathing for so long.
It’s definitely thrown us a lot of curveballs. It’s been harder on the girls to have to come upstairs to use the restroom, as their bathroom never had a tub to begin with, but we’re anxious to get it working for them and are hoping to have it completely DONE by the first week in July. We can do it!
What a perfect little space! You maxed it out so well. Further proving my point that I need a storage room! I love classes at the gym so much, but since I teach them it makes it hard to get a workout of my own in. Plus members like to talk to me while I am trying to work out lol. Great job!
Take luck, hope it goes smoother from here on out.