Making home even cozier and inviting is always on our minds in the winter. In a season when many real estate agents are seeing homeowners commit to renovating rather than trying to buy a home with new amenities, there’s really never been a better time to make a big project like a home gym happen. If you’ve known that your basement has been underused for ages and you’d like to have a dedicated gym space in your home, you can make it happen and along the way, see the value of your home grow with thoughtful design features that a future homebuyer could appreciate.
Set a Budget and Use Creativity To Stick With It
What one person means by a home gym could be literally just a new exercise bike, while another wants all the equipment they need for a complex and multi-faceted training regimen, looking more like a full-service public gym. Because it’s possible to sink a lot of money into a basement remodel into a home gym, start with your priorities. If you want a budget-friendly gym, you’re looking at minimal remodeling and a focus on finding excellent-quality secondhand equipment, for instance. If you know your brands and want to get high-end equipment, the factor that in to. The goal is to make a project for a price you can (somewhat) predict that achieves the goals you have for your space.
Create a Blank Canvas Through Clutter-Busting
There’s no way around it – before a basement can transform into a cool and useful home gym it will have to get cleared out of the current boxes or clutter that have taken up residence. Don’t let this step be the one that holds you back from a great home gym! Whether you opt to consolidate storage items into some floor-to-ceiling shelves in another section of the basement or go intense with the donation and trash to get rid of items that were just gathering dust, reducing clutter will make it possible to really commit to the project in your basement.
Protect Current Flooring or Replace It with Gym-Friendly Materials
Gyms tend not to have carpet, concrete, or hardwood floors, but rather have sturdy vinyl or another cushioning but strong material. Decide early on whether you want to re-floor or add tiles of an appropriate gym material on top of your current flooring. While a seamless flooring installation can look really great, if you think there’s a chance the space won’t stay a gym permanently, over-flooring tiles still look good and give you the versatility to remove them if needed.
Add Lighting and AV That Make the Space Inviting
It’s hard to get and keep a great home gym routine down, and making your space appealing is one of the ways that we all keep our routines in the gym. Harsh lighting may make you feel worse in the gym if you’re more of a yoga-and-pilates kind of person, but intense brightness may be just what you need if the light is part of what helps you wake up. Similarly, having a decent speaker to play your favorite tunes or television that can show your favorite entertainment may be enough to draw you to the basement even if you’re not in the mood for a big workout.
Less Is More With Equipment: Begin With What You Know You’ll Use
While it can be tempting to make your home gym “look” like the polished and professional gyms you’ve seen, remember that you and your family are the main people who will see this space. You might as well focus on the equipment you’re definitely going to use, even if it is just a very particular stair-climbing machine and a super complex and multi-use weightlifting machine. Sometimes, the start of a home gym is just free weights and a bike or treadmill you already had! A great way to gauge what to add is to think about times when you’ve worked out with other people or at public gyms: what equipment really gets your heart pumping, versus what just looks like good gym equipment? Pick the stuff you’ll use!
Add Mirrors and Personal Touches to Really Commit to the Space
For whatever reason, we’re often quite inspired by being able to see ourselves during workouts (not to mention that form is so important for so many exercises that checking form in a mirror is great), so consider adding a full-length mirror or mirror wall to your space. It also makes even a small basement room or alcove feel a lot bigger. Then commit to taking this space to the next level: do you want to hang pictures of your family or a vision board to help you remember why these goals matter to you? Do you prefer soft lighting and a great color scheme to make it your haven for stretching, or dim lighting and visualizations with your music to simulate a spin class? Make your space so inviting that you’ll easily be excited to head to the basement to get a great workout.
For Big Renovations, Consider Finding Professionals to Get the Job Done Right
For basic laying of vinyl tiles on top of existing flooring or hanging a mirror or two, you can often DIY elements of a home gym. However, if you want to finish an unfinished basement space or need to handle bigger issues like adding plumbing or moving walls, it’s often best to find a great professional locally who can make sure that your project will stand the test of time. A great home gym space adds value to a home, as great real estate agents will share with you, but if it doesn’t hold up over the years, it may not bring much additional premium. Hiring a great local professional contractor to help you see your vision brought to life is just good sense, especially if you want to be able to use it for years to come. Looking for the right contractor? Make sure you start with the biggest project or need and start getting quotes and estimates, which can help you guide your thinking on any additional contractors.
