Make Your Home Gym Somewhere Your Want to Work Out
Here in Los Angeles, we like to stay fit! We recently completed a couple of projects for clients who are total gym rats and have fully decked out their home gyms – making them the centerpieces of the homes. While they already had ample equipment lying around, the equipment and the spaces weren’t being utilized to their fullest potential. They were less like gyms and more like large closets housing dumb bells. Here are a few ways to design your home gym so it is somewhere you actually want to work out:
- Tip #1: Be Sure Your Have a Simple, Sensible Layout and Clearance Space for Your Sporting Gear
When we first arrived at the home of our brand new bachelor, he had all of his hand weights / dumbbells, row machines, punching bag, weighted medicine balls, treadmills, and cross fit gear already, but it needed to be organized in such a fashion that it was ready and accessible to be used. A big part of that meant enough clearance around each machine or piece. All the storage for equipment was organized and lined against the perimeter of the walls. All dumbbells, medicine balls, wobble boards, boxing gloves, etc.
Some equipment can be placed close to a wall or window, like a row machine or treadmill. Some machines need to float in the room with clearance space around like the cage, treadmill, and punching bags. Though with treadmills you have a lot of versatility, of course we like to place them in front of a TV or a fabulous view!
- Tip #2: The Best Flooring for a Home Gym
If the room is dedicated to working out, then dedicate it to working out fully – too often we come into a home to find the ‘gym’ carpeted, or worse – a continuation of the elegant marble floors or tiles (ouch!) Consider adding rubber flooring for resilience and dropping heavy weights, kettle weights, multi-functional training system, barbells, step stools, suspension trainer (hanging in the corner above the half dome blue Basu ball).
- Tip #3: Make it Fashionable and Functional
Equipment can be bland and boring grey and black. Add color with the weights, step stools, cage, medicine balls, ropes, boxing bag & gloves, etc. In this space we added warm grey masculine paint, Black Rubber Flooring, Cool Modern Lights that add elegance and sleekness without taking up a lot of space. Lighting really makes all the difference! And rather than just installing basic wall mirrors, we added texture and richness with multiple framed mirrors throughout the space, without being too overwhelming.
- Tip #4: Consider Your Workout Recovery Room
Because it’s your home, it’s unlikely your home gym will be very far from a water source like a kitchen or bath. But as any serious athlete knows, the recovery and wind down is just as important as the workout. In this project, we included a space for a dry sauna so the homeowner could relax and refuel after an intense workout.
The Bathroom Plumbing and Lacava Torre Ped Sink were sourced from our friends at Ferguson and the Dry Sauna, pictured here features Sunlighten Hypoallergenic Basswood.
