A small workout room gets a fun update with charcoal walls, stained wood paneling, and large mirrors. Great design ideas for your home gym.

Home Gym Design

I’m so excited to share a room with you all that I don’t think I have ever shared on the blog. It’s been just a boring beige box the last 5 years. It’s finally getting the chance for an upgrade. Our small workout room now has an actual design to it, rather than everything just thrown haphazardly in there.

Let’s start with the blah BEFORE:

and AFTER:

What a change! I decided to finally tackle this space when I was riding our exercise bike last weekend. I realized I had leftover paint from our basement family room makeover and I whipped out my paint brush.

I didn’t quite have enough paint to do all 4 walls, plus the ceiling. I decided to make the back wall a design feature. The Mr. and I added pine tongue and groove planks that I stained.

I used the color Aged Wheat by Varathane. I mentioned we will be doing a wood ceiling treatment in our basement family room so this was a good trial run for that.

When working on our small workout room design, I wanted to fit as much function as I could into the space. I arranged, and rearranged, everything in here a dozen times. I decided the way I had it originally was working the best.

The only major layout change I made, was breaking down our shelving unit into 2 pieces instead of 1. This made it easier to view the tv from everywhere.

Next I wanted to tackle the rest of my storage issues.

Storage ideas for small workout spaces –

• Baskets to store exercise bands
• Hooks to hang jump ropes, hoodies, and towels
• Wall racks for yoga mats
• Shelving for weight storage

Once I had everything organized, it was time to add the mirrors. I originally had this quoted from a local mirror company for about $900 – yikes! That was more than I wanted to spend, so I found these mirrors online that were about half the cost. I really love the look of the two mirrors vs. the one large one.

It’s crazy how much bigger the space appears with the addition of the mirrors.

I also forgot how helpful having a mirror to check your form is as well. I feel like I’ve really improved on that in the last week since having the mirrors up.

Now that I had all the practicalities covered it was time to add some fun art. I teased my kids that I was going to have the Mr. pose in his bike shorts and blow up large photos to hang around the room…they were mortified! ;)

As much fun as that would have been, I decided to search for some fun gym wall art online.

I have to be honest I had never searched for wall art for a gym space before, so I wasn’t sure what I would find. Society 6 had a ton of fun options!

What to hang on gym walls?

• Inspirational quotes
• Funny sayings
• Vintage weight lifting posters
• Favorite sport paraphernalia

I often joke that Charlie (our Havanese) is my trainer. Really he spends most of my workout trying to snuggle while I attempt crunches. When I saw these funny prints of dogs lifting weights, I knew I had to add them to our workout room design.

They just made me laugh. Anything that can make me laugh while I’m trying to get though a workout is a win.

I also chose this “All I want is pizza and abs” poster. Now I can think about pepperoni while I’m doing jumping jacks.

This project was so spontaneous and fun. I have to say I do really enjoy working out in here more now. It’s so nice to have a place for everything.

Although I will say between the mirrors and the sun reflecting off the snow this was by far the most challenging room I’ve ever photographed. With all the crazy shadows, it looks a bit darker and moodier than it is in real life.

Our whole family uses this room, so its been so great to have our home gym design working better for us!

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