We have finished the DIY home gym that we've been working on at my boyfriend's house and I'm ready to share the final reveal and all the details!
You may remember this room started out as basically just a pass-through to the backyard and a place where everything that didn't have a place got tossed.
It's a strange room and didn't have a true purpose. You have to pass through this room to get to the master and spare bedrooms and the backyard so it couldn't serve as another bedroom.
But I'm happy to say that this little room has a true purpose now and looks so good!
DIY Home Gym Reveal
Now that you've seen that great after picture, let's take a look at a before picture, and then I'll walk you through all that we did in this room.
You can see that there was carpet in this room which really, was a bad idea because a lot of dirt and grime was tracked in from the backyard. There wasn't even a hard surface to walk onto when you came in from outside, and the door was too low for an entry rug so you just tracked everything right onto the carpet right away!
So, we ripped out the carpet and laid down some self-adhesive "travertine" floor tiles.
Once we got that out, we painted. I chose Polar Bear White by Behr. We left the ceiling the robin's egg blue color because we really don't mind it on the ceiling plus painting ceilings is a pain in the ass and we just didn't want to tackle it!
And we did the back wall in a black called Dark Secret by Behr for an accent wall.
Then we covered the concrete subfloor with thin plywood to create a new subfloor for our peel and stick tiles. Concrete is not the best subfloor for self-adhesive tiles because it contains moisture and we thought it might affect how well the tiles would stick. We used construction adhesive to adhere it to the concrete.
Once that was down we primed it.
And finally, we were able to start laying the new floor staggering the tiles like you would real travertine tiles!
This stuff is very easy to cut. You just use a utility knife to score it, using a straight edge for a crisp line. Once you've done a couple of passes with the knife, you just bend it and it snaps along the line.
To lay it down, you pull the backing off about halfway, lay that sticky end down, lining it all up, and then pull out the rest of the backing.
This actually went pretty quickly. It took us about a day and a half to get it all done. The part that takes the longest is trimming around corners and edges.
We used the unopened boxes of floor tiles here and there to weigh the tiles down and the rolling pin to get even pressure on the whole tile as we went.
And once we were all done, we rented a 100 lb. floor roller from Home Depot for $15 and rolled it all out.
Doesn't that look great!? I do have one tip if you choose to lay self-adhesive tiles. Make sure you mix the boxes up as you use them because the tile coloring and sheen may be slightly different per box and you want them scattered around so they look natural. We did not realize this until we were about halfway through this project so there are a couple of areas where there is a little grouping of tiles that look different than the others. It's not a huge difference, but just enough that we can see it (but I don't think anyone else will notice).
Now, let's take a look at the fireplace bookshelves, here is a before shot.
I shopped the house and gathered up things to use. I bought a couple of new picture frames, a candle, and a little faux cactus plant and thrifted a new clock but most everything was stuff he already had.
All of the books were gathered from around his house as well. I used mostly black and white books to go with the black and white color scheme of the room.
Here is an after shot. I added some baskets on the top shelf, leaned and stacked the books, and added in some decor.
This is the clock I found at Goodwill.
And this is a little bit of humor I bought.
We made a DIY grid-style mirror for one wall.
.
Now, let's take a look at some before and after shots! I love those, don't you!?
Before...
After...
After... There is now a TV mounted in front of the treadmill (it's hard to see in the pictures... black TV on a black wall)! The little cabinet holds hot tub chemicals. Since the hot tub is right outside that door, they needed to stay close.
This is the before view from the backyard.
I found a tray that was perfect for holding the kettlebells (it's actually a shoe tray for putting wet shoes) and a shelf with hooks for resistance bands.
I love a motivational poster in a gym! I ordered this one from Zazzle.com and got the frame at Walmart.
Wow, what a difference! I'm loving the black wall and white curtains. The fireplace looked lost before and now the black anchors it so much better. The floors look really good too and make the room look so much bigger. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie!
DeleteThe room looks fantastic! Now it's a pass through with a purpose!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThis room is now magazine-worthy. Good job, you two!
ReplyDeleteAww, that's so sweet, thank you Vikki!
DeleteLove it! I'm featuring you this week when the next To Grandma's house we go link party starts - thanks for sharing with us!
ReplyDeleteSweet! Thank you!!
Delete