If you’re in the process of moving and you’re beginning to think about your home gym, you’re in good company. Working out at home is more popular than ever, and making sure that you create the perfect fitness space for your household is important. Below are some tips to keep in mind when you’re looking for a home and creating a home gym for yourself.
During Your Search
If you know that you want to have a home gym somewhere in your new house, make sure that you’re taking it into consideration while you’re searching. The amount of room you need will depend on the equipment you have and the equipment you want. If you want more of a weight lifting area, you may need more space than if you only need room for a treadmill and a stretching area.
After you’ve figured out how much space you will need, make sure that you look for homes with that much free space that you can dedicate to your workout equipment. Rooms that are often used for a home gym include garages, basements, and spare bedrooms, but you don’t need to completely dedicate a room to a fitness area for it to be effective.
Make sure you communicate with your real estate agent about your desire for a home gym space. Real estate agents, whose commissions are usually 3% to 6% of the price of the home you buy, are more than willing to help you find a home that meets all of your needs.
Choose a Color Scheme
When it comes to beginning to actually design your home gym, a good place to start is with a color scheme. You should figure out if you want your gym to fit in with the rest of your home or if you want it to standout from the other color schemes. If you want your space to be more fun and energizing, you can choose bright colors for your walls or small equipment, like yoga mats and foam rollers. On the other hand, if you want the gym to be more elegant, you could choose a monochrome color scheme or otherwise muted colors.
Use Mirrors
Mirrors can be extremely useful in a gym so that you can observe your form, but as an added bonus it is also a great way to make rooms appear larger. A mirrored wall can make your room appear to be double the size that it actually is, so you should definitely consider installing mirrors if your home gym is in a smaller space.
Include Storage
If you use a multitude of equipment, storage is an important part of your gym. If you use a lot of dumbells, you should definitely look into a shelving rack for them. You don’t necessarily have to use a weight rack, but if you choose another type of shelf, make sure that it is sturdy enough to hold the combined weight of all of your dumbells.
If you use a lot of bands, loops, and yoga mats, you should consider using a pegboard for your storage. Removable pegs can be added when you need to add new equipment, and pegs can be placed to hold any lighter equipment.
The type of storage you use in your space is entirely dependent on the type of activities that you do, so look into storage options for whatever equipment you may use in your home gym.
Accesorize
If you want to make your home gym look more chic, adding accessories is the way to go. Since you’ve just invested a lot of money in buying your new home and you may be tightening your budget, even though sellers are the ones paying things like closing costs, which average 2% of the total home’s price, you don’t need to spend much on accessories. For your bigger pieces, like a weight rack or storage closet, you can choose to buy things that further your color scheme and the look you’re going for, which means you’ll need minimal accessories to tie things together.
For example, if you want your home gym to feature images and quotes from your favorite athletes, you can easily print high-quality photos of that athlete at your local photo printing store. You can create a mural of a favorite quote using stencils, which won’t cost much between the stencils, paint, and brushes.
Make sure that any accessories you add won’t get in the way of your fitness equipment. It’s a good idea to start with wall decor and add in more accessories later on, especially if you’re operating on a budget.
Make It Minimal
The average American homeowner moves every five to seven years, so if you aren’t planning on staying in your home for very long, make sure you don’t go above and beyond to perfect your gym, only to have to disassemble it in a few years. Try to choose equipment that doesn’t need to be bolted into the ground or will otherwise damage your home upon its removal. However, it’s your home — if you choose to bolt in a smith machine and move in a few years, that decision is up to you. Just make sure you’re thinking about resale value when making those kinds of decisions.
Add a TV
Adding a small TV can be really helpful for your workouts. If you like to follow workout videos, having a dedicated gym TV is more convenient than trying to place your laptop or phone every time you want to do a workout. If you like to use cardio equipment, like a treadmill, while you workout, it can be helpful to have a TV to watch something on to distract yourself.
No matter what you want out of your home gym, whether large, small, bright, elegant, elaborate, or simple, you can get exactly what you want if you put in the time to designing the perfect home gym.
What do you love about your home gym? What would you change? Let us know in the comments below!
