8 weeks ago, I joined the Fall 2022 One Room Challenge with the intention of turning the unused portion of our basement playroom into a home gym. I told myself it was going to be a quick - easy project (hahahaha!)
And sure enough, less then a week in, I knew I was in for the long haul.
Ideas kept pouring into my brain and I knew this was definitely not going to be quick.
Or easy.
This time around, however, I definitely set some boundaries for myself on this project.
Last fall when I completed my bathroom project, I was left exhausted because I had overexerted myself for 8 straight weeks both physically and mentally.
I didn't want to do that this time around.
I chose to take on this project with a slower approach - only working on it when I truly felt ready to and inspired too, and sometimes taking breaks to work on completely different projects.
I went into it knowing that I probably wouldn't finish the entire room in the 8 week time period and being okay with that.
And you know what?
I absolutely didn't finish it on "time"...and it IS okay!
I definitely still transformed the room and now have the most incredible space to work out!
Here is a list of all that I have accomplished in only 8 weeks!
Removed all the popcorn ceiling
Painted the ceiling and ceiling murals
Hand painted a faux wallpaper wall
Hand painted a faux cement wall
Painted the remaining walls, the doors, and the trim
Removed the carpet and put in rubber floor
Created 3 pieces of wood art
Created 1 large canvas art
Designed and built a giant mirror frame/peg board out of two old bathroom mirrors
Installed my punching bag to ceiling
Installed slat wall and slat ceiling soffit
A bunch of misc. things (painting plyo boxes, random decor, making a custom rubber to carpet transition, etc. )
I approach all my DIY projects with the goal of making it as affordable as possible which often means a LOT more work.
For example:
1. instead of buying wallpaper, I painted the designs on all the walls.
This took many days of very tedious work.
2. Instead of buying a giant "gym mirror", I used the old from from my bathroom and found another one on facebook marketplace for free and made a custom frame out of one sheet of plywood.
3. Instead of purchasing art for the walls, I made my own our of scrap material.
4. Instead of buying new prettier flooring, we reused some rubber horse stall mats that we had gotten for extremely cheap at an auction for a home gym in our previous house.
All in all, the only things I needed to purchase for this entire project was some of the paint (and a lot of it, I did already have on hand), the ceiling bracket for the punching bag, one sheet of plywood, and some of the wood that I used for the art frames and slat walls.
I haven't added it all up yet, but easily under $500.
The trickiest part of this project was making the gym space work and feel like it's own unique space, while ALSO working with the rest of the basement playroom design so that the whole thing felt cohesive.
I'd love to hear what you think!
I can't wait to share some more details with you, but for now, enjoy some before and after's!
