Want to transform an unfinished basement into a home gym? Learn from this unfinished area conversion to a clean and functional exercise room on a budget.
Often overlooked, unfinished areas in homes have so much potential! With some creative solutions and a little elbow grease, you can spruce them up and make an unfinished room a livable (and enjoyable) space.
My mom and I did just that with part of her basement – over the course of a few weeks we cleaned it up and turned it into an unfinished basement gym.
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It’s a fantastic place for her to work out now, and I am going to show you how we did it!
Paint the Walls
The first thing we did, and something I recommend for any unfinished space, is paint the walls. Yes, even the unfinished wall with exposed studs got a fresh coat of paint.
Paint works wonders on any surface! It makes an unfinished area look cleaner and feel more “finished,” even though it’s not!
Painting the stud wall with a clean white paint instantly brightened things up. I used my favorite paint sprayer to easily cover the wood studs and back of drywall.
The white of this wall worked with the adjacent cinderblock wall, which was already painted white.
For the one wall with drywall in the basement room, we painted it Aspen Valley by Behr for a pop of color and interest.
Gym Flooring for an Unfinished Basement
A next essential for creating a home gym in an unfinished basement is to put down workout flooring.
An exposed concrete floor is not a good surface for exercise. It is tough on the joints, unforgiving for impact exercise, and very cold!
We purchased ¾”rubber top foam tiles and laid them directly over the concrete. These tiles fit together like puzzle pieces, and came with a finish edge for the room perimeter.
The gym flooring tiles cut easily with a sharp utility knife (SHARP! We tried dull – it was a disaster – ha!). We were able to cut them to wrap around a pole and also to fit around the edges of the room.
These home gym tiles do not slip or slide around the room, and you would never know there is concrete under there! We did not use any adhesive at all.
They feel so nice to walk on, and they were a definite upgrade for this basement home gym.
When purchasing home gym flooring, be careful and do your research. You want at least half-an-inch thick, and a non-slip surface is important. There are lots of foam floor tiles on the market, but not all are suitable for a workout room.
Hang DIY Curtain Walls to Separate Spaces and Hide Clutter
In the case of my mom’s home gym, we were only using part of a larger unfinished space. We wanted to create a separation of spaces without building walls, so we hung a curtain wall.
We installed a curtain wire that stretched from one wall to another. This was tricky because we had drywall on one side and cinderblock on the other, and we did not want to drill into cinderblock.
We initially tried hanging the curtain wire on the cinderblock with 3M Picture Hanging Strips, but that was a total failure. (Hey you never know until you try!)
Because of that, we attached a piece of wood from a nearby joist, and then screwed the curtain wire into that. If you’re hanging a curtain wall in between drywalled walls, you will have no issues!
We then used four of these inexpensive curtain panels to separate the basement home gym from the rest of the unfinished basement.
(Sidenote: I love these curtain panels. I used the same ones in my home office and also in my daughter’s bedroom.)
This curtain wall allows easy access to the unfinished portion of the basement when needed, but makes the workout room feel like its own space when closed. It also adds some nice softness to a “cold” area!
Similarly, we used a tension rod and two curtain panels to cover the entrance to a storage area accessible from the workout room. This hides the clutter and further defines the space. (Yes, we steamed them after this picture was taken.)
Add Storage for Gym Equipment
Although my mom doesn’t currently have a lot of gym equipment (hey, she didn’t have a place to work out before!), an important part of creating a functional basement gym was having places to put the equipment she does have!
For that, we hung hooks on the exposed studs, next to a mirror (#flex). This gave her a place to hang workout resistance bands and her ropeless jump rope (a must for a basement gym, given the usually low ceiling).
We also added a large basket to contain things like her yoga mat and light weights, and a small table near her elliptical machine to store her water and diffuser. (Making the workout room smell good makes it even more inviting)!
A small shelf under the TV serves as a designated spot for the remote control and some decor. In my opinion, having some decor helps the basement workout area feel much nicer.
With all of these simple changes, we transformed my mom’s unfinished basement area into a really nice home gym that she’s especially enjoyed using on bad weather days!
If you’re thinking of converting an unused space into a home gym, I hope these things were did are helpful to you.
The bottom line is that cleaning up and brightening the space goes such a long way, as does adding the proper flooring. With those two key components addressed, you can create a workout room just about anywhere in your home!
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