Basement Reveal: the New Family Workout Room
While we technically started our Basement Reveal series last week with Abbey's playhouse under the stairs, let's be real - that wasn't much of a refresh or reveal! But NOW we're getting to the good stuff - starting with our workout room!
Basement Workout Room Evolution
Just for fun, let's take a quick walk down memory lane... Before we bought the house, the previous owners used this room as a home office. It's a weird room with so many outlets, baseboard heaters, the electrical panel for the house on the wall and the sump pump in the closet.
We thought it was a good sign that they had carpet in here when we bought it, but NOPE. Shortly after we moved in we experienced our first water issue after heavy rains and this room flooded.
Ripping up the carpet we could tell it wasn't the first time, so we decided to take it all out and put foam puzzle flooring in here and surprise the kids by turning it into a family workout room and playroom complete with a batting net for tennis practice and a punching bag. But mostly just a big empty room with a soft landing.
Which worked great for a little over two years until the whole basement flooded in March and everything touching the floor had to be taken out.
Before we even considered re-building, we had a basement and foundation company come do an audit. Luckily they thought our foundation was fine, but suggested we get a bigger sump pump well and all the back-up pumps. So we invested in the mother of all sump pumps and are praying that keeps our basement DRY.
Workout Room Inspiration and Mood Board
Once we got further into reno planning and work, we shared our inspiration and mood board for this room with the boards for the rest of the basement. Like the rest of the basement, we planned to elevate and modernize the style of most everything to continue the flow and work we've been doing upstairs - black, white and naturals is the lane we stay in.
But for a room that mostly gets banged up with balls and kids, we decided to get a little moody and go for it with black walls which we shared in our big paint update with this as the last view you've seen of this room:
Workout Room Flooring, Doors, Trim & Electrical
Flooring
For the floors, we really did like the foam puzzle floor we had before. It's super practical for how we use this space ... and it's a DIY friendly CHEAP option! Since this was an unplanned and unwanted renovation overall, we tried to save money where we could. So we started looking for other similar flooring and found a great looking natural woodgrain style foam puzzle.
We had our trim company install the trim before the floors went in, then Zach installed all of the flooring in here himself!
Like I said, this is a really DIY friendly flooring - easy to measure and cut and stick under the existing trim. It has a great feel underfoot and offers a pretty soft landing while being hard enough to bounce a ball on.
For being a foam puzzle, it's got a really nice elevated look to it. If you're really looking for the seams, you can find them but blur your eyes like those 3D posters from the 90s and it looks dang near real wood! Usually with a hard surface floor you'd add 1/4 round shoe to the trim to cover up the space between the floor and the trim, but we're just going to leave it as is. No one is judging us in here. ;)
Electrical
Remember when I said this room had a ton of outlets? Well, did you notice anything in these pics? We installed BLACK outlets and light switches! My uncle did a little research and found us these cool shiny ones. They blend right in perfectly to the black walls and make this room look so clean!
Slide! Now you see it, now you don't!
Trim and Doors
Trim on, doors in, floor in - the room is officially back in business!
The doors came primed and ready but by the time we needed to paint them, we'd honestly lost steam and patience. So we hired out the painting of the doors when we did the upstairs doors which I'm super happy about. Not only because it only took them 24 hours for 8 doors, but the finish is so nice and smooth.
Finishing Touches
We don't get a lot of fitness in, and I'm certainly good at jumping on and off the wagon, but my constant go-to is taking any/all Yoga classes through the Peloton app. If I've learned anything at all after the flood is that I need to store less on the floor, or to put them in items that won't ruin if we ever flood again. So I started looking for a new way to store my yoga gear.
I found this cute little wall storage set online, that even came with a surprise do not disturb sign ... though who am I kidding - what mom ever gets to do anything undisturbed! ;)
It's a simple little storage unit with totally adjustable pegs for storing your yoga gear!
Having everything in arms reach but off the floor is great! And it allows this room to stay as neat and kid friendly as possible!
To finish it off, the batting net and punching bag got hung back up too. Couldn't tell you the last time someone actually punched that thing, but it's ready for round 2.
Workout Room In Action
We're so happy to have this space back in action! From yoga...
to basketball...
to cartwheels and handstands...
...it's getting such good use again! But like just about everything, I'm sure this isn't the end of this room's transformation. I can easily see us adding a dance bar if Abbey sticks with dance, or a piece of workout equipment if Zach or I ever decide to actually start working out again... but that's why #housedonemandead. Amiright?
Speaking of transformations, be sure to check back next week for our next basement room reveal!
Need a workout room fix? Here's what we used:
Forrest Floor Farmhouse Collection 3/8 inch Thick Mats affiliate
Black Outlets and Wall Plates Home Depot
Black Light Switch and Wall Plates Menards
Yoga Mat Holder Wall Mount Storage Rack affiliate
SKLZ Hanging Batting Practice Net affiliate
Kids Ceiling Mount Boxing Bag (similar) affiliate
DISCLAIMER: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase through one of the product links, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!
