Home Workout Diva Needs a Place to Sit Down

I’m not one for bragging, but my home workout room rocks!

It was the latest room in the house to enter the twenty-first century.

After three years of dealing with Purple–yes, purple–Berber carpet, squeaky floors, awkward window seats, and walls that remained perpetually dark, it was time to change it up. Not only that, my twenty-year-old treadmill threatened to burn out any minute. I was at the point where frustration was destroying my love for home fitness. Time for change.

Where it began

My home workout room is the bonus room over our garage. When we moved to our home, the bonus room had dark mustard walls, purple Berber carpet, and floors that felt uneven. There were bench seats in the two dormer window areas, and cabbage rose printed cushions on the seats. Clearly, a total makeover was in order, but the room was of low priority considering that the whole house needed to be updated.

I settled for new wall paint and DIY cushion covers that never felt quite right for the room.

My breaking point

Yadda yadda, then I decided we needed to make over the home workout room. I opted for thick rubberized tile flooring like the ice rink uses, because I know it can take a lot of abuse and still hold up. While I waited for the flooring to ship, I painted the room, from floor to ceiling, with Benjamin Moore Moonshine (2140-60 ), my go-to color for my house.

I painted the trim, then I decided to do something to radically change the room. I painted the dormer window seats Midnight Oil (1631 ), which transformed the dingy white seat boxes into pieces of furniture. The hardware was changed to stainless steel modern pulls. I revisited the seat cushions with new DIY pillows that look much better than the originals.

See my blog commentary about gray paint. Obviously, I still adore it

New workout equipment!

After the installation of the new flooring, I purchased a new commercial treadmill and a recumbent bike, and a large leaning floor mirror. I loved the way the room transformed, but it didn’t take me long to realize that something was missing. The home workout diva needed a place to sit down and relax, or respond to emails in the morning during her workouts. There was an awkward nook of the room that could serve as a sitting area, but I needed to figure out the right seating for the space.

One of the ceiling lights burned out as I took this photo. Sorry so dark!

Choosing the right chair

The space currently has an Asian-inspired paper floor lamp, and an industrial metal-and-wood side table. I need a place where I can sit with my water bottle, check emails, and recover from my workouts. Also, I want to find a budget-friendly chair that looks amazing. Using the mood board tool from houzz.com, I am previewing several styles of chair for the apres-workout sitting area.