Have you ever thought of turning your basement into home gym? I know this is somewhat difficult thing to do. But this lady had done this for her 50 year husband on his birthday.

Secretly she turned an unused basement to gym.

Her husband was not aware of this thing as he was away from the house. She didn’t used contractor as that will make her husband aware that something is going in the basement.

This is what she started out with. The basement was just bare studs and foundation walls.

diy-basement-turned-into-gym-1

So her first challenge was to do something to the unfinished walls and uneven seam to make it look even.

Gym Making Step 2

She covers the wall gaps between the joists using a thin, scorable particle board and used nail gun to keep it in place.

Gym Making Step 3

Then she started white washing the walls, after getting the cutouts in place.

Gym Making Step 4

To finish up the dry wall, she tapped and mudded it to cut the cost and getting it done in a limited budget.

After completing the north end wall,  she completed the south end wall the same way. She used standard paint for this as there are no issues with water or dampness.

Now that both north and south wall were painted nicely, to cover the remaining studs and insulation she used painters drop cloth and staple them to the studs.

She used 9×6′ 10oz canvas panels and used staple gun to do the job!

She overlapped the stapled sections so that it would cover with trim easily.

She added some PVC trim over all of the staple seams and painted it white before nailing in place.

Then she hanged picture frames on the canvas. (Just be careful nailing holes on canvas, as it can tear it down ruining all your hard work)

Then she hanged TV on the wall.

For flooring she used carpeted foam for 50 % of the floor. And she placed standard gym mat on the north end.

One of her friend gifted a mirror so she placed it. Then she placed all the equipment used in the gym.

You can see the finished room- north end in the picture.

After finishing it her husband added punch bag, a rowing machine, a whole bunch more weights, a stereo, etc. Seems like her husband was very happy at the surprise gift!