Compact garden gym
Published: 12 August 2023
Reading Time: 3 minutes 38 seconds
Creating a home gym equipped with your favourite equipment is a popular use for a garden room building. If you explore the archive of garden gym projects we have shared, you will notice that many projects are large buildings situated in spacious gardens. However, they don’t have to be. This recent project by Garden Spaces showcases that a small garden gym building can be a functional space that needn’t dominate the garden it sits within.
Sitting on a modest footprint of 3m wide by 2.5m deep, with a roof canopy and a decked step area that extends the footprint to 2.95m deep, the configuration of glazing combined with the high-spec plastered and decorated interior gives the room a spacious feel. It's designed to feel bigger than it actually is, achieved by the floor-to-ceiling glazing overlooking the garden.
As the images show, the owner has positioned their Peloton bike to overlook the garden. This leaves plenty of space for a gym mat to be rolled out for different types of exercise.
Tailor-Made Gym Buildings by Garden Spaces
While many garden room companies say their buildings can be used as gyms, Garden Spaces has made fitness rooms one of their specialities. Recognising that each customer's exercise routine is different, they offer an extensive range of options to personalise their garden fitness studios.
Gym equipment can be heavy, and when you factor in the impact of its use, this demands special consideration during the design phase for the floor and foundation of a gym room. Sadly, not all garden room companies do this; instead, they adopt a one-size-fits-all approach regardless of the intended use. Garden Spaces, on the other hand, take the time to understand how you will use your home exercise room and will design the foundation accordingly. For example, we recently wrote about a project where they combined a ground screw foundation with a concrete pad to support weight-lifting equipment.
Garden Spaces can also reinforce walls and ceilings to support the use of wall or ceiling-mounted equipment. They will collaborate with you to create a glazing configuration that balances your view preferences while working out, maintains privacy, and incorporates opening windows for easy ventilation.
Garden Spaces offer a range of interior choices to personalise your home gym, from specialised rubber flooring to air conditioning, data cabling, and audio-visual fittings, allowing you to play music, watch TV, or join a class.
Gym Building for a Small Garden
As these photos show, Garden Spaces' client has a small garden. To avoid dominating the space, the gym building has been positioned in one corner, framed by two boundary walls and an established tree. Leaving the existing planting undisturbed by the building helps it blend seamlessly into the space.
Garden Spaces don’t offer a fixed range of garden room sizes, enabling them to design a building that suits the available space. Their garden rooms are 2.5m high as a standard, providing maximum flexibility while adhering to the Permitted Development rules.
Garden Spaces constructs its garden rooms using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), creating a highly insulated envelope when combined with quality double-glazed doors and windows. This results in a building that can be comfortably used year-round.
Wonderfully Light Home Gym
As the photos depict, Garden Spaces have crafted a wonderfully light exercise room for their clients, establishing a lovely connection to the garden it resides in. The glazing configuration plays a significant role in achieving this.
High-spec aluminium French doors with a full-height fixed window have formed a glazed wall on the front elevation. This blurs the line between indoor and outdoor spaces, making this compact garden gym feel much more spacious than its actual size.
An 800mm x 400mm top-hung window has been positioned high up on the right-hand wall, which can be easily opened to ventilate the room. The doors and windows are finished in Jet Black / RAL9005 and have been fitted with black handles for a streamlined appearance.
An impressive feature of this small gym is the 1m x 1m roof skylight. Introducing top light is a clever way to ensure a naturally illuminated room, regardless of the weather.
Low-Maintenance Exterior Finishes
Garden Spaces offer a wide range of exterior finishes, enabling you to select combinations that match your aesthetic preferences. For this project, Garden Spaces’ customers opted for Western Red Cedar on the visible elevations. This has been treated with Liberon Superior Danish Oil, which slows the natural weathering process that changes the colour to a silvery grey. This colour change doesn't compromise board durability but alters its appearance. Applying UV protection oil during installation and periodic top-ups can preserve the natural colouring, while also offering a gentle sheen and moisture repellence to the boards.
On the two boundary-facing walls, the owners chose cement particle boards, which are dimensionally stable and resistant to rot and fungal attacks, making them perfect for difficult-to-access areas. The boards have been finished with Resifine RAL9005 to match the aluminium door and window frames and roof trims.
Charcoal black composite decking has been used on the veranda area along the front elevation. This low-maintenance choice counteracts the slipperiness often associated with timber decking, making it especially suitable in front of the doors.
Learn More
Explore the dedicated gym section on the Garden Spaces website to delve into the options available for personalising your garden fitness room. Chat with the knowledgeable Garden Spaces team at 0845 387 9 387 or send them an email: info@gardenspaces.co.uk.
