Well, y’all, I had a very frustrating day yesterday, and didn’t get nearly as much done on the home gym as I had planned. I dropped my external hard drive that holds all of my pictures from all of my 16 years of blogging, and then it wouldn’t work. I thought it was being backed up on Carbonite, but when I went into my Carbonite account and selected that drive, nothing was there. NOTHING!! So I spent a ridiculous amount of time yesterday desperately trying to find someone who could get my pictures off of that hard drive. Literally no one in Waco can do that, so it had to be sent off to Austin, where they’ll have to put on their little Tyvek bunny suits and take my hard drive into a clean room, very carefully disassemble it, and see what info (if any) they can salvage, all for the bargain price of $1900.
I was absolutely sick about it. That’s 16 years of blogging photos and videos, from the condo to our house, and every project and room that I’ve ever done. To say that that put a damper on the entire rest of my day would be an understatement. I was so sad, and depressed, and frustrated, and angry (at myself for not checking my Carbonite on a regular basis to be sure everything was actually being backed up properly!), and felt so unmotivated to work on anything. I just wanted to sit in bed and cry and eat ice cream.
But I didn’t. After pouting and sulking for a while, I finally did make myself get up and do something. Anything. Sulking and pouting wouldn’t fix my hard drive, so I made myself refocus.
What I decided to do was assemble our new Swedish ladder. I had originally intended to make a Swedish ladder from scratch, but then I decided that I would rather save time and purchase a ready-to-assemble Swedish ladder that I know is well made and very sturdy. So I bought this one from The Beam Store. It was very simple to assemble. But installing it on the wall might be a different story.
This thing is very well made, and I love that it has 1.5-inch dowels. Those will be very strong. I don’t love the color, though. As I’ve mentioned before, I want to create a cohesive look throughout this room by using black and walnut throughout the room. That’s been my plan for a while now, and it’s why I bought a black and walnut WaterRower. You can see it sitting on the old foam floor in the photo below.
And that plan is also why I chose walnut-colored shades and black flooring.
So these light-colored dowels don’t really cut it for me.
That’s a problem that can be easily solved with some sanding or stripping (they’re clear coated), a coat of stain, and a new clear coat.
I also intend to give the WalMart dresser a little makeover. Right now, it’s just solid black, which is fine, but not great. And I’ve also decided that it’s a bit too short, so I will be adding legs to it. I have one more piece of 1″ x 2″ walnut lumber from the bathroom remodel, so I’ll use that long the base, add some walnut feet, and then do a little something with the drawer fronts.
And then I bought these pulls to use on the drawers. I found them in this Etsy store.
And then I have two long walls in the entrance to this room that are just begging for some artwork.
I have to admit that I usually don’t like word art. I know I have some in our breakfast room (sitting room), but that’s kind of different because it’s all colorful and glittery and awesome. But regular non-colorful, non-glittery, and non-awesome word art/decor generally doesn’t appeal to me at all.
But in my mind, motivational word art posters go perfectly with a home gym. Don’t you think? I’ve been searching on Etsy to find something that I like, and so far, this series from Etsy is my favorite.
The colors aren’t exactly right, but since they’re downloadable/printable wall art, I think I can edit the colors to work better for the room. But regardless of the series I finally choose, I plan to frame them in walnut and black. I want to frame them like I did the original artwork that I did years ago for our breakfast room…
…so that there’s a very thin black frame around the artwork, and then a thicker frame on the outside. But where I used white on those paintings, I’ll use walnut on the ones for the home gym walls.
So that’s the plan, and hopefully it’ll all look cohesive once it’s finished. I know some people are probably thinking, “This is just a home gym! Why go to all of this trouble?” Well, the obvious answer is in the name of my blog. ? But also, it’s a room in our home, and I want it to look nice, just like any other room. I hope to spend a good deal of time in here, and I need to be motivated to come in here and stay in here a while. I’d never be motivated to spend much time in a room that didn’t look pretty and feel inviting to me. Strictly utilitarian rooms don’t motivate me at all.
Anyway, hopefully I can get more accomplished today. No more sulking or pouting allowed.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
