Alright, back by popular demand (kind of): Friday Design days! As you all know, Mike and I recently moved to Peoria, Illinois and we moved from a tiny space to a much larger one. Seriously though. We moved from half an attic and sharing a bathroom with another couple to a two bedroom apartment with a deck and a community pool. It’s awesome! Another awesome but expensive thing was that we had absolutely no furniture, aside from a bed, when we moved in.
I decided that I wanted to decorate this right by taking the time to paint the walls pretty colors and search for cheap, cool furniture. Until I found out that we weren’t allowed to paint the walls and no furniture is cheap. Haha. But alas, our apartment is pretty much done and we both love it. It’s comfy and cozy and has some really cool touches here and there.
One of our favorite rooms: The Bike/Exercise Room.
Our goals:
1. Keep our THREE race bikes, workout, outdoors gear plus everything else (like travel stuff) in this room.
2. Make sure it could double as a guest room.
3. Clear enough space so that I could do my daily workouts in there.
4. Make sure we could do all kinds of dirty stuff, like clean our bikes ;), in the room.
The Solutions:
1. Install our wall-mount bike racks and all the other nifty but ugly storage gadgets in this room only.
2. Find a cheap futon on Craigslist.
3. Keep everything off the floor and on the walls.
4. Cover the whole floor with puzzle-like foam mats. They’re cheap, comfy for workouts, and keep the carpet clean.
^This is before any kind of organization. It was a daunting task. Thinking back, I’m so glad it’s over.
^The same corner with our kits all hung up and a lot of our other gear in the closet (I really wish I could find my real camera for this). Everything on the walls are things that we loved but deemed not classy enough to be in our other living spaces.
^ Our beautiful bikes with our “bike care” center on the right and our new futon in the left corner. I was so stoked last week when we found the futon on Craigslist for $40! Also check out the floor mats. Bought those at a Menard (similar to Target) for $30 total. Everything else in the room we already had or “acquired” for free!
Anyway, I work out (and dance) in here every day and absolutely love it. I still can’t believe we have all this space 🙂
Ashley Life Update: Did the bad habit again last night and got a solid night’s sleep. Yesterday was a rough day for me, I was lacking motivation which is not allowed for my job. The sleep helped me wake up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to get people healthy. Pre-sleep experimentation will continue next week. Until then, I am going to look forward to sleeping in on Sunday.
I hope you’re all having great days and making progress in whatever area of your life that you’re struggling with.
xoxo 🙂
A Happy Lass 
That is an incredible bike room! I need to get one of those wall racks for my place. Also, those Zipps are so sexy, they had to have their own little hook all to themselves 😉
The wall hook are like $6 at Home Depot. And yeah, the Zipps are Mike’s. We’re both in love with them.
perhaps you can help me with a dilemma: i live in a house with my bf and a lovely lady couple, and we have amassed a crazy number of bikes… one for me, one for bf, and liiiike, five (and counting) for the other roomies. they all sit in the living room, taking up space and taunting me. know of any good bike storage solutions for 4+ bikes?
meep.
Yes! First, that sounds like a sweet living situation. Second, do you have a free wall in your living room? Maybe move the couch forward 3 or 4 feet? You could do something like this: http://www.betterbikerack.com/bicycle-wall-rider.html
They sell hooks like this for really cheap at Home Depot. Just make sure you have a little protection where the rear wheel hits so it doesn’t scuff up the wall. Also, make sure the hooks hit a stud in the wall otherwise they will DEFINITELY fall out.
This is also a great solution if the bikes are a little heavy because then you really only have to lift up the front wheel. I’ve never really had enough bikes to do this but I’ve seen it in other apartment and it looks cool and its really space efficient.
Let me know if that doesn’t work and you need another suggestions 🙂
Check this stuff out!
http://fab.com/sale/11161/
Hey Ash, try and lighten up on yourself! We all have to have a few bad habits that make us appreciate all the good stuff we do for ourselves. You are way ahead of me! At your age I was living on pop tarts & gondolas and the word “workout” wasn’t in my vocabulary!!
Good job on the room, too. Very creative and without spending lots of cash!
Have a great weekend and enjoy that Sunday sleep-in!
Thanks Sheri! I am the ultimate perfectionist and self-doubter but I’m working on it and forgiving myself more often. Thanks for the encouragement though. It’s much appreciated.
You enjoy your weekend too 🙂
This is awesome! I’ll definitely have to bookmark this and remember your organization skillz when I move to my next apartment!
Glad you get the approval of a fellow fanatic 🙂 I miss the ECCC and you! Hope all is well.