The days of hole in the wall affiliates are long past. While nothing can be the substitute for high quality coaching and programming, getting new members to walk in the door now-a-days requires an even floor, a decent paint job, good signage and up to date equipment.
Indoor gym decor is becoming more and more important with the flood of local gyms.
Paint
Nothing can replace a good paint job, its fairly cheap and can be easy if you enlist some of your coaches or current members to help you out on a weekend.
Choose one or two neutral colors and one bold color for accents. Make sure to patch up the walls and add a layer of primer before you start. A little of extra work here can give you huge results later.
Many gyms I have seen opt to go for an accent stripe going all the way around the gym, but if you aren’t feeling quite so handy you can paint the walls all one color, with a whole accent wall.
If you are painting a tricky surface, such as cinder block or garage doors, you can always contact the paint vendor of your choice to get their advice on the best way to prep your walls. For very large areas, think about renting a sprayer from a hardware store, it can save you considerably on time and often on the amount of paint used as well.
Design
It might seem daunting to try and paint cool designs onto your walls, but with the right equipment it can become a snap.
First, decide what you want to add, will you add your logo? Quotes? Wall ball targets? Then get yourself access to an overhead projector. Print out a transparency of what you want and project it onto the wall. Trace it out, tape it up and start to paint! It won’t look perfect, but it will look incredibly nice at the fraction of the cost of a professional!
Below are some cool ideas to get you thinking.
Last but not least, send us your shots so we can put them up!!!
Posters
Posters can be a great way to help educate or inspire your members. You can print off shots of long term members working out, gym rules, movement diagrams and more. You can often find cheap poster printing if you search for scientific poster printing, or research poster printing – or through your local universities. The best place we have found is a place called PhD Posters, but you can likely find a local shop through a similar avenue.
You can either mount your posters permanently with wallpaper glue, semi-permanently by drilling it between the wall and plexi glass, or through regular poster tape – it all depends on your desired outcome and budget.
Leader boards
If you want to post up leader boards one of your best and cheapest options is using large whiteboards, electrical tape and sharpies.
Other options are poster boards, plexi glass, whiteboard paint or chalkboard paint.