Rustic Country Home Decorating Ideas

I am passionate about fitness. I developed a swim toy that I tested in the fitness industry. I learned to love fitness for my swim toy.

A warm and inviting home gym with wood ceiling and light beige carpet and stone fireplace

Zillow

Rustic Home Gym Designs

Rustic, by definition, is typically associated with rural or country. Often simple in composition, rustic renders a feeling of being cozy and inviting. Sit a moment and put your feet up and consider this—rustic is not quite a Jed Clampett moment that says, "if you are too busy to go fishin', you're too busy." Rustic is to me a feeling of comfort—does the room invite you, and if so, why? And most importantly, how does it invite you?

So why a rustic setting for a fitness room, you might ask? For me, rustic says, "stay a while," don't run away; enjoy the comfort of the room and relish in its simplicity. Join me as we explore several different rustic home gym decors. See the feeling that wood, stone, and plywood can create. Check out different lighting and flooring options. And most importantly, take away in your mind some changes or additions you might want for your home gym.

Rustic Conjures Up Wood and Stone and Equals Comfort

To me, the term "rustic" conjures up wood and stone. Oftentimes, we will see rustic referred to with reclaimed wood, wood that has lost its sheen, has weathered the course of time, and yet remains solid. Sometimes, rustic will show up with black metal to harken back to the days of the blacksmith simplicity.

Whether stone, wood, or simplistic black iron, the use of earthy tones can add warmth to a fitness room that is often deemed cold and uninviting.

So my challenge to you is to identify what element of rustic speaks with you. Is it a stone wall or a wood wall of reclaimed timbers, or is it simply an element of rough-hewn trees? Or perhaps rustic to you conjures up iron works?

Join me as we offer some great examples of rustic fitness rooms. Gather 'round and ponder what part of rustic speaks to you? What part would you want in your home gym?

A warm and inviting pine-paneled rustic home gym complete with stone wainscoting on the walls

sunvalleysir

1. Gleaming Wood Ceilings

My personal favorite is the gleaming wood ceiling. A room with a wood ceiling, even a plywood ceiling (as we will see later), is always a room that hugs its occupants. I know of no other material that consistently offers both charm and comfort to a room—any room with any height of ceiling. The extensive tray ceilings and the voluminous vaulted ceilings add drama, but wood on any ceiling is always tasteful and classic.

2. A Rustic Home Gym With Wood and Stone Walls

Feng Shui for Decorating Guidance for Your Rustic Home Gym

Perhaps no other application of feng shui guidance is more appropriate than when attempting to craft the quintessential rustic home gym.

Feng Shui - Five Element Tips

In feng shui, the decorating tips detail if you are able to bring in the five elements, you will create a happier, more comfortable, and more inviting space. The five elements are wood, fire, water, and earth. What is interesting is if you examine a room that you can relate to emotionally, dissect that room element by element, and match it up with feng shui, you will often find that room contains all five elements.

Feng Shui Room Challenge

I challenge you today to pick your favorite fitness room or any actual room in your home and pick that room apart category by category to match up with the five elements of feng shui. You will most likely find that room contains all five elements. Can you find the five elements in each of the fitness rooms showcased in this article?

Nothing Beats a Wood Ceiling

My personal preference for any and all rooms is a wood ceiling. And nowhere is this more important to me than the fitness room. The wood ceiling could be refined, finely sanded and stained, or simply raw plywood. Both add a superior element of warm to a room that often is barren and cold with metal fitness equipment.

Feng means wind and shui means water. In Chinese culture wind and water are associated with good health, thus good feng shui came to mean good fortune, while bad feng shui means bad luck, or misfortune.

— http://fengshui.about.com/

Earth = Stone

The earth element in feng shui for many fitness rooms is the cement floor of the basement. However, look at what happens when the earth element becomes stone. The added texture of the stone adds a new dimension that causes a greater warmth to be crafted. Yes, I do mean crafted for interior design is not just an art form but also a science. The colors, the textures, and the combination need to be in balance and in feng shui. The proper term would be harmony.

Water = Color

What is interesting in feng shui is that water is often represented by color—both blue and also black offer the element of water. Yes, you heard me correctly; the color black counts for water. For those who love the water, such as myself, I at first found this surprising, but when I thought about it, it made sense. And in the fitness room, oftentimes, black is a color predominant on the fitness equipment and mats.

Water = Mirrors

Mirrors in home gyms are more than just a practical tool to ensure you follow proper form; mirrors also offer the element of water. And as this author astutely details, mirrors also serve to provide more light and thus more energy to the space.

"Mirrors are also used to expand the space and create more light, of course. In addition, because mirrors are the perfect representation of the water feng shui element, they always bring the energy of refreshment and calm."

Mirrors in a basement where lighting is often limited offer a simple antidote to an otherwise lifeless room.

Important note, the placement of the mirror is both an art and a science which we will not cover here.

A rustic home gym with wood ceilings

http://www.popular-fitness.com/fitness-photos/home-gym-5.jpg

3. Raw Wood Ceiling and Green-Toned Walls

The room below harkens to nature with its rough-hewn raw lumber ceiling and green painted two-tone walls. The massive wood beams add another element of texture and lend themselves to the reminiscent feeling of the grandeur of the forests.

Elements to Consider for Your Rustic Home Gym

Enhance the feeling of your home gyms with these simple elements - light, color, texture, electronics
Decor Tip	Examples
Add layers of light	Recessed lighting, floor lighting, spot lights
Repeat colors	Repeat accent colors three times
Add a focal point	Colorful wall, textured wall, television
Add texture	Plywood, wood stone, metal, suede
Add artwork	Flags, banners, framed pictures, wall stencils
Include all five feng shui elements	Wood, fire, earth, water, and metal

A rustic home gym with plywood ceiling and walls and black flooring

Zillow

A rustic home gym with with plywood walls and dark grey flooring

4. Surprise Plywood Fitness Room

The next home fitness gym was a complete surprise for me. Who would have ever thought plywood could look so stylish? The added elements of patriotism with the American and PW WII flags further define the space. The mirrors are expertly centered both for design and for function.

5. Pine-Walled Fitness Room

The pine-walled fitness room is beautifully crafted. And if you look closely at the attention to detail, the carpenter even built in a tray ceiling to add further texture and architectural interest to the room.

A beautiful rustic home gym with a lodge feeling with framed paintings of hunting scenes and taxidermy foul decorating the walls

Zillow

6. Fitness Room With a Lodge Feeling

Fellow hunters and dog lovers unite—this room has it all for you. And the backdrop of the diagonal chevron pine paneling is superb with the chair rail or wainscoting on the bottom.

Fun Feature—Look at the Fitness Equipment Mounted on the Wall

An element I missed at first in this room was the fitness equipment accessories that were mounted on the wall. Who would have thought of this? Convenient and yet very stately—further adding to the texture of the room without any incongruity.

Also, if you look closely above the window is a rustic cornice and above the cornice that beautifully frames the window is a set of taxidermy foul mounted above the window appearing almost to be in unison flight.

Cinder block and plywood walls—a great rustic gym

http://www.myaustinelite.com

7. Color Coordination and Texture—Cinder Block and Plywood

The next fitness room is perhaps the most simplistic of all—and yet it works beautifully because it offers the texture of the cinder block on one wall and plywood on the other two walls. If you note, the color black unifies the space in a manner that shouts not just masculine but also refinement in its simplicity.

Designers often will say to repeat colors three times, and here the owner has beautifully repeated the color black—even the lettering on the unpainted storage box is color-coordinated in black stencil.

8. Cedar Log Home

An article on rustic design would simply not be complete without a log home fitness room. I haven't forgotten; I just saved one of the top favorites for the very end.

Yes, in this video, you must wait until the very end (OK, you have my permission to skip ahead) for the fitness room in the corner. Trust me; it is well worth the wait; it's exceptionally well done.

Rustic Fitness Rooms

And there you have it, 8 rustic fitness rooms to inspire you. Let your imagination soar, and carefully consider adding some new design elements to your home gym today.

Rustic Objects in Classic Literature

Master writers such as Walt Whitman and Charles Dickens know and appreciate the drama that only rustic can offer. And they were writing long before the home decorating craze of "rustic" struck America.

The new decorating era of rustic embodies the love of history, the appreciation, and respect for the old. This is a new concept for a relatively new country (in comparison to our European and Asian counterparts). Yet, it is a lasting tribute to appreciating nature and celebrating nature indoors.

Rustic in the fitness room, as you will see, plays exceptionally well. Whether Dickens or Whitman would agree, I am not certain. I feel they would find any indoor fitness room a fraud and foresee it as distasteful, but I could be completely wrong.

Your Thoughts on Whitman and Dickens' Approval?

Walt Whitman sadly left us in 1892 (he was 72 years old), and Dickens died in 1870 at the age of 58. Dickens was said to have been the world's greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Whitman was a poet, and many of his works celebrate nature and the father of free verse.

What do you imagine these two literary masters would think of rustic fitness rooms? What are your thoughts on these many unique and imaginative spaces? Which one calls to you to be your refuge for muscle building and cardio exercise?

Luis G Asuncion from City of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, Philippines on November 22, 2019:

This is cool to read. Thanks for sharing.

Nisha Nair04 on September 09, 2019:

Great ideas Kelly. Thank you for sharing this information. Looking forward to reading more interesting hubs from you.

Tonette Fornillos from The City of Generals on May 20, 2017:

Loved the ideas, Kelly. It makes the feel of the gym just like you're home - comfy and relaxing. I was never wrong having rustic touches on my list. lol! Thank you!

Kelly A Burnett (author) from United States on March 31, 2016:

Hi AliciaC,

I completely agree with the outdoor site! Yes! And many of those pieces are fun for all ages.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Linda Crampton from British Columbia, Canada on March 30, 2016:

What an interesting hub. I've never thought of a rustic design for a home gym before, but I think that the gyms in some of your photos look beautiful. My first choice for an exercise area is a natural site outdoors, but if I had to exercise indoors I would love to follow some of your suggestions.