11 Jun 2025 6 min read

I Built My Dream Home Gym in a Spare Bedroom — Here's the Full Breakdown

From power rack to mirrors—exact gear, costs, and lessons learned.

In May 2025, I built a gym in my spare bedroom. This is something I’ve wanted to do for years, but until recently I didn’t have the means to pull it off.

When Covid shut everything down in 2020, I was pissed. It doesn’t matter what anybody lost during that period - nothing suffered more than my gains.

I swore that would never happen again.

This article breaks down everything I bought: what I chose, why I added it to my gym, what it cost, and how it’s held up after two weeks of exclusive use

GarveeLife Power Cage with Cable Crossover System

The pièce de résistance. The power cage. This rack is certified up to 1600 lbs - and I don’t plan on getting anywhere near that weight.

This is a step up from your average squat rack.

Inside the cage, I can hit all the staples: squats, bench press, military press, bent-over rows. But the real value is in the adjustable pulley system.

This opens up many more exercises: cable crossovers, lateral pulldowns, seated rows, face pulls, tricep pushdowns, cable crunches - the list goes on.

Most pulley racks offer only fixed positions. This one has two pulleys that can move up and down the frame however I want.

It also came with a bunch of accessories: dip bar attachments, landmine attachment, cable handles, lateral pulldown bar, rope extension, rowing handle, J hooks, safety straps, plus some other accessories I probably won’t use.

This wasn’t fun to put together, but I’m happy with how it’s been working for me so far.

Approximate Cost: $1500 CAD / Amazon

Finer Form Multi-Functional FID Weight Bench

When I was searching for a bench, I wanted something durable with as much versatility as possible. This was the best one I found.

This bench is certified up to 1000 lbs.

It can do flat, incline or decline exercises.

There’s a removable pad at the base that works for decline situps, lower back extensions and preacher curls.

It’s got wheels on one side, making it pretty easy to move around.

One issue: the plastic feet on the base slipped off a couple of times when I was moving it. Easy to pop back on, but worth noting.

Approximate Cost: $280 CAD / Amazon

Barbells and Bumper Plates

You need something to lift.

Most sets come with a barbell and a standard set of plates: 45s, 35s, 25s, 15s, 10s, and 5s. That’s good for most people.

I wanted something a little better.

I bought an upgraded barbell from XM Fitness that holds up to 1500 lbs, plus an EZ Curl bar.

For plates, I grabbed two sets of 45s, 25s, 10s and 5s (4 plates each). Also made by XM Fitness.

Bumper plates can be dropped without damaging your floor - plus I like the color scheme.

Approximate Cost:

$300 CAD for XM Barbell
$125 CAD for EZ Curl Barbell
$775 CAD for Bumper Plates
All from HomeFit (local retail)

Dumbell Set

I bought a standard set of hex dumbells for my home gym.

If you’re short on money and space, go with the adjustable set. Personally, I wanted a fixed set of dumbells for a more professional setup.

My set goes from 5 lbs up to 50 lbs in 5 lb increments and came with the stand. You can do a full body workout using nothing but dumbells.

While they are pricey and a little hard to keep clean, I have no complaints; aside from breaking my pinky toe on the stand when I was moving it yesterday.

Approximate Cost: $1000 CAD / HomeFit

Accessories

If I had built this gym in my garage, the items above would’ve been enough.

But since it’s in my bedroom, I had a few extra considerations

Fan
This room gets hot in the summer.
I bought the Lasko High Velocity Quickmount Fan. It sits on the floor or mounts to the wall. Three settings. Cools the room down fast—even on the hottest days.
The higher settings are loud, but they get the job done.
Approximate Cost: $110 CAD / Amazon
Mirror
Check out your form and show off your muscles.
I bought two BOOLOO 3-piece mirror sets. Each piece is 48” x 16” of tempered glass. Together, it makes an 8 ft wide by 4 ft high setup.
They come with hanging wall strips for mounting. Easy to install, and they look great
Approximate Cost: $170 CAD each, $340 CAD total / Amazon
Flooring
I don’t want to damage the flooring I installed in my bedroom.
I bought 30 interlocking 2 ft x 2 ft rubber tiles—just enough to cover the entire room. They’re a step up from the cheap foam mats most places sell.
Install took awhile, but it wasn’t too hard. If it needs cutting, score it with a utility knife, fold it over, and it’ll separate cleanly.
Approximate Cost: $10 CAD per tile, $300 CAD total / HomeFit
Everything Else
So much more went into this room than just the exercise equipment.
The first thing I did was repaint the room. I went with Pewter Green and a Graphite accent wall.
I love how it looks. It works as a gym, and if I ever turn the room back into a bedroom or office, it will still look good.
For the walls, I wanted something motivational from famous bodybuilders, without turning the room into a weird homoerotic display. Thankfully Temu had some inexpensive metal wall signs featuring inspiration from Arnold, Zyzz, Rich Piana and Ronnie Coleman.
I also put up the Orthodoxy or Death flag. The skulls just looked badass. It belongs in a gym like this.
A few other things I grabbed:
- Weight belt
- Neck training harness
- Forearm trainer (this one’s actually brutal)
Approximate Cost: $370 CDN

Total Home Gym Cost: $5100 CDN

Trying To Do It Yourself

You can definitely build your home gym for less than what I did.

Start simple:

Door mounted pullup bar.
Basic squat rack or half rack
Adjustable dumbells
Shop online classified ads for people selling their old equipment
Water jugs, sand bags, cinder blocks and heavy books can be substituted for weights
Look into DIY equipment (so many tutorials out there)

The Review So Far

To be honest, covid wasn’t the only reason I started this project.

I built this gym to save time and focus more on other pursuits.

At the commercial gym, I’d stop in after work—right when it’s packed. Parking is a hassle. Changing takes time. Machines are always in use.

Workouts would take two hours, not including travel.

Now? I’m in and out in just over an hour.

What do I miss most?

The people. I had gym friends I liked talking to. I enjoyed people-watching. And yeah, I miss the extras: all the machines, the classes, the hot tub, pool, sauna.

I’m still motivated. As long as I go straight into training when I get home from work, I get it done.

That said, the room isn’t perfect.

I don’t have space to use my landmine attachment, or to do seated rows. But I do have substitute exercises I can do, such as bent over rows or single arm dumbell rows.

I wanted a treadmill too—but there’s no room. So I do my cardio outdoors.

In spite of these complaints, I still consider this to be a dream setup. I have everything I need to exercise every muscle group in my body.

Yes, I spent more than I needed to. But now I have the gym I want—and I use it.

Time to get after it.