Okay, looks spooky and Halloween-ish, but I promise you it's not.  

I stayed at one of my favorite hotels in NYC recently—The Bowery Hotel—and decided to get a quick workout in the new hotel gym they just created.  Down a long corridor, I just loved how they tiled the whole thing in brown and green ceramic tile in a very intricate pattern.   It didn't feel closed in at all…but "age" appropriate for the hotel.

The large factory windows in the gym had a small garden of bamboo plants right in between the windows and brick wall of the neighboring building.    I am thinking of converting the open garage at my house into an enclosed gym by installing factory style windows, hand stamped concrete floors with radiant heating and floor to ceiling glass windows in the back overlooking the ravine.   Maybe a small (controlled) grove of bamboo would be nice, too.

And an overall look at the gym.     The large vintage Oriental rug added a sense of warmth to the room.   I don't think a home gym needs to be clinical, cold or ultra modern.   Vintage mirrors, tarnished silver trays and an old rug can warm up the space with super modern equipment.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 4:10 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.