A Small Garden Gym for Year-Round Use by Lux Garden Rooms
Published: 16 July 2026
Reading Time: 3 minutes
A garden gym doesn't have to be big to be worth having. Get the layout right and a modest footprint will comfortably hold everything you need to train, without swallowing up the garden in the process. A building at the bottom of the garden also sidesteps the usual compromises of trying to train in a spare bedroom or the corner of a garage — you get a dedicated space that's set up for exercise and nothing else.
This 3.2m x 2.5m project by Lux Garden Rooms is a good example of that. The brief was for a small gym the family could use all year round, and the footprint has been kept deliberately compact so it doesn't dominate the garden. Even so, there's plenty of room inside for the owner's chosen equipment — a treadmill and a bike — with space to use both comfortably.
Doors Open to the Garden
The garden-facing wall is a set of aluminium bi-fold doors, and they do more than just look good. From both the treadmill and the bike, the owner has a view straight out over the garden while they train. Opened up, the doors also give a good flow of fresh air that can be controlled to suit — thrown wide on a warm day, or closed up when it's cooler. For a room used for exercise, that kind of control over airflow makes a real difference to how it feels to spend time in there.
On the right-hand wall, a 600mm full-height window frames a second view, this one lined up for whoever's sitting on the bike. It's a small design touch, but it means there's always something to look at other than a blank wall.
Honey-Toned Thermowood
Outside, the building is finished in Thermowood, fitted horizontally. It's a heat-treated Redwood timber with a rich honey colouring that gives the gym a warm, natural look in the garden. Because the timber is treated with heat rather than chemicals, it's stable and durable, and it doesn't need painting or treating to keep it looking good — which is one less job to think about on a building meant to be used, not maintained.
The roof carries a shallow overhang that creates a neat eaves detail along the sides, and at the front this deepens into more of a canopy, finished in anthracite grey. The doors and windows are white, which keeps the whole thing feeling light and fresh against the timber.
SIPs Construction and a Turnkey Finish
Underpinning all of this is the way the building is put together. Lux Garden Rooms build using Structural Insulated Panels — SIPs — which give the room a high level of insulation as standard. That's what makes a garden gym genuinely usable through the year rather than just in the warmer months: it stays comfortable to train in whatever the weather is doing outside.
Inside, the room is plastered and decorated, so it reads as a proper room rather than an outbuilding. The electrics and heating are part of the standard build too, so the gym is wired, warm and ready from day one. And the Lux team handle the whole thing as a turnkey project — the building is left finished and ready to use, backed by their 10-year guarantee, with nothing left for the owner to sort out before they can move their equipment in and get started.
Learn More
Lux Garden Rooms is a Manchester-based company specialising in bespoke garden buildings, handling each project from design and planning through to foundations and final decoration. To find out more about their work or to discuss your own project, visit www.luxgardenrooms.co.uk, call 0161 531 0508, or email info@luxgardenrooms.co.uk.
