Home Gyms Hit Their Stride During Covid

Before the pandemic, Tracy Tutor was a regular at the Dogpound, a boutique gym in Los Angeles popular with celebrities. It’s where she met her boyfriend, personal trainer Erik Anderson. But when Covid-19 forced gyms to shut down, the couple found themselves without a place to exercise.

“When there was nothing to do but eat and drink and workout and sleep, we got this wild hair: Why don’t we turn the garage into a home gym?” says Ms. Tutor, a real-estate agent with Douglas Elliman and star of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles.”

Within a month, they converted the detached garage of their Beverly Hills home into a mirror-wrapped fitness centre, spending close to US$100,000 transforming the 21-foot by 22-foot space. The biggest challenge was sourcing the equipment, including free weights, a squat rack, a bench press, an exercise bike and a pilates reformer. “One day, Erik drove three hours to get a set of dumbbells,” Ms. Tutor says.

Once fully equipped, the gym gave Mr. Anderson a place to safely meet with clients and provided Ms. Tutor with a convenient space to workout. “I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a gym again,” she says.

Ms. Tutor is not alone.

Interest in Garage Gym Reviews, a website and social community that helps people create home gyms, has exploded since the pandemic’s onset. Site owner Cooper Mitchell says that its “diehard” Facebook group grew from 15,000 members to more than 100,000, while website traffic and YouTube subscribers increased fivefold.

“Gyms are reopening, but we’re not seeing a drop off,” Mr. Mitchell says.

The National Association of Home Builders found that 47 percent of homebuyers in 2020 considered a home gym essential or desirable.

“People are reevaluating their homes to be more inclusive to take care of themselves,” Ms. Tutor says.

Jason Friedman, a realtor with Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty on Long Island, says that home gyms have become a deciding factor for a lot of buyers. “We did have multiple instances where one home having a gym was the final push the buyer needed to transact on that property as opposed to other options without one,” he says.

Designers and architects are seeing similar demand. In the last 18 months, each of Chicago-based dSPACE’s 10 residential projects has included a dedicated fitness area. They range from 100-square-foot workout areas with smart equipment like Pelotons or Tonals to full-blown professional gyms with basketball courts. The spaces cost anywhere from $15,000 to well over $100,000, depending on the size and amenities included.

“A home gym becomes a lifestyle,” says Kevin Toukoumidis, dSPACE’s principal architect. “It offers more freedom.”

Acoustics and lighting are the top priorities for any exercise room, Mr. Toukoumidis adds, so the space is comfortable and noise is not disruptive to the rest of the home. Natural daylight is best when possible, but mirrors and a warmer temperature light can evoke a daytime feel.

Vancouver-based interior designer Stephanie Brown likes to add texture, like grasscloth or linen wallcovering, and warm materials like hardwood floors or panelled walls. She also suggests adding artwork and a statement piece of furniture, like a console table below a television. “Stack fitness magazines on top and stock bottled water to make it feel more like you’re at a hotel spa gym rather than a basement,” she says.

When it comes to gym equipment, Mr. Mitchell advises to buy “less and better,” and expect to spend around $1500 to $5,000. Choose pieces that you’ll actually use, even if it means spending more money. A Peloton, for example, will cost at least around $2200 before the membership. “But it’s worth it because it’s going to motivate you to actually use it,” he says. “Whereas a regular stationary bike may just end up being a coat hanger overtime.”

For one of Ms. Brown’s Maui-based clients, that meant indulging in a full line of products from Pent, a high-end exercise equipment company based in Poland. The pieces are made from carved walnut and brass, and a single 8-pound kettlebell costs US$396, while a full set of 20 dumbbells with a stand goes for US$18,680. “They look like jewelry,” Ms. Brown says. “Even if you’re not feeling the draw to workout, it makes it a more pleasant experience.”

Roxanna Kennedy, a member of Garage Gym Reviews from Florence, Ky., “refused to workout at home” prior to the pandemic, opting for in-person kickboxing classes instead. But after the birth of her second son last year, she didn’t have that option when she was looking for a way to lose weight. A personal trainer helped her choose the right weightlifting equipment, plus a heavy bag for boxing, and she turned a sunny corner of her basement into a gym. She’s down 43 pounds.

She has kept her membership to a commercial gym, but rarely uses it. With two children under the age of four, “childcare is a major barrier” for her. “I wake every morning at 5:45 and get a full workout completed, before I even wake up the kids and go to work,” Mrs. Kennedy says. “I wouldn’t have that option if I didn’t have a home gym.”

Lost for decades, an acoustic guitar John Lennon used at the height of the Beatles’ fame is going up for auction after being found in the attic of a home in the British countryside.

The 1965 Framus Hootenanny is arguably one of the most historically important guitars in the history of the Beatles, and was used on some of the group’s classic songs and played by Lennon in the movie Help! , released the same year.

The 12-string acoustic guitar will headline Julien’s Auctions Music Icons event on May 29 and 30 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, the auction house announced Tuesday morning in London.

Darren Julien, the firm’s co-founder and executive director, expects the Framus to exceed its presale estimate of between US$600,000 and US$800,000 and says it could set a new record for the highest-selling Beatles guitar, a record his auction house set nearly a decade ago.

The guitar was found earlier this year.
Rupert Hitchcox/Julien’s auctions

“Julien’s sold a John Lennon [Gibson J-160E] guitar in 2015 for US$2.4 million, and because this, historically speaking, is a more significant guitar, our expectation is that this guitar—played by John Lennon and George Harrison on the Help! album and other recordings—will be in the top five most expensive guitars ever sold at auction,” Julien says. “It’s likely the last chance for someone to buy and personally own an iconic John Lennon/George Harrison guitar.”

While equating its discovery to that of a “lost Rembrandt or Picasso,” Julien believes this is the greatest find of a Beatles guitar since Paul McCartney ’s lost 1961 Höfner bass, which was returned to him in February after it had been stolen in 1972.

The rediscovered Framus was famously seen in the 1965 film Help! , and was used in recording sessions for classics such as “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “It’s Only Love” and “I’ve Just Seen A Face.” It was also played by George Harrison on the rhythm track for “Norwegian Wood” on the 1966 album Rubber Soul .

According to the auction house, by the late-1960s the guitar was in the possession of Gordon Waller of the British pop duo Peter & Gordon, who later gave it to their road managers. The instrument was recently discovered in an attic in rural Britain where it sat forgotten and unplayed for more than 50 years. After finding the guitar in the midst of a move, the homeowners contacted Julien’s.

Along with co-founder Martin Nolan, Julien traveled to the U.K. and immediately recognised that it was the storied Help! guitar. While on the premises, they also discovered the original guitar case in the trash and rescued it. It’s an Australian-made Maton case that can be seen in photos taken of The Beatles in 1965 The sale of the guitar is accompanied by the case and a copy of the book The Beatles: Photographs From The Set of Help by Emilo Lari.

In addition to Lennon’s acoustic Gibson J-160E—which fetched three times its presale estimate—Julien’s has broken multiple Beatles records, including Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit (which sold for US$2.2 million), the drumhead played on the Ed Sullivan Show (US$2.2 million), and a personal copy of the White Album , (US$790,000), all of which sold in 2015.

Julien’s also holds the record for the world’s most expensive guitar ever sold at auction: Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic electric guitar, which sold in 2020 for US$6 million.

More than 1,000 pieces of music memorabilia will also be part of the auction, including items used by the likes of AC/DC, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Judas Priest, Heart, Queen, and Tupac Shakur.

Sartorial highlights include custom dresses worn by Tina Turner (Versace) and Amy Winehouse (Fendi), both of which are expected to sell for between US$4,000 and $6,000, and Michael Jackson’s stage-worn “Billie Jean” jacket from 1984’s Victory Tour (presale estimate: US$80,000 to $100,000).

Bidders will have the chance to buy items benefitting a pair of U.K. charities. Several collectibles from The Who and other British musicians will be sold to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust, and an assortment of memorabilia—ranging from a Stella McCartney dress worn by Helen Mirren and an Armani jacket stage-worn by Phil Collins to artwork created and signed by Pierce Brosnan—will be offered to help fund the King’s Trust.

Rounding out the two-day auction is Randy Bachman’s collection of more than 200 museum-quality guitars. Known for his role in The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the Canadian rock star used the instruments on hits such as “These Eyes,” “Takin’ Care of Business,” “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” and “American Woman.”

The public can view the Help! guitar and other auction highlights at Hard Rock Cafes in London (April 23-29) and New York City (May 22-28).

Home Gyms Hit Their Stride During Covid

Some homeowners are vowing to ‘never go back’ to the gym after building their own fitness spaces.