Well IMO a brick wall paper will do nothing for light and a home gym needs mirrors on at least one wall , and track lighting is the cheapest route to take if everything is now finished . As for paint finish i can’t see that it matters too much but I usually like matte paint on walls. But really why such a dark color in a room with no natural light , makes no sense to me.

Hello myndfulnys,

Sounds like you're going for a industrial type of design for your gym. And I love that color blue! I would also suggest their matte flat finish. Good luck!

Karen Haggard, CID

Semi-gloss or eggshell. Flat is a bad choice because it will scuff easily and show marks all over it. You want a durable coating that you can wipe down without marring it up. Flat wont help distribute light either. If its gonna see any kind of real abuse like weight plates being leaned against it then i'd consider an exterior based semi-gloss.

We did a multi-colored paint scheme for our home gym, somewhat coordinated with our local pro sports team's colors:

We were concerned about using darker colors so we stayed with brighter accent colors for each end, and a light gray for the larger wall spans.

We used a durable semi-gloss that would stand up to abuse, since our kids bounce around in the gym quite a bit, and it's held up well for nearly three years so far.

More details here:

http://havingfunalongtheway.com/basement-home-gym-paint-job-that-pops/

At my gym the wall behind the weight plates (which are stacked/centered on PVC pipe), is totally trashed - scuff marks and wrecked sheetrock so I would not use matte for the same reason Precision Paint above states. (Hopefully a home gym won't get as beat up either! That being said, I love my gym!). I agree with Patricia as well regarding the brick look. Seems like a light suck. Our gym has no mirrors, but we have great coaches!