This one’s been a long time coming. I think it was maybe three Christmases ago Jake bought some climbing holds and promised to build me a climbing wall in the basement. We’ve fallen out of our climbing habit because the gym is 45 minutes away and we both work full time, but we miss it. When we do have time to drive to a faraway gym, we’re so deconditioned that it’s barely worth it. It’s time to get our fingers back in shape!
Constructing a free-standing, dynamic weight-bearing structure is no easy task. Jake pooled all the engineering and construction knowledge out of our friend-base and with that support, over-engineered the framing to hold multiple people hanging and jumping off the thing. The back wall is on a 30-degree angle to maximize surface-area and difficulty.
Behind the wall, Jake hid shelves to hold some of our empty boxes, crutches, snowboards, and wedding decor. Things we don’t plan or need to access for a long time. I think the walls are plywood, and Jake had to hand-drill every hole on a grid. Then he had to hand-hammer in the T-nuts from the back-side. It was a noisy year.
When the walls were mounted, it was time for me to paint. Another lengthy process hampered by nice weather pulling me outside. To paint in the basement it had to be winter, dark, or raining. We wanted the walls textured and using neutral colors to give it that alpine-cave-feeling. I asked around for old paint and raided the Home Depot whoopsie clearance bin for cheap paint. I didn’t really care what colors I started with and ended up mixing my own beige and gray anyhow with what I found.
I’ll post photos of the finished paint design and more about texturing the walls next week!
