Living Room Gym: Planter / Cable Pulley

I wanted to have a rowing machine. I would really have preferred to have it in the living room, right next to our TV, so I could do some light training while watching a movie with my family. For some reason my wife wasn't thrilled about the idea of a huge rowing machine taking up half of our rather compact living room, and I could see she had a point. So I made my own version, the Pulley Plant, a cable pulley / mini rowing machine disguised as a hanging planter: Takes up almost no space at all, and is very nearly pretty enough for the living room - at least our not-so-formal living room.

• Rope. Mine is about 6mm thick.
• Pulleys. Get at least the size appropriate for your rope. The bigger the wheel is, the better it works.
• Weights. I use 4 x 2,5kg iron discs, but you can also use water, sand, gravel.
• Planter.
• Plant. I planted a Peperomia.

I had some iron weights left over (4 x 2,5kg), and I bought a planter that fits them. Plus I liked the color.

I bought a little macrame set for a hanging planter. You can make your own and save a bit of money. (The pillow underneath is only there to keep the pot in one piece throughout the construction process.)

In theory you would attach a pulley to the wall, a pulley to the ceiling, and you would be set. I had complications. A floating shelf liked to hang out right between my optimal Pulley Plant position. I drilled a hole into the shelf, and routed my rope right through the shelf. This resulted in another complication because now the rope was in the way of the weighted planter; I added another pulley to pull the rope closer to the wall. The most important thing is that you find a ceiling joist and a wall stud to attach your pulleys to, it will need to take a lot of weight, so attaching to just a drywall sheet is out of the question.

I just took up all the little strings and tied them to the big rope using the only knot I knew. I put a little plastic container for the plant in the planter. I didn't want my iron weights to get wet when watering the plant, so there are no holes in the container.

Once you figure out the proper height for the planter to hang, you'll make a knot next to the last pulley to make sure the planter doesn't fall too low. The Pulley Plant is a very interesting plaything to all the children of the neighborhood, and they will let it freefall down from the top position, so make sure the knot stops your weights from crushing your tabletop - or your laptop.

I chose a Peperomia 'Pepperspot' because it needs to survive without much light and water, and it looks nice hanging out of its planter. Or it will, once it's a bit older.

The handle is a wooden rod, with bicycle handlebar grips.

Once you've finished your Pulley Plant hidden gym, you'll notice that you can not in fact watch TV while using it, because of all the incessant squeaking from the pulleys. I was really disheartened by the noise, there goes all my hard work down the drain! Finally I managed to solve the issue by lubricating the pulleys, but it was a close call. :)

Thank you for reading! If you have your own disguised gym equipment, I would be very happy to hear about it!