Flooring for a Home Dance Space

We've had so many questions lately about where our dance flooring is from in our homes! The short answer is: it's Marley flooring! If you've been following us for a long time, you've seen Abby's at-home ballet space since the beginning of our YouTube videos in 2012! She's moved a few times since then, but can pack this up and move it with her so it's a super great setup for portability and a small space. In one of her moves I got to take a piece of flooring home with me, so I've had a version of this in my home for awhile now too!

So we're going to share two different ways you can create a home ballet space - one with a "sprung" floor and one without. But either way, you are going to want marley as your surface to dance on, so here are options of where to get that!

W H E R E  T O  G E T  M A R L E Y

Marely is the smooth, vinyl flooring you'll most likely find in the studio where you take class. It comes in large roll-out pieces, but you can get pieces of it in smaller sizes that's great for home use.

Abby's marley pieces are from greatmats.com. You can put in the dimensions you want for your space to get just enough of what you need! You can also get pieces from Harlequin Floors - they have a dance mat option that is 5ft x 6ft for $86. If you have enough space to get two or three of these you can tape them together with gaffer tape or the clear PVC tape they offer on their website.

(A cheaper alternative to marley flooring is shower pan liner, but, there has been discussion about toxins coming from this, so you might do some more research before you go that route!)

I F  Y O U  W A N T  A  S P R U N G  F L O O R

This is really the ideal situation so it's safer for jumping and this is what Abby uses in her home!

This is a simple three layer setup that starts with interlocking foam mats which you can find here or at your local home supply store like Home Depot or Lowe's. Get as many as you need to cover the amount of floor space you want or need.

On top of the gym mats you will need to put plywood sheets over the top to create a hard, flat surface. You can also find this at a home supply store like Home Depot or Lowe's. You can use heavy duty tape to adhesive multiple sheets next to each other!

And then on top of the plywood you'll put your pièce de résistance, marley floor!

Something to think about before you do this setup:
This will add height to your floor so if you have low ceilings and/or a ceiling fan, make sure you have enough head and arm room above you!


I F  Y O U  J U S T  W A N T  A  F L A T  S U R F A C E

If you don't want to go the full sprung floor route, you can just add a marely floor to your space! This is what Jana does in her home since she has wood floors and a low ceiling (with a ceiling fan too!). But if you have carpet, you can get plywood sheets to put on top of your carpet and then put the marely floor on top of that!

My marley piece is 6ft x 9 ft and it is all one piece, but you can still tape together a couple smaller pieces, or bigger pieces depending on how much space you have!

---------

If you need to store your dance floor, make sure you keep the tubing it comes wrapped around in or use something to keep it from creasing - I have a couple of "pinches" in my floor from it being stored improperly and I can't get those spots to go away!

Let us know if you have other questions about a home dance space!

Jana & Abby