• Home
  • Blog
  • Archive
  • Links
  • About
  • Guest Blogger
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Home and Garden Diva

  • Home and family
  • Health and Fitness
    • Beauty
  • Home Improvement
  • Entertainment
  • House and Home
You are here: Home / Archives for ideas

3 Ultimate Chill-Out Zone Ideas For Your Home

by Trish

Ah, the woes of modern life! We all seem to be caught up in an endless sequence that involves juggling work pressure, dealing with financial issues, family, and other social obligations, all at the same time. All these factors cause a lot of physical stress and mental strain, majorly due to lack of adequate sleep and poor eating habits – basically, a rather unhealthy lifestyle. In such situations it is imperative to take some time out to relax, unwind and refresh yourself. But once again, by the time your weekend off approaches, you’re hardly left with any energy to go for an outing, isn’t it? You’d rather stay indoors and laze around. Not a problem. If you don’t have the energy to step outdoors to loosen up a bit and indulge in some fun and recreation, why not bring the fun and recreation home to you instead? Yes, it is possible. Have a look at the following few home recreation ideas to build your very own chill-out zone at home!

A bar in the basement

Have you got a basement at your property? Has it been lying neglected and abandoned for as long as you can remember? Why not give it a brilliant makeover and turn it into an amazing bar! Imagine chilling in your basement with your mates over the weekend, enjoying a few pints and watching your favorite sport on television. You could utilize your personal bar to host small parties and gatherings to socialize with family members or close friends. Or maybe on a weekday, after a tiring day at work, you could just unwind in the bar with a soothing glass of wine. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it?

Swimming pool in the yard

Swimming in color

If you have a large backyard or even if you have an extended terrace, you could consider getting a swimming pool constructed. Depending upon the amount of space available there are plenty of interesting swimming pool designs you could choose from. Whether you want to relax in the pool on a hot Sunday afternoon, have a pool side barbecue party with your friends in the evening, or just have a fun session in the pool with your kids and wife, getting a swimming pool constructed at your property is one decision you will never regret. Moreover, it will also go on to add to the aesthetic value of your home.

A gaming room – up in the attic or out in the garage

wall invaders

When it comes to relaxing and unwinding, nothing comes close to the ultimate chill-out zone – a gaming room! How about cleaning up your attic and turning it into a fantastic gaming room? Or maybe you could take up the same project in your garage instead, if that’s more convenient. Having a personal gaming zone at home can be epic – an ideal way to escape from daily stress, office tensions and pesky partners! The main things that could go into your game room would be a pool table, darts, a television set for gaming and movies, a couple of cozy sofas, a mini fridge to store soft drinks, milkshakes or beers, and a few table games like Checkers, Uno, Jenga and Monopoly.

So say goodbye to stress and anxiety by investing in these incredible home relaxation and recreation ideas – a permanent solution to all your modern life woes.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Jennifer Atkinson is a house wife and loves to keep her home neat and tidy. Along with the usual activities that she undertakes to keep her house clean she also has a chill out zone i.e a swimming pool in her house where she unwinds after the days work. She suggests using the services of Sunbreaker pools if you want to construct a swimming pool at your place. She also likes to blog about various household issues.

Filed Under: Health and Fitness, Home and family, Home Improvement Tagged With: chill out, gaming room, home, ideas, lifestyle, relax, swimming pool, unwind

Quality Gift Ideas To Buy For Your Friends

by Trish



Your best friends seem to always be there for you when you need them the most.  They have seen you at your best of times and they have refused to leave your side through the worst of times.


Therefore, it is truly not surprising, then, why so many people around the globe vigorously search each year for something to give their best friends as a gift and overall token of their appreciation and gratitude. The main problem enters into the equation when the potential gift giver has no idea what gift to give to the recipient.

Here are some quality gifts that your friends will more than likely enjoy coming from you as their friend.

A Gift Card to Their Favorite Store

There many people that may disagree with offering a gift card as a gift, claiming that it is a tacky idea.

However, this dynamic completely shifts in the opposite direction if the gift card is chosen wisely. How is that even possible? Buying a random gift card from the first store that pops up into your head as the closest store available is tacky.

However, buying a gift card from the store that you know your friend shops at all of the time is pure genius and truly is a great gift idea.

A Day for Spa Treatment and Massages

Another great gift idea for your friends is to treat them to the relaxing and peaceful experience of having a trip to a high quality day spa that also specializes in giving body massages to their clients. Your friend more than likely works hard day in and day out to make sure that their family is provided for and that they are there for their friends, such as you.

However, many people feel neglected and overlooked in this regard because they never get a chance to relax on their own. By inviting them to a day spa and massage therapy, you will be able to give them the gift of relaxation that they probably have been craving for months and even years.

There’s Always Jewelry

You can never go wrong with choosing to get your friend a beautiful, quality jewelry item. When it comes to women, diamonds are a girl’s best friend but women do seem to be more flexible in this regard. Do not think that women are the only ones that appreciate receiving jewelry items as gifts, because there are many different quality providers at the mall that can further assist you.

If you want a great deal on a great ring for a man, many customers and critics alike have highly recommended Mens Tungsten Online.

Mens Tungsten Online has a wide variety of rings and ring designs to choose from in order to maintain your masculinity while wearing the wrong but still adding a touch of class and style to your wardrobe ensemble.

There are just so many different gift ideas that you can use in order to come up with some great gifts for your friends as well as lovers. You just need to match what you can afford with what you know your friend will greatly appreciate.

Adam is a content writer that writes articles, blogs, reports and eBooks for such topics as entertainment, relationships, finance and fashion. He is an expert when it comes to providing helpful tips in regards to quality gift ideas and recommends Mens Tungsten Online for most jewelry purchases for men.

Filed Under: Home and family, Shopping Tagged With: friends, gift card, gift ideas, ideas, jewelry, massage, spa

Top 3 Basement Renovation Ideas That Will Make The Basement Your Favorite Place In The World

by Trish

Is your basement a dark, dingy, and damp area which is used only as a utility room or a storage dump? Is it a shady neglected area where the only occasional visitor is a solitary spider and where the only resident according to your children, is a three-eyed monster who looks more like a mix between SpongeBob SquarePants and an amoeba? No, this is not happening at all. Its time you rolled up your socks and considered transforming your abandoned basement into something fun, constructive and entertaining. There are plenty of remodeling concepts and ideas that you could implement on your basement. Here are a few:

Pool table

Gaming Zone

Probably the most exciting thing you could do to your basement is to convert it into a game room – the perfect get-away from stress, homework, nagging girlfriends and other worldly issues. It can be a place where you can just chill with your mates after work or school. You can adorn the game room with a cozy sofa and a television set for video gaming and watching movies. The other portion of the room could have a pool table or a table-tennis table, or both, depending on the space available and your budget. You could also include other games like darts, foosball, and some table games like Monopoly, chess, checkers and backgammon. So why spend money every time going to the mall or the gaming zone when you can have your very own game room in your basement!

Untitled

Basement Bar

Why not charm all your friends and guests with an attractive and wonderful basement bar? Turning your basement into a cozy drinks bar can be an amazing idea. A fantastic way to unwind with your favorite drink after a long day at work, a basement bar will also come in handy to host small parties and fun gatherings with friends and family members. You can choose from a variety of incredible bar designs and exclusive bench-tops to give your bar that classy and elegant look. You could also add to the charm by putting a billiards table and a television set where you can enjoy a few beers with your mate over a game of football. So if you’re looking to give your basement a splendid makeover, an awesome basement bar might just be what you’re looking for!

Home Library/Study

My Game Collection

Is reading your favorite way to spend time? After a long day at work, do you like unwinding with your favorite novel and a glass of wine? Well why not consider turning your basement into a library? With the perfect lighting, study lamps and comfortable sofas, you could create just the right cozy ambience of a library. You could arrange racks and built-in shelves to accommodate your mounting collection of books which currently seem to be scattered all over your house. Your personal library could also station a couple of computers with internet access to help you with your research work and basic surfing or for your kids to do their school projects and other study work. Having a basement library is an awesome way to read all your favorites in your own personal haven of knowledge.

There are so many more such incredible remodeling ideas that your basement could offer, such as a home gym, kids play area/nursery, a home theatre etc. So what are you waiting for? Get into action and start working on your basement’s cracking makeover.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Patrick Hugo is an interior designer by profession and whenever he finds time, he writes to help people improve their lifestyle by unconventional yet cost-effective methods. His designs mainly include bar design, basement renovation, pool design and others.

Filed Under: Home Decor, Home Improvement, Interior Design, Renovating Tagged With: basement, basement bar, basement renovations, comfortable, favorite place, friends, Furniture, gaming zone, home library, ideas, Lighting, money, relax, remodeling, reno, study

5 Great Things You Can Do With Your Garden This Summer That Will Make It Look Great

by Trish

Have you thought about what your garden is going to look like this summer? When people think about making some great changes to their home it’s always to the inside and the garden is merely an afterthought. That could be something people regret once the sun comes back because they’re going to be spending a lot more time outside. Sitting inside all day when it’s sunny is enough to drive you insane, so if you’re spending all that time outside you want it to be somewhere that’s beautiful.

Why don’t you take this time to think of all the wonderful changes you can make in your garden? It doesn’t need to be something that costs a lot of money and it can still look great if it doesn’t. There are things you can do that will suit all budgets. It’s probably a good idea to go over some things you can do right now. It will plant the idea of making changes in your head and perhaps you might like some of the ideas suggested. Get out your notepad, take some notes and you could be enjoying yourself a lot more than last summer.

Build yourself a pond

They put me here to try to make the world better

When you decide to build a pond you get to put your creative hat on because you can do anything you like. They can be big and fancy like something you’d find in a Japanese garden, or it can be a small hole in the ground with water in it. The choice is up to you and the sky is the limit. They also don’t usually cost much provided you do the work yourself and you don’t fill it with expensive fish. You also need to remember than having a water feature in the garden is a big responsibility if you have children running around.

Paint your fingers green

Your garden might look plain just now, but if you decided to get green fingers you could turn it into a work of art. Looking after flowers is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your garden, but remember that it’s not easy. If flowers are not your thing then maybe you could grow your own vegetables instead. Sometimes it’s nicer putting in all that work if you can be rewarded with food at the end of the day. It’s your garden so you can grow anything you want.

Lay a patio

terrace August 2006

It’s always nice to have a patio if you’ve always been used to grass everywhere you look when you go outside. It turns into a great place to eat your dinner in the evenings during summer because you can buy a proper table and chairs. You can also keep a barbeque on the patio and invite people around for food whenever you want. Of course you can do all this on the grass, but there’s just something about a proper patio that makes it a better option.

Give it the once over

Sometimes you don’t even need to add anything new to your garden to make it look great. Taking away all the crap that’s lying around is enough. You could go one better and paint everything so it looks like the day you moved in. When you’re cleaning out all the crap you do realize you won’t think of it in this way? You’ll think it’s all great stuff, so keep your emotions in check and throw out everything that you don’t need.

Treat yourself to something special

Everything we’ve talked about up until now is just a few nice things you can do to make your garden look nicer. You always have the option of treating yourself to something special, but this option is only available if you have enough money. I’m talking about a swimming pool, sauna, hot-tub, or anything else that would take your breath away every time you went outside. If you do have the money sometimes treating yourself is exactly what you need.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.andertoons.com
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Jeff Kruger is the owner of a famous Mower Shop in Perth which specializes in custom designed turf equipments to make your yard look great. He spends his free time blogging and watching rugby.

Filed Under: Garden decor, Gardening, The yard Tagged With: ;changes, barbecue, flowers, garden, great things, ideas, Japanese garden, paint, patio, plants, pond, summer, sun, vegetables

How to Come Up With Amazing Ideas for Your Garden

by Trish

For many of us coming up with a layout for our garden is a speedy and routine process. In most cases we will go with the normal design conventions that gardens tend to feature (a patio, a lawn and perhaps some flowers around the edge) and will be happy to keep our garden pretty much the way it was when we moved into the property.

Of course doing this though means that we won’t be taking full advantage of the space, and would mean missing out on many of the great opportunities that a garden presents. Here then we will look at some ways that you can come up with a garden design that will be more creative and that will help you to take full advantage of the space.

Look Around

Of course the first thing you can do to get ideas for your garden is to look around other gardens. This will mean visiting friends, looking around garden centres, or just browsing images of gardens online in order to get a feel for the kind of thing you like and that you might want for your garden. You may find a garden that you want to practically replicate for yourself, or you might just spot particular features and items that you want to use instead. Either way, this is a great place to find inspiration.

Use a Mood Board

(moj) FLAJER / (my) flyer

In any interior – or in this case exterior – design, a mood board can be a very useful tool for coming up with a design you’re happy with. Essentially a mood board is a collage that you create by taking images, photographs and words and attaching them to the page. This way you can start to come up with a general ‘theme’ that you want for your garden and start to get an idea of the colours, the features and the ‘style’ that you want to employ. If nothing else this is a great way to communicate to your landscaping contractors the kind of feel you want for them to work from.

Research

Researching what’s possible in a garden and the kinds of additional features and things you can get for them is another way to expand your horizons and to come up with new ideas. For instance you may never have heard of the ‘office pod’ which is essentially a pod that you can place at the end of your garden to create an enclosed working space. It’s very modern and very cool and completely changes the way you view what’s possible in your garden. Likewise researching the plants you can grow in your climate and your soil can help you to get a realistic idea of what you want to grow in your garden.

Sketch

Less involved than a mood board but just as useful is to simply sketch out some ideas, and as you start to find the features and the items you want for your garden you can use a sketch to come up with an actual layout and a plan for where you want them all and how they’ll work with your larger design.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Sharon King is a home improvement expert and says that it is a great idea to try new things while designing. She also says that you can take help from landscaping company while designing your garden.

Filed Under: Garden decor, Landscaping, The yard Tagged With: amazing, flowers, garden, garden centers, garden design, ideas, lawn, patio, photographs, plan, plants, Property, sketch

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Connect with Us

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Categories

Sites to Visits

pool leak detection – colin irons is the leader in pool repair and replacement

Recent Posts

  • How to Use and Maintain a Moroccan Rug
  • Bathroom Remodeling Requires A Plan Before Taking Any Actions
  • How To Update Your Kitchen Without Spending A Fortune?
  • Four Awesome Ways To Get Rid Of Stretch Marks
  • Boutique Real Estate: How Stephen Finfer and Others Are Revolutionizing the L.A. Housing Market
  • Improve Your Home With Window Furniture
  • The Male Guide To Jewellery

Recent Comments

  • The start of another Staycation — Home and Garden Diva on I can’t believe I have Arthritis in my knee
  • Making Sure Your Garden Is Safe This Summer — You are in My World Now on Keeping Your Pool Area Safe, Comfortable And Fun For All The Family!
  • Nicola Jackson on Turn Your House Into A Home By Making It As Comfortable As Possible To Live In
  • will on Turn Your House Into A Home By Making It As Comfortable As Possible To Live In
  • The Diva on Eight Tips For Home Office Design
  • The Diva on I think we need to do more renovations
  • Home and Garden Blogger on I think we need to do more renovations

Subscribe

Subscribe to our RSS Feed - FREE!
Subscribe by Email. It's FREE!
Follow me on Twitter!

Traffic Stats

0fdbcc8c9b8460df11a3387ae0a92e72-332

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Tags

basement bed bedroom clean cleaning clutter dog exercise family fitness flowers friends Furniture garden Health help home house husband ideas Kitchen laptop Lighting money Music neighborhood neighbors party plants room Shopping sick skin spring summer tips tired Toronto Travel tv Vacation walking warm winter work

Pages

  • About
  • Archive
  • Become a Guest Blogger For Home and Garden Diva
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Links
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in