How To Create a Peaceful and Relaxing Zen Bedroom

July 5, 2010 – 7:35 am


For many of us who live a hectic fast paced lifestyle, coming home to a soothing and relaxing bedroom retreat is a luxury that we can only dream of. These tips will help you create a calming zen bedroom design that will look like you hired a pro.

If you want a relaxing environment, then neutral colors and rich textures are the key. Pick sage green, or tan as a base and go with that. If you like grays you can even use a palette of gray, although this color can be kind of cold. Pick a color that you can use on both the walls and floors as it is desirable to make them the same color. Take your cue from nature and use colors that you might find in a soothing setting outdoors.

You’ll want to accent the room with plants, soothing waterfall bowls and candles to complete the look and feel. Perhaps a meditation mat in front of a candle fireplace?

Choose plain furniture for your Zen bedroom – if your current furniture is old and distracting and you don‘t want to buy new, paint it a neutral color that goes with your color scheme. Think about adding some Japanese paper panels in front of any pieces that detract. If your old furniture just won’t suit the room but you are on a limited budget, shop around at your local consignment store for pieces that match. You may have to go every day but sooner or later that perfect set is bound to show up!

You want your Zen bedroom design to have a monochromatic look with different shades of the same color, but you an add some punch with a complimentary accent color which you can spread around in pillows, wall art and vases in a few places around the room (not too much).

The window treatments should be light and flowing – simple sheers in white that flow down to the floor would work. Lighting should be calming and not distracting – something with clean square lines and very simple.

Now if you are thinking your Zen bedroom is going to be looking pretty plain, you can use your bedding to add some interest. You want to keep with a monochromatic look to the bedding, but you can make it stick out by using layers of color that are a subtle shade off and rich quality fabrics. Try some sheets or a comforter that has a design embroidered or embossed in the same color as the fabric. Add interest by using materials with a nice texture – crisp cotton, soft velvet or dupioni silk can add interest and be soothing to the touch and comfy to relax in!

Accents are what make a room unique so your Zen bedroom deserves some relaxing accessories. Not too many though as you want to avoid clutter. How about a soothing tabletop waterfall or some aromatherapy candles? You can buy structures that hold candles in sort of a pyramid and create a faux fireplace with candles as the feature. Or maybe you want a mini Zen garden? Use a small coffee table and put a sand garden with mini rake on top. A shoji screen can work to divide the room or add a nice accent to a corner – you can make them yourself using rice paper and wood.

By admin | Posted in Bedroom Furniture | Comments (0)

The Bar Stool: The Ultimate Home Kitchen Extra

July 4, 2010 – 7:24 pm


The home kitchen is a part of the home that enjoys an unusually high amount of attention within the field of home design and furnishing: it is the area of the home where food and liveliness abound, and therefore the kitchen understandably brings out the best in people and their home. Over recent years, kitchen design has gone through some radical, exciting changes, and today’s models of kitchen furniture and decorations are incredibly pleasing. There has been a marked trend towards adding a home bar to the kitchen or next to it, independent of the dining table, with bar stools included. The mood that this sort of arrangement can accomplish for your home is very enjoyable, classy, and is sure to be a winning combination in any home.

Bar stools themselves are a wonderful item of furniture. They utilize space economically, they are ideal for both sitting and standing situations, and-when done right-they are incredibly comfortable. The bar stool has traditionally been used for accommodating large amounts of people in restricted spaces, yet there has been a tendency toward including the bar stool into the home furniture line up, and the results have been wonderful all around. There are now more styles of bar stool available than ever before, and no matter what kind of kitchen or home bar area you have, there will be a kind of bar stool that will optimally suit your home aesthetics.

Modern styles have generally tended towards high-perched bar stools, well over the 30″ mark, with relatively high lower footrest bars. These kinds of stools are preferable for a home kitchen with a bar that is also relatively high standing, with the effect being that the room itself takes on a slightly more drastic air. Of course, whether or not you will want to have high stools and a high bar will depend on what kind of house you have. With a kitchen and dining area with very high ceilings, then it will be a good idea-aesthetically speaking-to have a high bar with high stools; a low-ceiling kitchen area will of course be better suited towards a mid-level bar and stools, at around the 25-30″ range.

Materials will ultimately define what kind of bar stools you want to get for your home (or, if you happen to be a business owner, your bar or restaurant perhaps), and today, thankfully, it is pretty easy to find bar stools made of high-quality, sturdy materials for relatively reasonable prices. Classic looking bar stools usually are made of deep, richly toned wood though it is increasingly common to see metal (or partly metal) stools, which increase sturdiness. As far as cushioning is concerned, it is pretty common to see polyurethane foam being used for the seat itself, though older bar stools will probably use some other material for the cushioning.

No matter what kind of bar stool you do end up buying, be sure to take a look at as many different options as possible beforehand, as you will be surprised at just how many different kinds of bar stools there actually are out there.

By admin | Posted in Leather Furniture | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Soccer Practice Drills

July 1, 2010 – 3:45 am


Practice is the key to success in soccer and if you look at most of the top players in today’s game, they’re people who work hard for the skills they show on the pitch, often taking training to levels beyond the team’s sessions.

David Beckham said that he spent (and probably still spends) several hours per week beyond training, practicing his brilliant free kicks. Juninho Pernambucano, one of today’s best long range snipers practices shots after hours, from various ranges. And don’t think that Ronaldinho or Cristiano Ronaldo’s superb dribbling skills were all obtained during team practice, they’re also the result of long hours spent with the ball outside of the normal program.

So if you’re striving to better yourself and become a quality soccer player, it’s mandatory that you practice using soccer drills, either individually, pairing up with a teammate, or with a group of friends or teammates. I’ve prepared 3 fun soccer practice drills for each of these setups, hopefully you’ll find them useful in your training plan.

1. Soccer Drill for Individual Practice – Juggling

Juggling the ball may not have any accurate use in a match, because you’ll rarely (if ever) find yourself the space, time and need to juggle a ball more than twice during a game. However, soccer juggling affects a lot of other base soccer skills and it’s also one of the easiest and fun soccer practice drills to try out individually.

Soccer juggling affects your ball control ability, since by constantly keeping the ball in the air, you get to naturally understand how hard or soft the ball needs to be hit in order to control it. In-game, this affects your ability to stop and receive balls, as well as your dribbling skills, which often rely on how well you judge the strength and timing of your touch.

Other skills that soccer juggling has a positive effect on include balance, concentration and the ability to control the ball with both feet. Of all soccer drills for individual practice, juggling has the most benefic effects, so it’s well worth saving up a few minutes every day to juggle, either after practice, or even in your back yard.

2. Soccer Practice Drills for Pairs – One on One Dribbling

One on one dribbles work especially well when practiced in a pair. During a match, there will be countless occasions where you’ll need to take on an opponent one by one and the only way to practice this is with the help of a friend or a teammate.

It’s best if your training pair plays on a complementary position, as in someone that you would usually have to dribble against in a match. If you’re an attacker or offensive midfielder, you’ll want to practice one on ones with a defender, or defensive midfielder. Same concept goes the other way around.

It could also be a good idea to switch sides every now and then. After you play the attacker and try to get the ball past your pair, switch positions so that you’re the defender and he has the ball. This allows you to develop your attacking and defensive skills as you practice.

Also, in order to make this soccer practice drills more fun, you could keep a score. Whenever the attacker passes the ball past the defender, he gets a point. If the defender takes the ball away or stops the attack, he gets a point. Whoever reaches 10 points wins and you get to switch sides and start over.

3. Soccer Practice Drills for Groups – One Touch Passing

If you can find 3 or more teammates to get this soccer practice drill going, it will soon work out wonders to your passing, ball control and agility skills during matches. Here’s how it works (I’ll assume you have 5 more teammates to work with):

Split yourselves into 2 groups of 3, aligned face to face at a distance of a few yards. Group A starts, with the first player in the line passing the ball to the first player in Group B. After delivering the pass, the first player in Group A moves to the back of the line. The player in Group B receives the ball and one-touches it back to what should now be the second player in Group A and then moves to the back of his own line.

Do this as fast as possible and as accurate as possible, without needing more than one touch. You can play with different distances between the groups and once you get accustomed to the system, you can try passing the ball in mid-air, without allowing it to touch the ball and without the need for a stop. This is harder, as the passes need to be more accurate in order for the soccer practice drill to work.

By admin | Posted in Club Furniture | Tagged , , | Comments (0)