Looking to incorporate feng shui into your home? This traditional Chinese practice can help you lay out, design, and decorate your home to promote positive energy throughout all aspects of your life. From where to place your bed to how to decorate your entryway, here are 17 feng shui rules you need to know!
Consult the Bagua
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The Bagua Map is a feng shui tool used to identify the eight important categories or aspects of life energy in your environment. There are simple ways to incorporate the map and enhance the energy in each area. For example, if your living room aligns with wealth, you should decorate with items that reflect things you’re grateful for or seek an abundance of, such as framed photos of people or places you love. Or if your office aligns with wisdom, you should decorate with belongings that cultivate knowledge.
Find the Right Elements
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One way feng shui promotes balance is by using the five elements: fire, earth, metal, wood, and water. Flowers, plants and trees, and wood furniture are all great ways to incorporate wood into your home to harness creativity. Try adding candles or shades of red and orange to maximize the fire element. Decorate with earth tones to generate feelings of grounding, balance, and stability. Water features like aquariums or fountains can inspire wisdom and insightfulness. And metal furniture and circular mirrors are great ways to improve clarity and logic. All five elements are important to consider when organizing and decorating your home according to feng shui rules.
Use the Right Colors
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Colors also play a considerable role in feng shui interior design and can impact your home’s energy in different rooms. Green, purple, and teal promote family harmony and wealth. White invites joy, completion, and clarification into the room. Pink encourages new relationships, softness, understanding, and mends the heart. Each color and what it represents are important to consider when choosing paint colors, fabric swatches, furniture, and home decor.
Declutter & Organize
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Clutter creates chi blockages or disruptions of energy flow throughout your home, so it’s important to declutter your space! Avoid putting obstacles in people’s paths when they walk down narrow hallways, as it represents obstacles in life. Keep your dining room table clear of clutter so that it’s an inviting hub for the family and friends you love. And try not to store anything under your bed (unless it’s linens) since anything underneath you while you sleep can affect your energy.
Create a Mouth of Chi
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Your front door is considered the mouth of chi, where energy enters your home, so the entryway is crucial in feng shui. It also represents your face to the world because it’s what people see from outside your house. That’s why it’s important to keep your doorway clean and clear of clutter. Opt for a brightly lit, open space in your entryway or foyer so you don’t overwhelm people when they walk into your home. And remember to keep all of your mats on both sides of the door clean!
Find the Command Position
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The goal of the command position is to identify the best furniture layout in any given room of your house so you can deal with whatever’s coming through the door and into your life. This is a simple, yet powerful tool in feng shui that can help you take charge of your space. It’s important to identify the biggest pieces of furniture in the room and locate the right command position in the layout. For example, if you’re designing your living room following these feng shui principles, place the sofa against a wall facing the door indirectly.
Focus on the Big Three
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According to feng shui rules, the three most vital rooms in your house are the bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. Bathrooms are crucial because they can become energy drains, which you can prevent by keeping the toilet seat shut and the bathroom door closed as often as possible. With bedrooms, the focus should be around your bed, so use a sturdy headboard for a greater sense of security, and make sure the bed is against a wall for a more grounding sleep. Meanwhile, your kitchen represents wealth, abundance, and health, so it’s good to keep it clean, free of clutter, and grease-free.
Remember Yin & Yang
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Yin and yang, simply put, is the combination of masculine and feminine elements. Yin represents passive energy like calm colors or soothing sounds, while yang represents active energy like bright colors or tall plants. Both energies are important because they cannot thrive alone. When it comes to decorating a passive room like your bedroom, you can balance with yang by adding some candles.
Choose the Right Directions
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Feng shui directions are based on compass directions and your birth information, and they’re used to provide good feng shui layouts for your home. Use your feng shui Kua numbers to identify the best direction for your energy flow. These directions can be used to attract money, success, good health, love, and personal growth in your life and can influence the layout of your room, such as where to put your bed or your desk.
Avoid Negative Energy with Layouts
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There are a few key layouts to avoid when designing your feng shui floor plan! Try not to put any bedrooms over the garage since garages are associated with an unsettling energy. Avoid putting bathrooms or storage rooms in the center of the house because, as the feng shui center, you should encourage positive energy flow in the heart of the home. Don’t divide the house in half with a hallway or staircase because it can create divisions in the household. And make sure your stove isn’t across from your sink so the elements of fire and water aren’t too close to each other.
Be Mindful of Doors
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Just like it’s necessary to keep your bathroom door shut, the other doors in your home are important to keep in mind, too. Try not to have your front and back door across from each other because chi can move too quickly through your house. Avoid arranging furniture in a way that forces you to have your back to the door, especially in a home office and living room—it can be too distracting and doesn’t allow you to see what’s coming into your life. Also, your bed shouldn’t be in line with the door, as this promotes restless sleep.
Watch Out for Poison Arrows
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Poison arrows produce sha chi—negative chi energy—that can disrupt your home, career, wealth, marriage, education, and more. Everything from your home placement to the shape of your furniture is something to keep in mind. Indoor poison arrows like sharp edges on furniture, protruding corners, and open shelves or exposed beams can often be fixed with leafy plants, rearranging furniture, or adding cabinet doors. L-shaped sectionals are also a common poison arrow in living rooms, so opt for traditional couches instead.
Use Mirrors Correctly
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Mirrors are a complex part of feng shui design, as there are several rules regarding where to put them in your home. Typically, mirror placement is best in the dining room because mirrors hold wealth. Try not to have mirrors directly facing windows because they can bring outside energies inside. Avoid having mirrors behind your sofa because it can hurt your sense of security. Mirrors in the kitchen can amplify negative energies, and if it’s facing the stove, it can create a yin-yang imbalance. You should also avoid mirrors in the bedroom because they can stir up energy.
Include Electronics Sparingly
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Electronics like TVs, computers, and speakers can bring positive chi into a room if they’re arranged properly and used sparingly. Consider storing electronics in a cabinet or console that can be closed when not in use. Make sure there’s a clear path around any electronics in a room. Keep wires untangled and contained in something like a cable management box or wire cover. And try to avoid having electronics in your bedroom, as TVs, phones, and laptops emit currents that can disrupt your sleep!
Choose Meaningful Furniture & Decor
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Feng shui can affect aspects of your life like health, wealth, family, or career. Think about what you’d like to accomplish with your feng shui design, and then find items that stimulate the chi flow for that. For example, you can improve the family aspect of your life by adding the wood element to your home with wooden furniture, live plants, and green accessories. To improve your career, decorate with awards and photos that remind you of your success, and keep positive chi energy flowing with the element of water.
Keep Up with General Upkeep
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There are little tasks you can regularly do to make sure you maintain feng shui balance and harmony in your home. Fix leaky faucets as soon as possible because they represent happiness and abundance dripping away. Always replace burnt-out lightbulbs because they reflect stress, poor finances, or bad health. Keep windows and doors clean and well-functioning so that energy flows properly. And immediately fix or replace broken furniture!
Incorporate Feng Shui Outside
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Maintaining your property outside can also help bring about positive energies! Make sure to keep your sidewalks clean, mow regularly, and replace any dead trees or plants. Add wind chimes near your patio or porch to promote healing. Consider water features like a waterfall, fountain, pond, or pool to invite wealth into the household. Or create a natural fence along the property line to keep noise, bad energy, and pollution away from your home!
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