Design
A Quick Guide to Feng Shui
There's no scientific evidence for feng shui's claims, and the scientific community considers it a pseudoscience. But you don't need to believe in its mystical side to learn from its practical one.
Most cultures pass down survival advice, and more often than not it's simple common sense: build your cottage too close to a cliff and it might fall; build your bungalow too close to the ocean and the tide may wash it away. Living in harmony with your environment begins with guidelines like these.
No culture has taken this further than the Chinese, who developed feng shui into an intricate system for bringing a home into harmony with its surroundings. We've found that studying it teaches a lot about interior design. Here are its basic principles and tools, followed by a few tips for bringing more feng shui into your home.
The Three Basic Principles
1. Qi (Pronounced "Chee")
Qi is another word for energy: the ever-changing, flowing force that surrounds us, and one reason we feel good or bad in certain spaces. Qi tends to collect in certain objects, so adjusting the Qi of a room sometimes means removing or adding objects. Qi enters through doors and flows out through windows, so one goal of feng shui is to keep it flowing gently through your home rather than rushing through or getting blocked.
2. The Five Elements
The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water. They interact in productive and destructive cycles, and each is represented by colors, which makes color the easiest way to apply them:
- Wood: green, brown
- Fire: red, strong yellow, orange, purple, pink
- Earth: light yellow, sandy and earthy tones, light brown
- Metal: white, gray
- Water: blue, black
3. The Bagua
The bagua is a map laid over the floor plan of a home, dividing it into areas that each relate to a part of life. Practitioners use it to decide the best place for objects.
The Basic Tools of Feng Shui
Practitioners have a variety of tools for balancing the Qi in a home or office, and no single one is more effective than another. It depends on personal preference and the balance of each in your home.
- Color fills our world with emotion and has an incredible ability to shape a space. In feng shui, it's mainly used to represent and balance the five elements, much as interior designers use it to set the mood of a room.
- Sound is a powerful tool. A mother's soothing voice can put a baby to sleep, while the beep of a smoke alarm can drive anyone to distraction. Sound can lift the Qi of a space, and it can soothe or create stress in a home.
- Light, especially natural light like sunlight and fire, is a simple way to bring more Qi into a space. Adjustable lighting lets you change the mood in a moment, like dimming the dining room lights before a romantic dinner. Feng shui can be as simple as that.
- Art of any kind, whether a painting, sculpture or textile, can enhance the Qi. What you choose and where you place it depends on the area of the bagua you want to activate.
- Plants and flowers relieve stress, and the BBC has reported on research linking gardening with a longer life. Well-placed house plants change how a room feels, so choose plants whose color suits the bagua area you want to activate.
- Water is crucial; feng shui literally means "wind and water." Fountains, aquariums and ponds are common, often near the entrance. Fish represent wealth, so a fish pond by the front door with water flowing toward the center of the home is considered a powerful way to attract abundance.
- Wind-sensitive objects like chimes and weather vanes are said to attract Qi. For example, if you need a metal element in the south area of the bagua, tradition suggests a metal wind chime with nine bells, nine being the feng shui number for the south.
- Mirrors and crystals are used to correct structural flaws or where there's no room for another remedy. They can also be combined with other tools, like a crystal wind chime or crystals in an entryway fountain.
10 Feng Shui Tips for Your Home
1. Clean Up Clutter
Research has linked clutter to higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Keep your space clean and get rid of unnecessary objects, and you can literally remove stress from your life.
2. Get a Fountain
Water represents wealth in feng shui, and many practitioners recommend placing a water feature near the entrance, flowing toward the center of the home, to symbolize wealth pouring into your life.
3. Place Your Bed Properly
You want to see the doorway and windows from your bed without lying directly in line with the door. When you can't face both, prioritize the door and place a mirror so you can see the window. This goes back to the survival instincts in our introduction: we believe it comes from wanting to react quickly if someone enters the room.
4. Remove Unpleasant Noises
Does your front door squeak? It's the first and last thing you encounter coming and going, and first impressions matter, so an unpleasant noise there can hurt the Qi of your whole home. And replace the batteries in your smoke detectors: that incessant chirp takes a toll too.
5. Cover Your TV When It's Not in Use
A television's energy can disrupt the calm, quiet energy a bedroom needs for sleep. TVs also rarely match a room's color scheme, but it's easy to find a textile that does, so cover it with a pretty piece of fabric when you're not watching.
6. Fix Things That Are Broken
Fixing broken things is a lot like decluttering. Every time you see something broken, part of your mind knows it needs fixing. Instead of letting it weigh on you, fix it. Taking care of things at home may even help you tackle other lingering problems in your life.
7. Get House Plants
Choose plants you think look or smell good and give them a nice spot. To activate a particular area of the bagua, pick a plant in the matching color; for the south, for example, choose one with red flowers.
8. Increase Natural Light
This tip goes hand in hand with interior design. Opening up a space and letting in more light makes it more inviting, so people and energy flow into the room without obstruction.
9. Keep Corners Clear
It's tempting to stash random objects in corners, but that just adds clutter and keeps Qi from flowing freely through the house.
10. Don't Sit with Your Back to the Door
This extends tip 3. At home or at the office, avoid sitting with your back to the door. If you must, place a small mirror in front of you so you can see people approaching. We believe that on a subconscious, primal level, we're more comfortable when we can see who's coming.
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