A beginner's guide to feng shui for a calming home in 2021
A beginner's guide to feng shui for a calming home in 2021
Feng shui is all about good energy and harmony in the home. Here we provide some easy tips on getting feng shui decor right.
In a time where many of us crave peace and quiet from the hustle and bustle of busy living, turning your home into a feng shui-inspired haven might just do the trick. Focusing on balance and harmony, the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui is all about aligning your external surroundings with your inner wellbeing and needs.
Building a home that follows feng shui principles to the letter can be overwhelming, but thankfully much of it simply comes down to common sense. It’s all about trying to invite energy (otherwise known as chi) and flow to each room, so that your home suits your needs and is a joy to spend time in! Here we’ve compiled some of our favourite ways to embrace feng shui in your home, and get it ready for all the fresh beginnings a new year can bring.
It might seem a little obvious, but as feng shui is about clarity of both mind and space, the first stepping stone to embracing this philosophical system is to have a thorough declutter!
The physical act of ridding your home of items you no longer need is therapeutic in and of itself, but it also ensures that you truly love and enjoy what you have in your home. As feng shui focuses on allowing energy to flow, it’s also important to give love and care to spaces where stray items traditionally accumulate.
Kitchen drawers and bathroom shelves can become as cluttered as our wardrobes - but in the feng shui home, the house is considered a whole with each room or space connected to the other. So empty laundry baskets, dust surfaces and vacuum the floors to counter negative chi. And invest in good storage options to ensure that you can keep your newly decluttered home looking neat for as long as possible.
Arrange your furniture around the commanding position
In feng shui, the commanding position of a room is the one that puts you in the ideal spot to handle what life throws your way - to be the commander of your energy and life, really. Which we understand can sound a little vague!
So in more prosaic terms, when looking for the commanding position, it’s the one where you should be furthest from the door, yet be able to see it clearly and not be in a direct line with it. Usually, it’s diagonally away from the door. Once you’ve found that position, that’s where the centrepiece of the room should go, whether it’s your bed, sofa, or even the desk in your home office. And now with the main item in the room locked in, we can begin planning around it.
The most important room in the house, the bedroom is where we rest and regain our energy for the day, which is why it’s so crucial that this room feels restorative to us.
So as mentioned earlier, the best direction for the bed to face should be the commanding position: where you can see the door, but importantly when you lie down, your feet won’t be pointing directly towards it. It’s also important to have a sense of security, so place your bed against a solid wall, preferably with space available on the other three sides of it. This will help to ground you as you sleep, and a solid headboard can help accentuate that security-oriented chi.
Some don’ts to avoid bad feng shui in the bedroom: clear the space underneath your bed so that chi can flow; don’t position your bed under a window as that allows too much movement and light into the room, and remove or hide the mirrors in your room to ensure there isn’t an overload of energy and activity in this restful space.
Conversely, when arranging your living room with feng shui in mind, it’s more to do with inviting buzz and energy in. Ideally, what you want is for good energy to linger and circle through your home instead of immediately shooting through. But you also don’t want to create obstructions.
It can help to imagine how water would flow into the room (metaphorically, of course). Would it crash against an object the second it came through the door, or would it circle around your furniture freely? If you imagine plenty of splashing, consider rearranging to allow more movement in your lounge. Walking slowly through your home and envisioning this can help!
Where you can, incorporate natural light and fresh air into your space, either by maximising your windows or through the clever use of mirrors.
Speaking of mirrors, though they are a no-go for the bedroom, they’re absolutely welcome in other parts of the home! Having one or two decorative mirrors can not only make your room feel larger, but it can also multiply the good energies that exist in the space.
Hallways, dining rooms (which is said to hold the wealth of your home) and entryways are a great spot to hang a mirror and reflect some positivity and prosperity.
Invite positive chi into the home with some plants and greenery. The positives of adding plants to the home are manifold - they freshen up the air, add texture and colour to any room, and they have a feng shui bonus!
They’re associated with life force, growth, prosperity and good luck… some good plants to start with include lucky bamboo, pothos (the money plant - self explanatory!), peace lily, and air plants.
