Whether you’re hunting for a new home or remodeling your current one, it’s essential to take notice of your home’s energy. Or, as the Chinese art of Feng Shui calls it, the Chi.
Often, architectural layouts themselves can create bad Feng Shui in a home. When this is the case, it may seem futile to realign your home’s energy. After all, when it involves the basic bones and structure, tearing down the framework and shifting the entire floor plan proves an expensive and time-consuming investment. The good news is, it’s also completely unnecessary. There are many ways to remedy ill-planned layouts that don’t require you to knock down walls.
Below is a list of common layout issues within a home that defies good Feng Shui and, of course, easy ways to realign that good Chi energy and make them work.
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The Mouth of Your Home
In the Feng Shui tradition, the mouth of your home is the front door. Just as we ingest food for nourishment and energy, so does the home. And any number of bad Feng Shui can disrupt this much-needed nourishment, such as aligned doors, nearby stairs and even bathrooms.
Aligned Front and Back Doors
If you can enter the front door and stare straight through into your backyard, this is a real Feng Shui problem. When this Chi energy is like flowing water, there is nothing to block, capture or redirect it. Instead, it escapes and passes straight through your home without much nourishment.
The best way to remedy this and capture energy is to interrupt the Chi’s path. You can do this by dividing the space with furniture, a folding screen divider or even by incorporating houseplants. If you intend on remodeling, even installing your hardwood floors at an angle or width-wise against the doors can hinder Chi’s escape.
Bathroom Faces Front Door
The mouth of Chi has many places where it can go wrong with bad Feng Shui. And having a bathroom—like a convenient powder room—that faces the front door is one of them. Bathrooms are the area of a home where energy escapes. Placing a bathroom by the front door can drain the incoming energy before it even enters the home.
The best way to combat this Feng Shui faux pas is to create a focal wall or area between the bathroom and the front door, insisting the energy stay away from the draining bathroom and precisely where it’s needed—inside your home.
Staircase Faces Front Door
Think of your staircase like a chute for your home’s energy. In this case, it sends your energy flying right out the front door or launching directly upstairs or even stagnating, completely bypassing the main floor. So, to show the main floor areas some Chi love, it’s important to better direct the energy.
To do so, this energy must be blocked and redirected back inside the home. At the front door, place mirrors or artwork to block and send it along its way throughout your home.
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The Heart of Your Home
Just like our bodies, the heart of your home is its center. In Feng Shui, this is known as the yin-yang point. And in this space of your home, just like our hearts, we need to be open and emit light into the world.
Central Staircase
Another architectural feature that should be avoided is a staircase situated in the center of a home. In Feng Shui, a central staircase can disrupt and destabilize the flow of energy. While you can’t shift a staircase, what homeowners can do is capture the energy through family photos and artwork on the wall.
Central Bathroom
Next to the staircase, another space that should refrain from taking center stage is the bathroom. In Feng Shui, bathrooms allow energy to escape. Think of it like taking a relaxing bath to allow your pent-up frustrations and worries melt away.
With a central bathroom, however, this means that these frustrations and worries may not escape, redistributing back inside the home. Two of the best ways to combat a centrally-located bathroom’s bad Feng Shui is to improve air quality and lighting. Make sure your bathroom is well-ventilated, maybe adding a few plants. And since a center bathroom has no window, be sure to vary the lighting, adding dimmer switches and candles.
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The Home’s Nervous System
Essentially, the Chi in your home needs to flow, but flow calmly. In other words, there are certain areas in your home’s nervous system that can become strung out, so to speak, and create combative energy known as Sha Chi. This Sha Chi can create stagnation and block the flow of Chi.
Master Bedroom Over the Garage
While you may not sleep in your garage, it does create bad Feng Shui if you sleep above it. Chances are your garage is cluttered with tools and offers storage for items like cans of leftover paint. Then, there’s the constant flow of energy you create by coming and going in your vehicle, which causes an overall restlessness and disrupts the peace and calm that a bedroom above is supposed to provide.
If you sleep in a room above a garage, consider switching up the master suite. Sleep and rest are an important part of our lives. However, let’s assume you want to keep the master bedroom exactly where it is. In this case, you have a few options to ground the energy.
Incorporate the earth element into your garage-hovering bedroom. There are several ways you can accomplish this, some of which are to simply add artwork of landscapes or redecorate with a more earth-toned color palette.
Because your car is below you, the elimination of exhaust and the improvement of air quality is also crucial. According to research, air-purifying plants such as spider plants, dracaenas, English ivy and bamboo are all excellent at reducing indoor toxins.
However, be mindful of placing plants near your bed. Because plants tend to release more CO2 at night, it can interrupt sleep patterns and have a negative effect.
Don’t exactly have a green thumb? Use essential oils to purify the air instead.
Long and Narrow Hallways
Another way energy plays an important role in our home’s layout is through the hallways. Specifically, long, narrow hallways that both block Chi and send it away. When the main concept behind Feng Shui is balance, this creates tension, as if your home’s energy is being pulled in multiple directions.
The best method to combat this bad Feng Shui is to capture nearby sunlight by a mirror and redirect it.
To create better Chi, pay attention to these different house features that might be causing bad Feng Shui in your home. You might be surprised by what some of these remedies can do to enhance the space and open up your home’s energy.
Also by Stacey: Working The Night Shift? 7 Do’s To Stay Vital
Clear Your Mind & Clean Your Home With These 6 Purifying Essential Oils
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Photo: Jose Alejandro Cuffia via Unsplash; Paula Sotomayor via Unsplash; Anna Sullivan via Unsplash
