If I had to choose only one room in the house to apply feng shui principles, it would be the bedroom. Of course, you will tell me that as a former insomniac I am not objective… And yet, the decoration of the feng shui bedroom is the key to your well-being and your inner harmony. We spend a lot of time in our bedroom. It is a place that, in feng shui, can promote health and relationships. Want to know how to balance the chi in your decor? How to promote the circulation of vital breath? Which bed linen to choose? How many bedside tables to put? If you can put green plants? If the mirror should be hidden or not ? Follow my advice for a feng shui decoration of the bedroom. By following my tips, you will sleep soundly and the interior design of this important room of the house will have no more secrets for you.
Which colors to choose for a feng shui bedroom ?
Just like rooms like the living room, the kitchen, or the bathroom, it is always the Pakua that, in feng shui, will indicate us the colors to privilege to decorate a feng shui bedroom. Indeed, if we want to do things right, or at least optimize the benefits of this ancient art, it is interesting to combine several schools and especially to use the school of the compass with the cycle of the 5 elements.
I remind you that the sectorization is preferably done on the complete plan of the habitat, even if you only want to redo your room. We take the plan, we find the center and we place the pakua there, after having defined the cardinal orientation of the house, to sectorize the whole house: thus, each room will belong to one or several sectors: north, northwest, west, etc.
The energy of the place is determined by the characteristics of each zone. The one we are interested in here is the color related to each of the 5 Chinese phases.
Thus, if the room to be decorated is in the North zone of the house, we know that it is connected to the Water element, and therefore to the color black or blue. We also know that this area will like undulating shapes and anything transparent like glass. We also like to associate with the phase of the sector the one that gives it life or reinforces it, this is the case here with metal: thus, the “Ile de Ré” atmosphere, with white and blue, is quite judicious for a bedroom located in the north of the house.
If the bedroom is in two areas, the feng shui philosophy may be more difficult to put into practice but remains the same. If the two areas share the same element, no problem: this is the case for the West and the North-West which both have metal as a nourishing element, or for the South-East and the East both belonging to the wood element.
So how to follow the feng shui principles if 2 different elements are to be considered? Well, it is either the opportunity to dare to associate several colors in the same room or to compromise! For example, a room located in both the North and North East zones combines Water and Earth. However, Earth should not be in the North sector (because the Earth absorbs water)… It will be necessary to choose the flat colors on the walls so as not to risk bringing contrary energies into the room.
Finally, as far as the nuance is concerned, everything is generally allowed… Except that the bedroom is not a living room and therefore to respect rest and promote health, the balance must be respected: the bedroom is a yin room, so we prefer rather soft colors, not too flashy.
The use of plants in a feng shui room
How many times have I heard that it is super dangerous to put plants in a room? I don’t know… But like all these urban legends, it is said over and over again and the reasons multiply like in the game of the Arabian telephone… In the end, it is exactly like the monkey theorem experiment: nobody knows why anymore but has retained that it is not necessary! The main reason is that plants breathe: during the day, thanks to the light and the photosynthesis phenomenon, they absorb CO2 and reject oxygen; during the night, on the other hand, the process is reversed: thus as they release carbon dioxide, one should not have any in the room! Uh, your spouse also releases CO2 while sleeping, your cat too… Do you fire them? The amount of carbon dioxide released at night by plants is tiny compared to what you release yourself… So let’s leave these ladies alone! They bring so much beautiful energy into our homes! It would be a shame to do without them.
So let’s answer the question once and for all: can you sleep with plants in the room? Yes, can we consider plants in a feng shui bedroom? Well, it depends! Again, the trick is to use the 5 phases. Green plants belong to wood, of course! And it feeds which areas? The East and Southeast! It is also particularly suited to the area to the south as it feeds the fire. In which area is it particularly tricky to put green plants? The plant controls water… so we avoid putting a lot of it in the North… Wood depletes the Earth: and this element concerns three zones! So, it is true that if your room is located either in the center of the house, or in the North-East, or in the South-West, it is better to avoid putting your collection of green plants there.
I will do a detailed article to bring some nuances, and to give you a small list of plants particularly loved in feng shui.
The place of the mirror in a feng shui bedroom
Another well maintained urban legend: it is forbidden to put a mirror in a feng shui room! I think I will write a whole article one day about the place of the mirror in feng shui in general. It is said to have many powers, some of which seem to me to come out of a magician’s hat! Anyway, let’s focus today on what the mirror in a room brings in terms of energy: is the chi linked to the mirror favorable?
To begin with, can we include a mirror in the decoration of a feng shui room? The answer is yes! But… not just anywhere and not just any way!
Yes, to follow the feng shui principles, there are some rules to respect.
The first one is that the mirror should not reflect the bed. More precisely, when you are sitting in your bed, you should not be able to see yourself in the mirror. The mirror is a reflector, you know that. But as easy as it is to see that it reflects images and objects, it is more difficult to imagine it reflecting chi. Man has a physical body but also energetic bodies: etheric body, emotional body, mental body, spiritual body… These bodies extend far beyond the limits of the body we can see. These vibrations envelop us and, at night, are not as at rest as our physical body. A mirror can resonate with these vibrations and disrupt their energy field. This is why we advise against a mirror reflecting you when you are in bed, as it can disrupt sleep. I can tell you about it knowingly, it was one of the reasons of my insomnia… Sorry for the couple who found it super design to put a mirror on the ceiling… Whatever the purpose, it is not ideal!
Another important thing to know about the mirror in a room: its shape. In feng shui, the elements are characterized by seasons, tastes, colors, organs, feelings… but also shapes. The shape related to Earth is the square, the one related to Wood is the rectangle while the shape of the Metal element is the round. Unless you are particularly original, I would be surprised if you had a triangular mirror. If you do, then you should know that it represents the fire element. We can qualify all these characteristics related to the shape because a mirror, by its nature, will always contain a part of the Water element as anything that reflects something.
In any case, prefer mirrors that are full-length so that you can see yourself in your entirety. And above all, avoid the mirrors that you see in some decorating stores and that are surely design, but which are in fact made of several pieces. You don’t have to be a graduate of St Cyr to know that a broken mirror doesn’t bring a nice Zen energy, the vibration of the image is not pretty. That’s exactly what these mirrors do, and it’s impossible to look at yourself without being cut into a thousand pieces: what a horror! Please avoid this on your wall.
What about the aquarium in a feng shui room
Let’s finish the subject of feng shui room decoration with the main element of Chinese decoration: the aquarium! One of the fundamental principles of feng shui is the yin & yang balance. I told you in the first paragraph, the bedroom is a yin room. It is a space of rest and rejuvenation. If you were to classify the aquarium, would you say it is yin or yang? Hints: there is a humming filter, air bubbles, fish moving around… in short, lots of movement! So an aquarium is yang! It’s pretty, it can be soothing, you can name all your fish with little names… But it’s still a little too yang to put in a room that should remain yin. As with all the rules of any art, there can be exceptions. I give you here the general principle, all things being equal.
Also, water represents the flow of money and wealth. Do you think that the bedroom is the ideal place to promote prosperity? No, abundance is not managed in the bedroom but in the hallway and office. Yes to the aquarium placed at the entrance of the Chinese restaurant… Still, it is necessary that the analysis of the flying stars showed that there was in the same area a front star to activate!
Decorative objects in a feng shui bedroom
In general, whether in the bedroom or in other rooms, interior design should favor a Zen atmosphere, where harmony reigns. Every object has a symbolism, so we must be careful not to bring into the room an energy that would be full of messages not conducive. For example, if you are a single person looking for love, are you sure you want to keep that huge painting of the Sahara dunes? If you are a couple having heated discussions, do you think the image of the storm-tossed lighthouse is conducive to a harmonious relationship? It is difficult to list here the objects that are or are not conducive to the bedroom because of course we are all different and experience different things in our lives. A nice symbol for one can bring sadness for another. I just want to underline here that there is no obviousness, and especially that often our choices are unconscious: of course, we don’t do on purpose to place the wrong symbol or an object with unfavorable energies in our room… Hence the need sometimes to call upon an external view.
You now know a little more about how to approach the decoration of a feng shui room. Knowing that when we talk about feng shui in the sense of traditional art, we go much further than the simple decoration of course. The decoration, the layout, the positioning of the furniture, is essential in a room because it is the room which manages what I consider as 2 fundamental axes in the life of any human being: his health and his relationships (social, friendly, love, professional…). The choice of colors, natural materials adapted to the phases, appropriate furniture, objects, symbols, images… can influence the general feeling of well-being of individuals. Why deprive yourself of this?
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