Feng Shui in the House

Today I wanted to make a special focus on home feng shui (as opposed to apartment feng shui). When you are lucky enough to live in a house, it is easy to welcome feng shui into your home because you have more latitude to ensure that the surrounding energies are the best possible. Indeed, in most cases, a house will have a garden, or at least a courtyard or an outdoor space, no matter how small, that we “own” (owner or tenant). This way, we can make sure that the circulation of chi, this vital energy, is optimized outside to be welcomed inside the house. As you know, ensuring good health, a fulfilling life, more abundance, depends on the harmony of our living space. The more balanced this space is, the more our environment makes room for the most beautiful energy.
It seems easier to follow the rules of feng shui in a house when you own it. But that doesn’t mean that practicing this age-old art is impossible when you rent. Feng shui is much more than choosing colors for the rooms, redoing the whole bedroom or changing the living room layout.
Let’s see it in detail.

A feng shui house when you are a homeowner

It is true that the advantage of being a homeowner is that you can choose a decoration that looks like you 100%, you have the right to do everything: put colors on the wall and arrange each room as you wish, from the kitchen to the bedroom, from the office to the bathroom. So if we take the opportunity to follow the Feng Shui principles at the same time, we will fill the house with a resourcing and helping energy.

The first thing to do is to put the Pakua on the plan of the house to sectorize it according to the 8 sectors: North, North-East, East, South-East, etc. This sectorization will allow us to know which are the Chinese elements in each room, and thus to deduce the most appropriate colors for our interior: blue or black for the water element, green or brown for the wood element, white or gray for the metal element… For example, if the living room is in the South-East, we will choose a brown sofa, we will paint a wall in taupe beige, we will put healthy green plants, we will choose paintings of rectangular shapes, solid wood furniture, etc.

As for the layout of the rooms, it can be done by respecting the balance between yin and yang. This is something that even novices in Feng Shui rules can perceive. For a more advanced feng shui, beds, desks, sofa will be placed following the favorable directions of each member of the family (determined thanks to the Kua Number). Knowing this Ming Gua will allow you to particularly take care of the decoration of the room: an adapted light, a Zen style rather than vintage, a pastel color respecting the area… Of course, the most important piece of furniture is the bed (then the desk) so we will think carefully about its location.

A feng shui house when renting

The layout of a rented house will be done in exactly the same way: the principles remain the same. To ensure that the circulation of chi is optimal, yin and yang are respected, both in the rooms (according to their use) and in the proportion of furniture.
For the decoration, and in particular that of the walls and floors, this may seem more limited. But let’s not lack imagination! For the floors, it is possible to play with colored carpets: a large red carpet for the South zone, a beige roudoudou carpet in the bathroom in the East zone, or a pearl gray bedspread in the bedroom in the West zone.
For the walls, if we can’t paint them, let’s try posters! Another solution is fabric. One of my clients recycled her many pareos into wall hangings! You can also glue or even pin a few strips of wallpaper. No excuse, the most important thing is to feed the areas.
Finally, all the decorative objects can also easily respect the Feng Shui rules: earthenware sculptures for the earth element, green plants for the wood zone, candles to feed the fire, a metal clock for the kitchen, etc.

The exterior of a feng shui house

Unlike apartments, the advantage of a house is that you often have a little something, either in front, or in the back, or both, a small or large piece of land that you can develop.

There is a feng shui specialized in gardens. On my side, when the land is small, I reason on the same sectorization as the one that defined the house. I extend my pakua (the pie-shaped cut) beyond the walls of the house. This is what I find most accurate because it corresponds to the real cardinal orientations.
So, if the house has a southwestern facade, with a small garden in front, that garden is SW. We generally avoid putting too many wood elements in the Earth zone, so we can take advantage of this to make a nice stone or slate path. You can still place some plants and flowers (it’s a very nice way to welcome the Chi at home) by choosing for example yellow or orange ones which will please the area.

The ideal plan of a feng shui house

I often get the question and I will soon prepare a detailed article with examples of feng shui house plans.
The ideal house shape in feng shui is the square or the rectangle: no nooks and crannies, no protruding angles, an optimized surface which generally allows a better circulation of energies. Yes, the feng shui expert is not a fan of architect houses which are sometimes thought as shop windows: too many windows (feng sui principles like to have solid walls), balconies that create shar chi, rooms that are sometimes too big and do not respect the balance of yin and yang…
The ideal plan of a feng shui house respects the day side and the night side so that there is really a yang space and a more yin place in the house. Indeed, it is always good not to have the bedroom right next to the living room. We should also avoid placing an interior staircase in the center of the house: the center representing the vital energy, the circulation of chi in a staircase tends to create emotional ups and downs in the inhabitants. The ideal plan will also ensure that each room receives natural light.

To conclude, I have spoken to you more about decoration (colors and layout). You have understood, for each room, according to the Chinese elements, we will choose a decoration of the place which will come to nourish the energies of the zone (via the color, the forms and the materials). A Zen style is not enough to make a house Feng Shui.
I have left out everything that, in the feng shui analysis, had to do with flying stars, because there, for the time being, whether you are in a house or an apartment, owner or tenant, the practice does not vary. Although invisible, they are part of the environment and influence our life. They are moreover managed in decoration thanks to objects (thanks to the elements) or thanks to movements (renovation, yang atmosphere).
I will prepare another article on the feng shui of the apartment to evoke the few differences and to give you some advice to manage an “outside” which finally does not exist. You will have understood, whatever your type of habitat, I want to show you that the harmony of energies can be achieved. And even if you live in a rented room, without a kitchen, without an office, without a living room… Feng Shui methods allow you to manage very small spaces even when you have very little space. The idea is to do with what you have. And it’s quite an art, follow my advice!