FENG SHUI IN DECORATION
How does a home's décor really affect a family's life — its prosperity, relationships and general luck? Traditional feng shui is more flexible about decoration than most people think. Here are some free, common-sense guidelines.
At a popular level, the most common questions about feng shui tend to be about décor: is it good to keep this or that object, should the kitchen be painted a particular colour, is it wise to have photographs in the bedroom, and so on.
It is only natural for someone who has read a popular book on the subject, or seen a piece in the press or on television, to have such doubts. There are some general answers, but it is also true that the traditional practice of feng shui is quite flexible when it comes to decoration.
The aim of this article is to help you take a less rigid, freer view of how to use feng shui in arranging your home.
Feng shui objects
Working with feng shui never means making a space look oriental, Zen or like a Chinese bazaar. On the contrary, every home can and should show its own character, reflecting the soul and culture of the people who live in it.
We always tell our clients and students that a house packed with red tassels, flutes, bagua mirrors, fu dogs, mandarin ducks or those grotesque toads with a coin in the mouth is probably drawing more on Chinese popular belief and superstition than on serious feng shui. The most important principles of this art usually concern the internal layout of the space (hallways, doors, windows), the external “rivers” that feed a place — the natural ones and the virtual ones (streets) — the magnetic orientation, and the variables of time, or natural cycles. In its more serious and deeper form, feng shui often remains a great unknown.
At this point many readers will say: fine, then what can I actually do to improve the feng shui of my home? The answer depends on each household and its particular conditions. But since that can discourage those who want quick results, here is some general advice that we find useful in most cases — bearing in mind that, just as you cannot cure a serious illness without consulting a good doctor, this advice, though generally positive, will not always overcome every obstacle. These are a few guidelines on decoration alone, without going into more complex matters.
The need for emptiness and order
One of the most frequent situations we meet when doing feng shui work is a house filled with a mass of objects that create clutter, obstacles and confusion. If you want good feng shui, the first step is to get rid of what is unnecessary. Making space recovers a good deal of the vital energy that was lost feeding useless things. Emptiness means freeing yourself from the burden of a thousand items that give you nothing in return and only weigh you down. Sometimes we do not notice the chaos held in a space until a change forces us to review what we have gathered over the years — moving house, say, or clearing a home for renovation; otherwise it can lie forgotten.
The word “emptiness” can sound like denial, but its true meaning is not to create a passive, sterile energy. It is to let go of the superfluous, so that the space left behind can always be filled with something new — something with real meaning and light for us.
At the same time, the emptiness we speak of means reviewing the information we take in. It is not only about objects that sit motionless, but about the images, sounds and words that can dramatically change the quality and purity of our deepest thoughts and feelings. For more on this, read about order and cleanliness in feng shui.
Colours in general
As for colour, a flexible piece of advice in many cases — especially at home — is to use light tones and pastel shades, all the more so over large areas such as walls. Why? Simply because they allow a wider range in the overall décor. A very intense colour in one place makes it more defined and fixed, and that can be like putting too much salt in a dish. Not everything has to be neutral, of course, but this gives you a base to play with later through pictures, furniture, flooring and other objects.
Light or pastel colours also bring more light and save energy: paint a whole living room in something like burgundy (a slightly dark red) and watch the light disappear. You can certainly use intense tones — the advice here is to do so with balance and moderation. Anything very strong, powerful and intense is like loud music, heavy meals or non-stop celebration: it cannot go on for long without health suffering.
It is hard to give a single answer about colour, since it is also used differently at home than in shops or businesses. On television, for instance, with a setting close to a celebration, this advice might differ, leaving more room for yang and strong colours — it all depends on the type of programme or the idea being presented. Can you picture a programme about ecology set against grey, metallic colours, or a children's show in dark, yin colours, or a mystery set in pale pink, or a bank decked out in festive tones? The answer is almost always no. You can read more in the article on colours on this site.
Forms and elements
Feng shui pays close attention to forms, above all avoiding those that are aggressive or hostile. If you have a low living-room table with very sharp corners and small children, there is little more to explain. Such shapes belong to the fire element in feng shui, which carries some risk in a space where energy moves quickly and with little control.
It should be said that a home does not have to be all round and curved, as some people imagine when they hear about feng shui. Essentially, you simply avoid whatever is harmful or hostile to an activity or a person. A square table is perfectly fine if its edges are ordinary — common sense always comes first. Square shapes, for example, add stability and definition, with nothing negative about them; curved forms bring more softness, flow and movement, but are not necessarily always better.
In feng shui, each form is linked to one of the five elements of Chinese philosophy. Winding, irregular shapes represent water; square shapes speak of earth; pointed or triangular forms of fire; round, spherical or oval shapes of metal; and tall or rectangular shapes of wood — a good example of the last being Manhattan.
Symbolism and decoration
Which pictures, sculptures, prints or displays make for good feng shui? If someone asked whether to put a skull in the office for good feng shui, you would probably say no straight away. But if you were a cranial surgeon and that object represented your knowledge and work, what would be wrong with it?
Above all, the symbols in a space should match your personality, your tastes and your view of things. No home really escapes this principle: whether we like it or not, its decoration reveals certain psychological facts. In feng shui terms, good advice is to seek out beauty around you as far as you can — even if that word is subjective and means something different to each of us. By the pursuit of beauty we also mean motifs and emotional expression. Before hanging a painting, it is wise to consider what it depicts. Are you looking for good relationships and contacts in your life, yet you place lonely, sad faces in your entrance hall? Do you want more harmony with your partner, while every picture in the bedroom shows people at odds? Do you want your child to concentrate on their studies, while their room holds a collection of empty bottles from their parties? These real examples simply show how much the symbols around us mirror our daily lives.
The only advice we can give about feng shui and symbols is this: hold your best wishes clearly in mind, and then surround yourself with what best expresses those goals — the finest views, the best “virtual windows” onto what you are seeking.
Related: Feng Shui Colours · Order and Cleanliness · The Five Elements. To learn to apply feng shui in your own home, take a look at our professional Feng Shui course.
