Feng Shui Tips

Feng Shui is an ancient system of balancing the good and bad, the Yin & the Yang. This Chinese philosophy believes that the arrangement and positioning of things in our surroundings can affect the flow of energy, which can produce either a favourable or unfavourable effect on one's health and wealth. Below are some Feng Shui tips to improve the flow of good Chi (energy) in our homes:

● Clear the way leading to your front door. Do not leave any objects including shoes in front of your doorway, this will block good Chi that will flow inside you house.

● Put a pair of Fu Dogs in front of your front door they guard your home or business against bad elements. If space is not enough outside your front door, you can place them inside the front door.

● Plants which has thorns or spikes like the cactus is inauspicious, leave it outside your home. Instead of the cactus, use round leafed plants, wind chimes and crystals. All these are auspicious and will bring good chi inside your home.

● If you have your front door or front window open directly to a window or door at the back of your house, place a big screen or furniture to block the alignment to prevent good Chi from entering and leaving your house straight away.

● Find a way to brighten long and dark corridors. They trap bad chi inside your home and prevents the good chi from entering and circulating inside.

● It is good luck to place an aquarium or a fountain inside your home. Good Chi is attracted to water. A good place to place your aquarium is facing your front door inside the house to invite good Chi to come in. Other good places to put an aquarium or fountain: On the south-east element of your home for wealth, south-west for marriage, east for health, west for friends, north for career and north-east for education.

● Don't place your kitchen directly below a bathroom, nor place your kitchen in front or the centre of your house. Ideally, the kitchen should be located at the back of your home. And if you cook by open flame, it is best to cook outside the house.

● Inside your kitchen, do not place your cooking stove directly in front of the sink, water dispenser, refrigerator or washing machine, this creates conflicts between household members. Water and fire elements don't mix.

● Open your windows and curtains daily to allow sunshine and fresh air to come in. Good Chi will not come in if your windows are always closed. And health wise, our lungs need that fresh air to stay healthy. Also, if you have a vacant bedroom, do not leave it always closed and dark, bad Chi will linger in that room if it is left closed and dark for a long time.

● Don't put mirrors that reflect your bed. Put your mirrors in bathrooms, inside closet doors or anywhere else but not in front or the sides of the bed. In Feng Shui, it is bad luck to have your bed reflected on the mirror.

● It is bad luck to have a table, chair or bed with a beam hanging over. A beam is a heavy object that pressure you down. If the ceiling is high enough it is best to cover the beam by putting up a flat ceiling. Also, don't put your staircase in front of the main entrance. It facilitates volatile and negative chi to go straight to the upper floor.

● Generally, choose smooth and rounded objects, corners, tables, counters as against sharp, jagged and knife like objects. Rounded things encourage the flow of good energy.

Feng Shui is all about the balance energy and enhancing the environment. For thousands of years, the Chinese have utilized Feng Shui to enhance harmony, peace and prosperity. We may still benefit from their ancient knowledge of Feng Shui today.

Interior Designing Tips: Bedrooms & Dens

● When interior designing your bedrooms, make sure the rooms are cozy and restful in appearance. Avoid bright colors like orange. Bright colors won't induce you to sleep. Neutral, pastel and warm colors are best suited for bedrooms.

● If you are starting your interiors from scratch, you can start by choosing fabrics first and base the color of you wall from it, then you can select furniture that compliments the color of walls and the fabrics that you are going to use.

● Save on expensive wall decor, go through magazines, art books or even your child's art work at school and have the picture framed. Not only will you save, you will have a unique picture that is not found on commercial home decor stores.

● Consider an extra cabinet or storage space inside your bedroom or den, they are areas that usually invite clutter. It is important to always have your room neat and clutter free.

● Use warm flooring on bedroom floors like wood and carpet. Don't use ceramic tiles, marble or granite on bedroom floors. It is not pleasant to get out of bed in the morning and step on a cold floor. If a cold flooring material is already installed, put an area rug beside the bed.

● If you can, use the same fabric, design and color of the bedcovers as with the curtains. The room will have that "Interior Designed" look.

● If your room is small, use mirrors on the walls. It gives the room an illusion of space (If you are a Feng Shui believer, see the tips on mirrors).


● For bedrooms and specially dens, put an exhaust fan on the ceiling or wall farthest from the window. It will suck-in the cold air outside and keep the air inside the room fresh and cool. This can even save you electricity bills by not using your air conditioner during cool months.

● Some of us wants our bedrooms to be dark even late in the day specially when we sleep late. Thus some of us put up very dark curtains. Deep colored curtains against a light colored wall comes very strong. It is better to have your walls a shade darker and the curtain a little lighter to lessen the contrast. An alternative is to use two layered curtains instead one that is very dark.

● Aside from the typical center light on the middle of the ceiling, use lampshades, pin lights and up lights for mood lighting. These type of lighting gives dark and light patterns of light in the room.

● 1/3 of you life is spent on your bed. Invest in a good mattress, pillows and cotton or linen sheets -they absorb perspiration better.

● The bedroom is your private space, among all rooms in your home, your bedroom's look and atmosphere should be the most relaxing and reflective of your personal taste and style.

Feng Shui Tips for Renovating and Remodeling

Are you thinking of renovating or remodeling your home? If you do, I strongly suggest you look into feng shui for remodeling and renovating and take some time to assure the success of your renovation by applying feng shui principles. Think how this renovation will change the flow of energy in your home and employ feng shui to achieve the best results for you and your family.

Feng Shui knowledge is about your connection to your immediate environment and its influence on your health, well-being and overall quality of your life, thus, feng shui for renovating and remodeling should be high on your list of priorities when planning to remodel. If you are renovating because your family is growing, here are some feng shui tips to consider:


Allow for a balanced space for each family member, i.e. if you need two additional bedrooms for your growing family, create bedrooms that are somewhat similar in size, versus a bigger and a smaller one. You want you children to feel equally loved and taken care of, versus fighting who has the bigger bedroom and why.


With all the importance we place on the kitchen as the heart of the house and the area strongly connected to abundance, you do not want to change the flow in a way that you see the kitchen right as you come home, or right from your bedroom, as this is not good feng shui.


Do not overlook the importance of lighting, especially in areas where there is little natural light, do discuss and plan the lighting options in advance with your architect or contractor to be sure your needs are covered.



Familiarize yourself with the basics of the Ba-Gua, or the energy map of your space, as well as the interaction of the five elements, to be sure you have a good foundation for the energy flow in your space. For example, let's say you are adding to the South area of your House and you are selecting materials and colors, etc. Knowing that South is connected to the element of Fire, you will avoid selecting materials with a predominant black or blue color scheme, as these are Water element colors, and Water puts down the Fire, thus these colors will weaken the energy in the South area of your space.
Keep exploring feng shui; start with the basics and then move on to more complex levels. The decision to apply feng shui knowledge in your life might be one of the best decisions you ever made for your own happiness and well-being.