How To Create a Good Feng Shui House Layout

There is something therapeutic about rearranging the furniture in your home. Changing up your layout breathes fresh air into space and helps empower you in a way no other home project can. If you’re getting ready to remodel your personal space and are looking for a bit of inspiration, look no further! 

No matter what your aesthetic is, using a feng shui house layout can help support your space. Even if you’ve never heard of the concept of feng shui before, we have easy-to-implement design tips and tricks that you can start using today! We’ll also suggest a few Chiji products that may help boost your energy flow even more. Are you excited to get started? We sure are!

Feng Shui 101

So what exactly is feng shui? For starters, if you’ve never heard of it before, feng shui is pronounced “fung shway.” The concept originates in ancient China and is thousands of years old. The name translates into “wind-water,” representing the primary goal of using a feng shui house layout—harmony.

The basic premise behind feng shui is that our environment, whether at home or in the office, is a physical manifestation of our internal environment. Have you ever felt depressed and looked around to see that your home is messy too? That’s a perfect example of how interrelated everything in life is, both externally and internally.

Feng shui helps you harness your personal energy (chi) and direct it where you want it to go. It also can help you make sure that your space is in line with your goals and not working against what you’re trying to achieve in life. 

The result is that your home matches your energy, and vice versa. When you come home at the end of a long day, a well-designed house with a supportive flow of energy will feel nothing but welcoming. And isn’t that the energy we all need in our lives?

How Can I Control Energy?

Energy may feel like a big, amorphous thing that is totally out of your control. Unlike a physical object you can hold in your hand, energy isn’t something you can see or feel. That can make the idea of designing around your energy seem abstract or complicated. But don’t worry; we’re going to walk you through it. We promise it’s much less tricky than it sounds!

A good feng shui house layout focuses on two things—the objects that you choose to have in your home and where you choose to put them. After all, it isn’t just sentient creatures like people or our pets that hold energy. Inanimate objects can also hold energy, as well. 

By choosing objects that have good energy and placing them in a way that helps that energy move more easily through the home, you can act like an air traffic controller.

The Five Elements of Feng Shui

For most of feng shui, helping direct and manage the energy revolves around the five-element system. Essentially, this system involves how the cycles of nature keep the world in balance—specifically, earth, fire, water, wood, and metal. Each of these elements has its own set of qualities, colors, and shapes that can help you incorporate them into your space to give it the vibe you want. Here’s a brief overview:

• Earth - Self-care goals, groundedness, stability. It is represented by the colors yellow, brown, and orange and a flat square. Earth also supports the areas of partnerships, health, and knowledge. 
• Fire - Passionate, brilliance, illumination. It is represented by the color red and a pointy triangle. Fire also supports the fame area. 
• Water - Shifting, flowing, downward motion. It is represented by the color black and a curvy, wavy shape. Water also supports the career area. 
• Wood - Vitality, expansiveness, upward motion. It is represented by the colors green and blue and columns and rectangular shapes. Wood also supports the family and wealth areas. 
• Metal - Beautiful, precise, and efficient. It is represented by the color white and metallics, and spherical, circular shapes. Metal also supports the children and helps people. 

Each of these elements is important in isolation, but having them in the right balance in your home can change the entire vibe. Aim for at least one piece representing each element in your home, and focus on having more of the element that best represents that specific room. A home office could have more water elemental pieces, for instance. Once you get used to working with feng shui, you’ll just feel it.

Tip #1: Couch Placement

One of the things that people focus on the most when they want to move things around in their home is their couch. For most of us, the couch is where we spend most of the time when we’re at home and awake. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the energy flow is positive and supportive. 

For starters, the couch should be positioned as far away from the entryway as possible while still having a clear view of the door. Most importantly, though, it should be placed against a solid wall with a few inches of space between them.

If that’s not possible, you can put a console table behind the couch with tall lamps or plants to give you that stability and protection. You can also add a few candles, like one of our Protection Crystal Energy Candles. A mirror used in front of the seating area that allows you to see behind you is also a good idea, allowing you to feel safe and secure. 

The reason that making the energy flow in your living room is so essential is that it is often the heart of the home and the epicenter of family activity. When your living room feels comfortable, you feel more comfortable inviting people into your home. A good goal is to have a flow that doesn’t block or stop energy as it moves through. 

Tip #2: Yin Spaces Versus Yang Spaces

Living rooms are considered to be yang, or public, spaces. Other areas, like the bedroom, are known as yin, or private, spaces. It’s crucial to make these distinctions because they inform what should and shouldn’t go in that room. 

For instance, the television.

Everyone knows that too much television is bad for you. However, if getting together with the family and watching a little TV is an essential part of your social life, there’s nothing wrong with moderation! The caveat is knowing where to keep a television in the home to support healthy relationships with yourself and the people in your space.

As long as it can be put away in a closed cabinet, a television is perfectly ok to keep in a yang space. However, televisions do not belong in yin spaces. Make sense?

Often yin and yang spaces are talked about in relation to their energy and vibe, too. When we look at what each of these spaces represents, we get a feel for them fairly quickly. Private yin areas, like the bedroom, should feel calm and tranquil. You don’t want your bedroom to be full of loud colors and patterns because that will likely keep you awake and lead to a less than optimal sleep or romantic experience. 

The more public yang spaces, on the other hand, are those that can more easily support bright, warm colors and energy. That’s part of why they are so often referred to as the hearts of the home and are likely where you and your family spend the most time. Keeping these factors in mind can help you create the right experience for your home and anyone who comes into contact with it. 

Tip #3: Keep Your Bedroom Peaceful

When it comes to feng shui “rules,” no room has more than the bedroom. 

These rules aren’t just arbitrary, though; they exist for an excellent reason! Sleep is not only one of the basic essentials of living a happy, healthy life; it is also one of the most vital. Unfortunately, there are many things that we accidentally do that ruin our chances of having a good quality night’s rest.

Unsurprisingly, this has a lot to do with the energy flow. When there is too much active energy flowing around you when you try to rest or sleep, it can make it impossible to both fall asleep and stay asleep. One of the most common triggers of this active energy flow is electricity.  

What’s so insidious about electricity is that it doesn’t usually register in our conscious minds. Things like having a cell phone plugged into the wall and placed under the pillow when you sleep or having a television sitting on the dresser (even if it’s not on) impact you more than you realize.

To help counteract that constant flow of energy, try to identify all of the electricity sources in your bedroom. Once you have a list, look at ways that you can replace as much as possible. Do you have an alarm clock that plugs into the wall? Switch it out for one that is battery-powered. Small changes like this can make a huge difference!

It’s also strongly recommended that you keep your cell phone out of the bedroom when you sleep. If the thought of that fills you with dread, you’re not alone! We are all very attached to our phones, and many people feel vulnerable and even “naked” without them. 

Unfortunately, having them that close to you when you sleep can have some adverse side effects. For instance, it can keep your mind psychologically engaged and even suppress melatonin, making it difficult to fall asleep at night.   

Tip #4: Don’t Forget the Dining Room

When was the last time you sat down and ate a meal at your dining room table? If you’re like most of us, it’s probably further in the past than you’d like to admit. But don’t beat yourself up about it—you’re in the majority! With how busy modern life is, sitting down and eating together often gets put back on the back burner.

The good news is that feng shui can help your dining room become a welcoming, lively place again. 

It starts with choosing the right size of dining room table for your space. You don’t want a table that is too small for the room or one that takes up too much space. The goal is for your family or guests to be able to sit down comfortably with plenty of room to slide your chair out without feeling trapped. Add some candles to promote a sense of warmth, like our Positive Energy Crystal Energy candle, put your phone away, and enjoy connecting with the people closest to you. 

Similarly, make sure not to let your dining room table turn into another junk drawer. For whatever reason, this specific flat surface tends to collect all kinds of mail, paper, and objects that don’t really have a home anywhere else in the house. Work on a system to help you put things away as you get them, which will keep your dining room for what it was intended for. 

Time To Transform and Renew

A good feng shui house layout can make your house feel more like a home than ever before. Your space should be an area you feel comfortable and supported in and one that makes you want to spend time there. Unfortunately, we often unconsciously do things that sabotage those interests and goals. 

If you can take your power back by just rearranging your furniture and paying attention to the flow of energy, why wouldn’t you? From all of us here at Chiji to all of you, remember that you can control your destiny. We’re here for you every step of the way while you design precisely the life you’ve always wanted.

Sources:

The trouble with watching too much TV | Harvard Health

Sleep 101: Why Sleep Is So Important to Your Health | University of Michigan

3 Reasons Screen Time Before Bed is Harmful | Cleveland Clinic