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Your Basic Explanation of Feng Shui as it Relates to Home Decor
The whole point of Feng Shui Home Decor is to tap into your home’s energy, sometimes called Chi, to benefit your environment for yourself, your family, or in the case of your office, your work, and your peers.
By tapping into your environment’s Chi, your goal is to enhance the energies that bring out your life’s positive, happy, and productive areas. You can use elements or objects to activate and encourage these energies with home decor.
To enhance the energies in your home, you first have to learn which areas in your home access which life energies by using a Bagua Map.
Once you’ve completed establishing your energy areas, you can then move on to learning how to access these fields by incorporating simple home decor items, such as furnishings, plants, water features, candles, and more, into the right spots.
Feng Shui Home Decor – What is a Bagua Map?
The Bagua Map is a tool to help you create the best energy in your home using the principles outlined for each area. If you’re curious, Bagua means ‘8 areas’ in Chinese.
The eight energy areas in your home are outlined on the Bagua Map at the top of this page (click to enlarge it). You’ll notice the map has nine areas. However, the center area represents the middle part of your home. Its purpose is to connect all the other elements to balance and center the overall vibration.
Two Methods Can be Used to Map Your Home’s Energy:
One uses the Classic/Traditional Bagua mapping system, while the other uses Western Bagua mapping.
It’s best to be consistent and choose one mapping system for all of your home’s Feng Shui analysis.
Here are two helpful videos that explain each System:
- How to Properly Map Your Home Using Classical Feng Shui Bagua
- How to Properly Map Your Home Using Western Feng Shui Bagua
How to Use the Western Feng Shui Bagua Map:
The quickest and easiest way to determine your home or environment’s energy areas is to use the Western Method. If you decide you’d rather use Classic Feng Shui mapping, I suggest you watch the above video numbered ‘l.’
For the Western Method, print out the map at the top of this page, or you can find it here (fits on 8.5 X 11 Paper).
- Next, stand at your front door facing into your home
- Hold the map in front of you, so the title on the Map’s page is at the top. (Make sure you don’t hold it upside down)
Essentially, that’s it.
You could also try this Feng Shui Compass reference card.
Map the Energy of Your Land/Property:
Using Western Feng Shui, stand at the end of your driveway or front of your property facing towards it and hold the map with the title at the top of the page, and you’ll see which parts of your property pertain to the energies in your life.
As an example, your property’s Prosperity and Wealth Area would be in the back left corner. If you have a backyard, then, of course, that’s where this area is.
You’d want to be sure this spot is uncluttered, clean, and, if applicable, nicely gardened and free of weeds and unsightly tree branches. With Wood being the Element for Prosperity & Wealth, a pruned tree would be lovely, or even a small decorative windmill or other spinning objects.
Every Room, Space, Property, and Business Can be Mapped for the Best and Highest Energy Use
That’s right. On a room-per-room basis, you can decorate and bring in all the elements of the Bagua Map.
Choose home decor items about the section or sections you’d like to incorporate into the room. As an example, the top-left area of your bedroom, as you stand at your bedroom door holding the Western Map, is your room’s Prosperity and Wealth corner.
Learn more about which items to feature there to increase the flow of abundance into your life. Since you should include the Wood Element in your wealth and prosperity corner, you could place a Money Tree or Bamboo Plant on a large wood dresser. You could also add a water element here, such as a lovely tabletop water fountain.
Keep your bedroom money area clear of clothes piling up, clutter, or even exercise equipment. Exercise equipment in your abundance area symbolizes a lot of work and sweat needed to earn your money; you certainly don’t want that to happen. If the equipment has to be in your bedroom, keep it out of your money corner.
In summary, Feng Shui is about living with what you love, creating a clutter-free, clean, organized, safe space, and affirming the kind of life you and your family have.
One Final Tip to Make it Easier:
If you have a home floor plan, superimpose the Bagua Map over your floor plan and use it in the same shape as your home.
For example, if your home is long and narrow, imagine or physically use the Bagua map as though it fits right over your floor plan as long and narrow. Let the map fit as though it fit from side to side and front to back onto your home. Then image or draw three equal quadrants vertically and horizontally.
If your home is a wide rectangle, use the plan as though it were equivalent to that shape.
To determine where your front door aligns on your Bagua Map – Once you’ve superimposed (either in your mind or on paper) the map over your floor plan, with the bottom of the map lining up with your front door, you’ll then be able to tell which area of the house your front door lines up with; in our home, our front door opens into our Career/Work Success Area.
Of course, there’s so much more, but that’s enough for today! Here’s to good to Chi!
Additional Articles:
A Mirror in the Bedroom, Yes or No?
Your Bed May Be in the Coffin Position, Yikes!
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I’ve practiced Feng Shui in another home I lived in years ago. It worked quite well. Nice to have a ‘map’ to go by now. I used a book about Feng Shui last time.
Pat, thanks for stopping by. A little good energy work can only be a good thing for our body, mind and spirit – good energy home decor is on my radar these days too 🙂
This is extremely interesting! I have never considered any real design or balance when decorating my home. I simply choose things I love and what to surround myself with. I am laughing now as I think of what someone who really studied Feng Shui and searched for the energy and balance of my home.
Cynthia, just knowing some of this may have us inadvertently following it! lol
Very interesting way to bring out the energy of your home.
Brenda, thanks for stopping by 🙂
what if the house is L shape?
Hi, thanks for stopping by, I suspect you position the map at the front door the same way, and follow the map accordingly