Feng Shui: Decorating Your Home
When moving into a new home, it’s easy to get caught up in how you can make your home look good. But have you ever thought about how to make your home feel good? Look no further than feng shui.
We often hear this term thrown around, but what is it actually? What does it mean? Can I apply it to my own life? Yes, you can!
Read on for a quick introduction to the art of feng shui.
What Is It?
Feng shui - dating back to Ancient China - is the practice of arranging your living spaces to create balance with the natural world and yourself. This tradition aims to harness energy forces and establish harmony between a person and their environment.
Although this long-standing practice has been around for thousands of years, it is far from obsolete. In fact, there has recently been a resurgence in the Western world, with trained feng shui consultants offering services worldwide.
Feng shui is seen as a way to change your environment, and thus yourself, in the Western world. The truth is that our living spaces significantly impact how we feel, which is the foundation of feng shui logic. Once you understand the fundamentals of this exciting practice, you will be able to apply it effectively.
Feng Shui Basics
Despite its simple premise, feng shui goes beyond simply organising your space. Feng shui seeks to balance the energy flow of an area by relying on five major components. We will focus on the two popular principles: the five elements and yin and yang.
The Five Elements
The world is divided into five elements according to feng shui: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each element has a corresponding trait that should be aligned in your home to promote a balanced and holistic lifestyle.
Here’s a quick list of the elements, their representation, designated colours, and related shapes.
|
Element |
Traits |
Colours |
Shapes |
Objects |
| Wood | Creativity and growth | Green and teal | Rectangle | Wood furniture, doors, or picture frames, as well as plants and flowers |
| Fire | Emotion and passion | Red, orange and purple | Triangle | Burning candles, fireplaces |
| Earth | Balance and stability | Brown and yellow | Square | Tiles, clay pots, or granite countertops |
| Metal | Strength and focus | White, pastel and metallic | Round | Metal furniture (iron furniture, light fixtures, metal headboards), electronics and computers |
| Water | Movement and relaxation | Blue and black | Curvy | Aquarium, fish bowl, a fountain, glass and mirrors. |
To elicit each attribute, these elements must be represented in your home. If you want to emphasise certain traits in your daily life, incorporate more of those shapes, colours, and items into your furniture and decor. You can also remove certain elements that you feel are too strong in your home and replace them with others.
Yin and Yang: Balancing Energies
Another aspect of feng shui is yin and yang. Like feng shui, the yin and yang principle emphasises balance. According to the yin and yang principle, these two energies can be found in everything around us. To create a harmonious environment and well-balanced home, you must play with these energies.
So what do these energies represent? Yin energy is associated with the night, coolness, and silence. Yang, on the other hand, is a masculine symbol of the sun, sociability, and heat. These are symbolised in different ways, like in texture, colour, and more.
You can change the atmosphere of your space by experimenting with these energies. Some ways to achieve this is by contrasting textures and balance, such as soft cushions with hard chairs or an accent wall in a too-light room.
You’ll be one step closer to a feng shui home when maintaining a beautiful balance between these two energies and the five elements. No matter what, it’s all about balance at the end of the day.
How Can I Start?
Feng shui is not a one-size-fits-all methodology. If you want to experiment with feng shui before diving deep, the above principles can be applied in four ways.
Lighten Your Entryway
Keep your entryway clear and bright in terms of both objects and colour. Your entry represents how energy enters your home and life in feng shui. By creating an inviting space, you can avoid inviting negative or hectic energies into your home. Include a shoe rack, a coat rack or hook, and other storage that keeps them both organised and contained (since these objects hold the energy of the world beyond your front door).
Clean Your Space (Especially The Windows)
Cluttered areas can be very overwhelming. The clarity in both space and mind is an essential component of feng shui. Clutter is seen as taking up space that would otherwise be occupied by incoming positive energy. Make it a habit to clean up frequently used areas daily to reduce stress and create a sense of order in chaotic times.
Another quick clean that has a significant impact: windows! Windows represent your home's eyes, just as the eyes are the window to the soul. Clean your windows regularly to benefit from the sunlight, which naturally energises and wakes you up and can metaphorically help you see the world around you with clarity.
Remove Obstacles
To ease the flow of energy - and reduce the risk of injury - at home, clear as many routes as possible. Take a day to go through your home's pathways and see what needs to be removed or relocated. If this exercise inspires a major reorganisation, dive right in to make your flow as simple as possible. After all, in feng shui, efficiency is everything.
Feng Shui Shopping
Tidying, organising, and aligning can all make a huge difference. However, in order to apply some of the feng shui principles, you should consider what your home requires. As previously stated, the five elements and yin and yang can be manipulated to emphasise one energy more than the other - depending on what you require. Feng shui home decoration is required for a feng shui bedroom or a feng shui living room!
Pass by Dragon Mart and shop for the feng shui home decoration and furniture of your dreams! CFC Glass Furniture offers beautiful glass jars and decor that mimic the curvature of water. Dingli Trading FZCO offers solid chairs and tables that will inspire you if you require the creativity of wood. Al Mosada Trading has a large selection of earthy tones and grounding furniture for outdoor seating as well as bits and pieces to bring the earth into your home.
Feng Shui Your Home
Interior design and feng shui go hand-in-hand, besides being able to and changing the energy flow at home. It is critical to balance all objects in a room and understand their placement. Whether it's for your bedroom, living room, or kitchen, the flow of energy in a space and the balance of materials and energies will help a space look and feel incredible.
Create a feng shui home with just a few principles and tons of love.