If you prefer to take a holistic approach to home design, aiming to create a space with improved energy flow that fosters a happy, relaxing atmosphere and prosperity for your household, then feng shui might be just what you need to transform a house into a home. To learn how to incorporate its basic principles into your bespoke home renovations, our blog will give you the right kind of chi (energy) to create a functional, organised and comforting space to bring your family together.
What is feng shui?
Feng shui is an ancient Chinese practice that emphasises arranging your environment to promote harmony, balance and positive energy flow. While it has traditionally been used to select locations and times to build homes and seed crops, it has helped guide homeowners into designing floor plans and inspire interior decor that helps to centre yourself.
It’s deeply rooted in the belief that your living space is a living conduit that harnesses a sense of chi to impact your well-being, happiness and success. To best understand what chi or energy is, think of it like a flow of water — how easy it is to pass through a room can help describe your space’s ambience.
For example, a large room with little furniture can cause the energy to rapidly rush in and make you feel lost and uneasy. On the other hand, if you have a small room filled to the brim with furniture, the energy is stagnant, making you feel overwhelmed and stuck.
While the concept of feng shui can be a little esoteric for some, understanding how your room feels when undertaking a bespoke home renovation will help you design a friendly atmosphere that encourages family and friends to linger and socialise.
Incorporating feng shui into your home
Here’s how you can incorporate feng shui into various areas of your home:
Entrance, foyer and hallway
We all want to return to a happy and healthy home, and maintaining a thoughtfully designed entryway can give you the buffer needed to alter your mood when arriving home from work. Not only does it create a great impression for everyone passing through the threshold, but it instantly sets the tone of your lifestyle, from feeling relaxed and lighthearted to tight and constricted.
Protecting the chi of your home starts at the door. Select a solid hardwood piece devoid of glass and plastic to seal against negative energy and pollution from outside. Most feng shui practitioners recommend attending to sticky locks and creaking joints that cause frustration and installing lighting close by so you never feel like you’re meeting a dark and vacant space.
During a bespoke home renovation or house extension, consider where stairs to the upper levels will be placed. Feng shui recommends avoiding them in entryways where it directs positive chi outside. The same principle goes with mirrors — mount them in a spot that doesn’t sit opposite an entry or exit.
Bedroom
Feng shui promotes equality between all household members, which means giving each person their own space, preferably similar-sized rooms, to prevent resentment. When decorating rooms, opt for soothing colours to infuse relaxation or keep bolder hues to bedrooms on the lower floor to help support the home’s foundations.
Allow each family member to design their own space and express their creativity to imbue a sense of warmth. Choose furniture with rounded edges that are proportionate to the room without overcrowding the area and provide dedicated storage to eliminate clutter that can disrupt the energy in the room and help make you feel unmotivated.
For best results, promote symmetry by bookending your bed with a nightstand and placing it away from direct view of the doorway to prevent chi from leaving the room.
Kitchen
Feng shui strongly believes that the kitchen is the heart of the home and recommends positioning it in the centre of the house. This is to allow chi to slowly spread across your home for an even and balanced energy distribution.
As the epicentre of your home, your kitchen is where your household comes together multiple times to dine and socialise. Promote harmony in the room by opting against islands, breakfast bars and sharp edges that create a barrier between each member of the family.
Bathroom
During a bespoke home renovation, you have complete freedom to design a floor plan that matches your lifestyle. For best feng shui practices that give you greater privacy, it’s recommended to position your bathroom away from the kitchen and entryways to stop negative energy leaking through smells and sounds.
Feng shui is the ultimate sustainable design style that promotes conserving water, so consider using water-saving taps, taking shorter showers and repairing leaky faucets to prevent energy loss. And, while it is a private space, bathrooms can be home to stagnant energy. To remedy this, keep the bathroom door and toilet lid closed and add a green leafy plant to lighten the room and convert downward energy into vital life chi.
Prioritise harmony and happiness with a bespoke home renovation that matches your needs
If you’re looking for a master builder who can renovate and extend your home or convert underutilised spaces, Bespoke Renovations should be your first choice. We’re an experienced team that can create a home that adapts to your needs and exceeds your expectations.
With a collaborative consultation process, we can take your preferences and lifestyle into consideration to plan a design that improves the atmosphere and liveability of your home and makes it a place you and your family will treasure. To find out how you can turn your dream home into a reality, discover our range of services today.