Our homes are our happy places. We want to be able to walk around our homes and feel serene and peaceful. We take care to keep our places allergy-resistant and bug-free.
But where is the most crucial place to have this calm? Our bedrooms.
When we go to bed at night, we need to be calm so that our bodies and brains are ready to fall asleep. If there’s chaos in our safe space, there’s no way going to sleep will be easy.
So what’s a great way to find peace and get to sleep faster and in a good headspace? Feng shui your bedroom.
What Is Feng Shui?
Feng shui is an ancient Chinese practice. The intention is to arrange shapes, objects, buildings even in a particular order or appearance to achieve harmony and balance.
Feng shui translates to “the way of wind and water,” and stems from Taoist beliefs in chi. In Taoism, chi is the life force that binds and drives everything. Another way to understand it, chi is the yin and yang of energy.
Taoists' beliefs dictate that balancing out yin and yang elements in our lives improves our positive chi and keeps negative chi away. They promote this well-being in their lives by balancing the five elements: fire, water, earth, metal, and wood. If your energy flow feels off or imbalanced, you can reset it by adding or replacing these elements in the room.
Why Switch To Feng Shui?
Feng shui is said to promote a positive energy flow in and out of your space. In our bedrooms, it creates positive vibes to make happy, healthy sleep possible. With just a few minor adjustments to furniture for proper Feng shui placements, we can all go to sleep happier and wake up more energized.
So if you’re just starting a new home decorating process, perfect! Start with these principles of Feng shui immediately, and interior design is a cinch. If you’ve already finished decorating the house, don’t worry.
Today, our goal is to give you tips for creating Feng shui and provide some fixes for some impossibilities. The best part? These tips can extend to the home office or living room, or any other room you think needs a bit of positive reinforcement.
Let’s Get To It
We have seven top Feng shui tips for your bedroom. We understand that a Feng shui consultant can be pricey, so we’re sharing adjustments and design choices that can be done without outside help.
We will provide these layout choices with the principles of Feng shui behind them for other rooms. As well as provide small “fixes” you can make for rooms that can’t achieve some of these placement needs.
Bed Placement
The first step in achieving good Feng shui in your bedroom is Feng shui bed placement. This is going to be broken down in a few steps as there’s a lot to cover, and we don’t want to leave anything out.
First Tip
The first rule: make sure your head is near a solid wall. Putting your headboard against a solid wall, free from any windows, will ensure that drafts don’t happen above your head. What can be said is that the draft can make the chi above your head swirl. If the chi swirls, it could let out the positive energy and make way for bad vibes.
You’ll also want to choose a solid headboard as opposed to one with slats. This can lead to an uneven flow of chi as it can move awkwardly through the different openings in the headboard. Leave the footboard off as well; it restricts the flow of chi.
Second Tip
You also want to position your bed away from the door. Keep it facing the door, but not directly. The idea is to be able to see anyone coming in or out, including feeling the chi flowing, but not head-on. It ensures that you won’t be “hit” with negative chi flowing in but can absorb the good.
This is called the commanding position; your bed should give you command of the bedroom at all times.
- One more tip: do not share your bed-wall with the bathroom.
Third Tip
One side of the bed should also not be pushed up against a wall. Why? You’re limited to the flow around the room, specifically to you on the bed, when there is a bedroom wall on one side. Instead, it’s better to have your bed in the middle, between two nightstands.
Bed Fixes
Bed position is one of the basic, main rules for Feng shui in the bedroom. But, city living can prove to be a roadblock to this goal. In a small bedroom, sometimes the only option is next to the bedroom door or under a window. In these instances, there are three quick fixes.
Mirror
First, if you can’t get your bed diagonal to the door, place a mirror in that position instead. This way, you can see anyone coming in or out.
Door
Second, if you’re unable to find a solid wall to position your bed on, keep the door closed when lying down. If it cannot be completely closed, kids coming in and out for things at night, then leave it open only an inch or two at most.
This also goes for a closet door. When you aren’t in the closet getting dressed or picking out clothing for the day, keep the door shut so that your chi doesn’t flow into this room unintentionally.
Crystal
Third, if you’re only able to place your bed directly in the path of the door, place a crystal in the middle of the pathway. A bed directly in the door’s pathway is considered bad Feng shui, so a crystal will expel any negative chi from flowing to you.
Bed Frame
A solid headboard is important, and so is NOT having a footboard. However, if you’re limited on space and options, it’s better not to have a bed frame at all.
Feng Shui Colors
Colors that work for a Feng shui bedroom are topics we want to break up into small pieces. This way, we can go over every finite detail, and you'll be able to achieve the best sleep possible.
Let’s discuss feng shui colors now.
Fourth Tip
This one might sound a bit vague, but it is all about being intentional. You need to decide what you want your room to represent and use elements and colors to get there. There is an idea in Feng shui, known as Bagua.
This idea is represented as eight forces or symbols that work together to represent the fundamentals of reality. The fire elements and water elements are examples of the Bagua, and the different positions on a compass give you your positioning.
Doing things in terms of Bagua is the way of bringing what you want to your bedroom or home. With the positioning of your furniture and the colors you choose, you’re securing your home and family from the “poison arrows” or negative energy.
This bad chi tries to harm you; your positioning and intentions in mind of Bagua keep this from happening.
Fifth Tip
For many, bedroom colors usually are chosen with a certain decorative theme in mind. However, when it comes to Feng shui bedroom rules, a neutral color palette needs to be a priority. You need a base of soft, neutral colors, then add in colors of intention. What does this mean?
So, the idea behind this intention goes back to what we discussed earlier. You need to decide what each room represents what elements and emotions you want to invoke.
Fiery red, bring more energy and passion to your room. Pale blues, calm and peaceful chi will rush in. This doesn’t mean the entire room either; you just need to add colorful elements and small pieces to invoke the chi.
Color Fixes
Redecorating and bringing new elements into your space might not always be possible. If budgeting or space is an issue, your best bet is to just redo the linen on the bed.
This is where you sleep, so keep the linens neutral with small additions of color to help with chi. A nice way to do this? Buy a comforter or blanket in a neutral color and opt for colorful bed sheets.
The Whole Room
The last two tips have to do with the bedroom organization as a whole. These tips encompass the entire room and not one small piece, so the topics may seem broad. That’s just because they kind of are.
Sixth Tip
The sixth tip is all about spacing. What do we mean? Throw away the clutter! It’s not easy, and many of us are closet hoarders, but it’s necessary for Feng shui.
Simultaneously bookshelves and an excessive amount of books aren’t great for your bedroom. Again, everything we put into our rooms is something we mean to get out of it as well. This means that every book in your bedroom brings something to the chi you allow in.
Be mindful of the clutter everywhere in the room. Feng shui experts believe that to declutter the entire room is best to declutter the mind. If you hide a bunch of clutter under the bed, it can be seen as sleeping on your problems. It is best for bedroom decorating to leave out anything you don’t want to take into your mind permanently.
Seventh Tip
The final tip is all about symmetry. Every piece of furniture needs to have balance and coordination with each other. If you have a bedside table, make sure you have an identical or equal one on the other side. Your bedroom layout is crucial to maintaining the harmony needed to allow maximum positive chi flow.
One more tip on this: use those bulky pieces of furniture to hide the sharp corners in your room. These sharp corners are said to hold and cause bad energy, so putting furniture pieces in front of them limits the bad energy that can be created. It is also great to add crystals to the decor in these areas to promote positive energy.
Something To Consider
While Feng shui is a guide to getting you more restful sleep, it might not be perfectly achievable in your space. Best Feng shui practices truly involve the intentions and energies you create in your space, so this is key.
If you prefer natural light in the morning, don’t stress about where your bed is placed. This natural light is vital for your good energy to flow all day.
You’re Ready
We are confident these tips and quick fixes are the perfect recipes for making you a Feng shui master. Remember that balance is all about peace and harmony. So make sure that when you’re bedroom decorating, you do so with love and happiness in your mind.
Sources:
Feng Shui: A Comparison of the Original Concept and Its Current Westernized Version | ScholarWorks
Feng Shui Colors for Happier Home | Real Simple
7 Simple Ways to Use Feng Shui in Your Home | Architectural Digest
