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What is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui is a wonderful combination of art, science and intuition, used to enhance every area of life. Is your career at a standstill, is a lack of money an issue, do you want more love in a partnership? Feng Shui products are tools and “cures” that adjust or fix the flow of energy when it is stuck, stagnant, or moving too quickly.

A Feng Shui product can also enhance the flow of energy for extra attention on a part of life. Feng Shui symbols of good fortune can be used to jazz up a love life, enhance career or fame, and provide helping people to enter your environment, or improve health issues. Products and tools call more money into your life or help bring in a loving relationship. Feng Shui tools, products, and gifts are symbols of good fortune that manifest the positive aspect of chi energies within the living space

Feng means “wind,” and shui means “water” (pronounced fung-shway). In Chinese culture, gentle wind and smooth water have always been associated with a good harvest and good health, while harsh winds and stagnant water have been linked to famine and disease. Therefore, “good” feng-shui has come to mean good livelihood and fortune, and “bad” feng-shui has come to mean hardship and misfortune.

Considered by many to be the most ancient form of decorating, feng shui takes ancient Chinese principles and applies them to the way that you arrange the furniture throughout your home. The theory behind feng shui is that every single object gives off an energy, which is called its “chi.” That chi will flow throughout the room and entire living space, affecting the people within that space in very specific ways. Learning how to arrange the room so that the chi is at its optimal performance level is important.Feng shui can be a fun and empowering way to decorate.

Feng-shui is not a superstition or a set of dos and don’ts. It is the art and science of understanding the forces of nature in order to design houses and workplaces that blend with the environment instead of clashing with it. It aims to help us live in harmony with the world by promoting the flow of positive energy and neutralizing or avoiding negative or destructive energy.

In today’s culture, feng shui has been heavily watered down and adapted to a pop culture sensation. Most of the nuances of the practice have been forgotten and this can often cause this art to fail miserably. Considering that this practice is something which has been developing for many thousands of years, one can be assured that the true practice of feng shui is something delicate. Instead, parts are seemingly chosen at random to give today’s feng shui the accessibility which it seems to have acquired.

Feng Shui – Chi

Chi is considered to be the most important principle of feng shui. It is the entire purpose that one adopts this decorating technique for because when you use feng shui, you are trying to optimize the flowing of the chi throughout the room. Chi is the energy which every single object gives off. That chi will be radiated from these objects and will pick up on currents which move throughout the space. Opening up the passage ways of this current will play a large part in making the chi move successfully through a room.

The flow of chi is determined by many natural factors. Some objects will evoke more chi than others and some objects will block the chi instead of helping it to pass by and flow. Figuring out what these objects are and placing them in areas where they will help the flowing of the room is crucial. One of the best ways that the flow can help to be determined is by how well any one person can move throughout the room.

Of course, one of the biggest influences on chi and feng shui itself is the color scheme which is used in the space. Color is important because it can make a huge impact on the person viewing it and ultimately, the flow of chi will be determined by the people in the room. Color can give off certain emotions and moods. Light colors can either be uplifting or aggravating depending on the arrangement and purpose of the room. Dark colors may be soothing or they may be depressing for the same reasons.

Learning how to best use the color in a room will play an important part in a proper feng shui arrangement. If a room is supposed to be a room with relaxation, such as a bedroom, having too many light or bright colors will achieve the opposite effect. At the same time, putting dark colors in the office may push people to relax too much and no work will ever be done

So with feng shui, color is a very big design element – one of the most major – that affects chi. Each color represents one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Most of the time, you have to use a particular color for a room to supplement the lack of the corresponding element, thus achieving elemental balance and harmony. There are also ‘moods’ for each color that depend on the specific purpose of a room. For example, bedrooms are places for rest, while living rooms are meant to look cozy and inviting.

Learning the proper use of colors according to both feng shui and interior design is critical if you want to use it in your home. Rooms for relaxation and rest like the bedroom or family room will seem very busy and overly energetic with too many colors, no matter how elementally harmonious it is. Meanwhile, dark or heavy colors in a working space can get people down or too relaxed, making it difficult to get work done.

When following feng shui for designing your home, you’ll have to consider how each item affects both the overall look and the movement of chi. For example, you have to balance out dark elements with light elements. Light-colored furniture will work well for a dark-colored room, and the reverse is also true. If you do otherwise, the room will end up looking to imposing and will probably be non-conducive to the passage of chi to boot.

In China, the colors red, yellow and purple bring good luck. These should be used in the first room that visitors would enter through, to draw positive energy into your home. Keep in mind that you don’t have to drown a room in a particular color, nor do you have to repaint or other major changes to accomplish this. The easiest way is to choose one prominent item in a room to use as a focal point for the color.

Feng Shui – Decorating Your Home

In the first room, if you have a wall facing the front door, place a larger piece of artwork with one of the three colors dominant within it. Fame and Reputation area has fire as the element so decorating with red is a good idea. Decorating with red and fire elements brings luck and recognition. The walls may be painted a warm peach or maroon. Decorative furniture could be green as well because this mixes well with red. The colors can be very toned down, they do not need to be bright. Fire is represented by light so many fixtures, floor lamps, ceiling fans and candles are good choices for decorating

In other rooms, decide what feeling you want to inspire. Green is the color of freshness, peace and growth. Try a green throw for a piece of furniture, or decorate the room with plants. Wealth area and Family area are the elements of wood. In Feng Shui, decorate with plants that have broad healthy leaves. Silk plants are allowed, however, do not use dried plants because they symbolize ill health. Blue wallpaper and carpet or soft furnishings are good because this represents water and water allows wood to grow. Decorating with a mixture of blue and green is great. Decorating with fish, in Feng Shui this is very symbolic of wealth.

Family areas should combine wood and water, or browns and blues. Bedrooms should have the colors of nature within them for peaceful rest and health. This is where you might want to use inexpensive oriental rugs and geometric rugs to anchor and tie the other rooms together into a single, vibrant flow. Decorating with feng shui is easy to do if you know what a color means, and how it can be represented. Use objects to represent colors, like plants, the veneer on furniture and artwork.

Health, Relationship and Knowledge areas are earth element in Feng Shui. These areas could be decorated with natural crystals, terracotta and tile. Decorative orange, yellow, and browns are great for this area. In Feng Shui, fire produces earth so bring some red into the mix for extra punch. Harmonize all decorative objects with warm earthy colors.

We have just touched on the basics of Feng Shui and decorating! We will get into more detailed decorating tips according to Feng Shui in our blog in the coming weeks! We will get more specific and we will focus on one room at a time.

We have many many decorating items and collectables we are featuring on this website, but we also have one merchant that is exclusively Feng Shui!!
The have articles (way more in-depth than I have been able to cover here)
They also have Feng Shui specific products including required decorating products when following Feng Shui.

We will have links to their article and products on this page AND our BLOG shortly!

Thanks to Sarah Crosset for some of this articles information