Welcome to this guide on creating good feng shui in your living room! In this article, you’ll learn 9 easy steps to transform the energy in your living space using feng shui principles.
Feng shui, which means “wind water” in Chinese, is an ancient Eastern practice focused on optimizing the flow of energy through your surroundings. The philosophy is built on the idea that everything is alive and filled with chi, or life force energy. By intentionally designing and arranging your home, you can promote the free flow of positive chi and cultivate the energies you most desire – like good health, happiness, prosperity, and harmony.
While feng shui can seem complex at first, there are simple changes you can make to create a home with good feng shui. We’ll focus here on easy enhancements for your living room, which is often considered the heart of a home. When you improve the feng shui in this space, it will promote positive energy that spreads throughout the entire home.
The 9 tips below will help you refresh your living room and fill it with fresh, vibrant energy from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling. Get ready to feel more relaxed, content, and balanced each time you spend time in this space. Just follow these feng shui steps, and you’ll soon have a living room with glowing good chi!
Clear the Space
Clearing the energy in a space is an important first step in creating good feng shui in your living room. Stagnant or negative energy can accumulate over time, so it’s beneficial to clear this energy out before making any design changes. There are several techniques you can use:
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Smudging involves burning dried herbs like sage, sweetgrass, or palo santo and letting the smoke clear stagnant energies. Make sure to open any windows and doors during the process.
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Essential oils like lemon, lavender, and eucalyptus can also be used to cleanse energy when diffused in a room.
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Ringing bells or chimes is thought to break up dense energy and invite fresh chi into the space. Let the chimes ring for a minute or two throughout the room.
Starting fresh with a cleared energy canvas will allow you to infuse the space with positive feng shui elements more effectively. So take a moment to smudge, diffuse some oils, or sound the chimes before moving your furniture or making any big changes.
Air it Out
Opening the windows in your living room is an important step for allowing fresh air and energy to flow into the space. Stale or stagnant energy can build up in a room that is not properly aired out.
To let in fresh air and energy, open all of the windows in your living room for at least 9 minutes. This significant length of time allows for full air exchange to occur. While the windows are open, take the opportunity to give them a thorough cleaning as well. Wash windows on both the inside and outside to allow for maximum light and clarity. Consider using natural cleaning products to avoid filling your living room with harsh chemical fumes.
Allowing ample fresh air and light into your living room is an invigorating first step in cultivating good feng shui energy in this space. The simple act of opening your windows sets the tone for further feng shui enhancements.
Declutter
A cluttered space can create stress and impede the flow of positive chi energy. When decluttering your living room, remember that not every corner and surface needs to be filled. Reduce clutter by:
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Removing items you haven’t used in the past year. If you’re unsure, pack these items away in storage bins.
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Donating or selling unused decorative items like vases, sculptures, etc.
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Storing infrequently used items like extra blankets and board games out of sight.
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Clearing papers, magazines, and books not actively being used.
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Reducing the number of knickknacks and tchotchkes on shelves and tabletops.
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Keeping just a few sentimental items out rather than crowding space with memorabilia.
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Organizing media collections and containing them in a cabinet to reduce visual clutter.
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Grouping like items together on shelves rather than scattering them about.
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Removing excess furniture that is not being used.
By thoughtfully reducing clutter, you can create a calmer, more soothing atmosphere. This allows chi to flow freely through the living space.
Use the Bagua Map
In Feng Shui, the bagua map is used to align your living room with specific energies. The bagua map divides your room into nine equal sections, with each section corresponding to an area of your life, such as health, wealth, relationships, etc.
To use the bagua map in your living room:
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Draw a basic floor plan of your living room and overlay the bagua map onto it. The center of your bagua map should align with the center of your living room.
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Identify which bagua area corresponds with each section of your living room. For example, the wealth area may fall in the back left corner of your living room.
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Enhance each section of your living room according to the energy of its corresponding bagua area. For the wealth corner, you may add items or decor in purple, the color associated with wealth energy. Or place a plant here to stimulate growth and vitality.
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You can also use the shapes linked to each bagua area. For example, column shapes stimulate the knowledge and self-cultivation energy in the north bagua area.
Aligning your living room to the bagua map allows you to target the feng shui energies you most want to enhance. Referring to the colors and shapes of each area when decorating creates balance and harmony. With the bagua overlay, you can transform your living room into an inviting space that fosters positive energy flow.
Balance the Five Elements
In feng shui, bringing balance to the five elements – earth, metal, water, wood and fire – is an important way to cultivate positive energy in a space. The five elements encompass the fundamental energies present in nature and promote harmony when represented together.
When decorating your living room, intentionally incorporate representations of each element through colors, shapes, textures, materials and accents. For example:
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Earth energy embodies stability and grounding. Include earthy tones like yellow, orange, brown and terracotta. Use clay, stone or ceramic materials. Add squares and horizontal rectangles.
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Metal energy enhances clarity, precision and efficiency. Incorporate whites, grays and pastels. Add metal decor like vases, candlesticks or metallic accents. Use circular shapes.
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Water energy cultivates calm, intuition and flow. Add watery blues, blacks or mirrored surfaces. Include fountain features or glass decor. Use wavy and irregular shapes.
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Wood energy promotes health, growth and expansion. Bring in greens, floral patterns and wooden furniture or decor. Add vertical shapes and tall lamp fixtures.
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Fire energy inspires joy, passion and excitement. Use reds, oranges, pinks and triangles pointing upwards. Candles, lamps and lighting create fire energies.
When all five elements are present in your living room, it creates balance and harmony. Play with different colors, textures and shapes until you find a combination that feels uplifting. Let the five elements enhance your living space with their unique energies.
Use Meaningful Color
The colors you choose for your living room should relate to the bagua map area and five elements. Colors have symbolic meanings in feng shui that can help cultivate the energies you want to encourage.
For example, if your living room is in the fame and reputation bagua area, paint the walls a fiery red or vibrant orange. These colors represent the fire element which boosts passion, warmth, recognition and accomplishments.
To enhance health and family relationships in the knowledge and self-cultivation bagua area, opt for shades of green. This wood element color promotes growth, wisdom and vitality.
For the center of the home bagua area, create harmony with earth element colors like tan, brown or yellow. In the wealth zone, metallic accents bring in the metal element to encourage prosperity.
Consider both the psychological and energetic impacts of different colors and choose intentionally to create the mood and energy you desire in your living room. The goal is to make color choices that align with your intentions for the space.
Accommodate Each Person
When arranging furniture in your living room, be sure to focus on accommodating each person who lives in the home and facilitating conversation and interaction between them.
The layout of your furniture has a strong impact on the relationships between family members. Position sofas and chairs to face each other, forming a natural gathering place that encourages communication. Try to avoid seating that forces people to look in the same direction, like toward a TV, as this discourages interpersonal interaction.
Make sure there is a seat for every member of the household, whether adult or child. This creates a sense of belonging and inclusion. For larger families, incorporate multiple conversation areas so people can split into smaller groups and personalize their interactions.
Pay attention to traffic flow between furniture. You want open pathways that make it easy for people to move between different seats and convene with others. Avoid dead ends or furniture islands that obstruct natural movement.
Your living room layout impacts how you all spend time together in your shared home. Through intentional feng shui furniture placement, you can promote stronger familial bonds.
Add Plants
Adding living plants to a space is one of the easiest ways to improve feng shui and bring in positive energy. Plants represent the wood element in feng shui, which promotes health, growth, and vitality. Having lush, green plants in a living room creates a welcoming and revitalizing atmosphere.
When selecting plants, choose varieties that will thrive in the lighting conditions of the space. Place plants in areas where they can receive sufficient natural light and warmth. Good spots are near sunny windows, next to heat sources like fireplaces, or in corners that need an energy boost.
Greenery balances the other elements present in a living room, such as the earth element from ceramics and fire element from lighting. Plants purify the surrounding air and give off oxygen, improving the chi of the space. Their presence is rejuvenating and healing.
Aim to incorporate a variety of plants with differing shapes, sizes, and textures. Mix small and large, round and spiky, smooth and fuzzy. This diversity is appealing to the eye and brings complexity to the space. Arrange plants throughout the room rather than clustering them together. Scatter them around corners, bookshelves, tables, and more.
Caring for the plants and seeing them thrive also provides a rewarding sense of accomplishment. The living energy they radiate will be felt by all who enter the space. With the simple addition of plants, it is easy to cultivate good feng shui in a living room.
Feng Shui Artwork
When selecting artwork for your living room, choose pieces that bring in colors and shapes that align with the feng shui elements you want to cultivate. The artwork should not evoke too much emotion or make you feel uneasy when you look at it. Avoid selecting artwork with imagery that is overly sad, angry, violent, or dark. You want the art to provide a sense of beauty, harmony and positive energy.
In terms of placement, do not hang artwork too low on the wall or place sculptures too close to the ground. This can give off an ungrounded energy and make the room feel heavy. Artwork hung at eye level or slightly above is best. This enables the art to lift up the energy. For maximum feng shui benefits, position your artwork in purposeful spots that enhance the bagua area of your living room. This will help strengthen the energies flowing through that part of the space. Overall, select artwork that you find visually appealing and meaningful. Let it serve as a feng shui enhancement that brings colors, shapes and uplifting energy into your living room.
