How Can I Use Feng Shui to Arrange My Bedroom?
March 13, 2008 Q. I loved your Feng Shui Bedroom video on YouTube and was looking for a little advice. I am having some trouble with my bedroom. I have put together the following diagram to show the basic layout of my bedroom and major items inside. Any advice on placement of the furniture would be appreciated. Thank you! (from Idyllsend, Canada)
A. Many thanks for the jpg. It was well done and very helpful. Here are some comments we can make about your bedroom, and we are relying on the practical feng shui advice and principles we learned during a tour and classes in China in the 1990s. There are many good books and websites you can turn to for further help, including Clear Engelbert's Bedroom Feng Shui (see cover below).
1. Your choice of furniture is good. Square and rectangular shapes in furniture belong in bedrooms. Avoid circles.
2. The head of your bed should be backed up by a wall, and never a window or a mirrored wall. Don't have anything above your bed, like a skylight, a beam, a hanging lamp, mirrors, or a plant.
3. Try not to place your bed under a slanting or lower portion of the ceiling. It will "oppress you," according to feng shui observations.
4. The most fortunate spot in the room, with your entry door being at the NW corner, is right where your closet or bathroom is -- precisely the area of the closet or bathroom behind the door when it opens. (We couldn't tell if that bump-out room in your drawing was a walk-in closet or a bathroom.) So that's a shame that such an auspicious place is not somewhere in your bedroom.
BUT the next most fortunate area in your bedroom is in the NE corner, directly opposite the door.
5. Try putting your nightstand in that NE corner with a lamp on it (rectangular shade if possible). Your bed should be with your head against the East wall and you're exactly facing the door.
Please note: That puts you in the luckiest area of your bedroom, but it also puts you in the direct path of your door. That may not give you the most restful sleep since the energy or qi flows into your room through that main passage door. You might want to have a little study area in the fortunate NE corner and have a small desk facing the door with the chair against the East wall. This would energize your home business and studies. Or you could set up a shrine or meditation area there and it will be very auspicious.
It's fortunate that a bed isn't like a toilet, as our resident design expert Irwin Weiner ASID puts it -- you can move your bed around and experiment, but you're stuck with your toilet being hooked up to your plumbing! Your most restful sleeping spot will probably be with the head of the bed against the partial wall in your bedroom, against the closet or bathroom in your drawing (that would be placing the head of the bed on the West edge of your room, facing East.
That is a neutral space in the room according to feng shui layouts based on main doors in the NW corner. It's not lucky or semi-lucky, but the areas in the middle of the East wall, the SE corner, and the SW corner are unlucky areas according the the siting principles of feng shui, so we wouldn't want you to sleep there. Use those areas for storage, dressers, bookshelves, etc. Don't sleep, study, read, or meditate in those unfortunate areas.
We think feng shui should not dictate how you should live your life or lay out your furniture. You won't have dire consequences if you make an unfortunate furniture placement. But you might sleep restlessly or not feel wonderful, and these are conditions you can experiment with. Here are our recommendations:
Step One: Try placing your bed facing the door in the NE corner for one week.
Step Two: Then try moving it to the West wall, just out of sight of the door when you walk into your bedroom, for one week.
Step Three: Compare the two weeks and your sleep experiences during those two weeks. You might want to keep a sleep diary or journal and record your dreams, overall sleeping experiences, and how you feel upon waking up and during the day. Which week gave you the more relaxing and healthy sleep? Which week gave you days that felt better, more productive, and perhaps even luckier?
Step Four: Place your bed where you had the best experiences!
And here are some other recommendations about bedrooms we learned on our China tour and classroom experience:
Try not to add a TV to your bedroom, as it's usually not a good thing for sleep. If you do have one, hopefully you can have it in a cabinet that you can close up with doors before you sleep.
We're not a huge fan of your bed style, by the way! Beds should be above the floor at least one hand's length, but not higher than two feet. It's good to have air circulating around the bed and mattress. But we do like the fact that you don't have round posts, canopies, or overly-done decorations with your bed. That's very good according to feng shui principles.
Keep your colors subtle and neutral in the bedroom to keep sleep relaxing and quiet. Add inspiring, beautiful artwork or posters.
This is your wonderful, personal retreat, and we hope these tips help you have a wonderful life and a healthy evening sleep!
Do you have a question for the Design2Share decorating team? Write to us at info@design2share.com.
Reader Comments (1)
Found your post through a simple search. Your tip about rectangular furniture is incorrect and should be avoided. It is actually really bad to have sharp edges that will cut into your Chi that goes into your room. Consider sharp Chi, if directed at your bed during you sleep will have negative effects. You should try to stick to things with rounded corners, it is known to be help the flow of Chi and in China, anything round means unity, hence why dining tables, for example are round, because it brings unity such as family. You can check any other source of Feng Shui to confirm.