Feng-Shui is an ancient Chinese art. The Chinese believed that by balancing the energies of a given space, they could ensure the health and happiness of the people that inhabit that area. Feng means wind, and Shui means water. Both wind and water are associated with good health in Chinese culture – an absence of Feng Shui means bad luck and ill fortune.
Most people spend one third of their day in the bedroom, so good Feng Shui in the bedroom is important. There’s more to Feng Shui than just matching your roller blinds to your carpets. Here’s a few tips to help you achieve good Feng Shui next time you decide to decorate your bedroom.
Plan for Feng-Shui
The first step to creating the perfect Feng Shui arrangement is to plan everything. Draw an outline of your bedroom, and divide it into a 3×3 grid. The wall that has your main bedroom door should be the bottom wall of the diagram.
The bottom three squares, from left to right as you enter the room relate to:
- Knowledge
- Career
- Helpful people and Travel
The middle row of squares, from left to right, relate to:
- Family and Health
- Tao (this square is the Center)
- Creativity
The top row of squares, from left to right, relate to:
- Wealth
- Fame
- Relationships
Now that you have divided the room into a grid, you should place the items relating to each of those topics in the correct place in the grid. This might sound tricky at first, but once you start thinking about what each object is for, it will start to make sense, for example:
- Knowledge – a book case, study related tools
- Career - water related items, motivational materials
- Helpful people / travel - pictures of people that are important to you, and pictures of places you have been or want to go
- Family and Health – plants, pictures of your family
- Creativity - items related to creative hobbies. Your computer.
- Wealth – anything red, purple, or gold. Jewellery. Fish.
- Fame – trophies, awards, anything orange, red, or purple.
- Relationships – candles, pictures of your significant other, symmetrical or paired items.
Colours are an important part of feng shui, and you may find that in smaller rooms the only way you can stay true to the design is to rely on colours. So, you may opt to have red or purple roller blinds to represent fame, or an orange rug to represent wealth.
When selecting furniture, make sure it serves its purpose well. You want a good headboard, a comfortable mattress, and a set of roller blinds that block out light well. Functional items should be chosen because they work well, not because they look good.
Remember that Feng Shui is really just a set of guidelines, and you don’t have to follow them perfectly. Very few bedrooms end up with perfect Feng Shui, but there’s nothing wrong with “close enough”, really. The time you spend thinking about your room’s layout and organizing things well will pay off.
Written by Amy Fowler on behalf of Creatively Different Roller Blinds, manufacturers of stylish roller blinds that are ideal for incorporating into a Feng-Shui styled room.
