Are you looking to update your home design with the latest Feng Shui 2022 trends?
The ancient art form of organisation has mystical origins but also real-world benefits. Feng Shui helps you declutter and de-stress your home by focusing on harmony, flow, and balance.
The key is to respect your home as a space that can affect how you feel on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. A home in disarray can feel uncomfortable and draining, while a well-organised one is the opposite.
Read on for a quick guide on achieving harmonising balance in your home with Feng Shui...
The History and Tradition of Feng Shui
The question of 'what is Feng Shui?' always goes back to some mythical idea of how it works. The term itself translates to "wind" (Feng) and "water" (Shui). This is fitting since water is within us, and wind, or air, is what we breathe.
Both aspects are necessary for human life, and when seen as an organisational system, the same applies.
The tradition of Feng Shui indeed has ancient roots, buried in the religions of Taoism and Buddhism. In particular, it connects to the idea of existing in harmony with your surroundings. However, there's nothing mystical about how it works and why it's so effective.
The question of balance between competing forces in your home is what Feng Shui design is about.
Within Taoism, there are five main elements: Water, earth, metal, wood, and fire. Almost every aspect of your home can get contextualised under one of these elements. If you have too many competing aspects, it will impact your harmony.
Having too many things in certain parts of your home doesn't only create a mess. It creates disruption in your life, which in Feng Shui goes by the term disharmony or chaos.
A great way to avoid this disharmony is through minimalism and proper spacing. Feng Shui tries to teach that it is possible to improve how you feel in a room by how you arrange it. Arranging proper Feng Shui in your home also comes with serious benefits.
The Practice and Benefits of Feng Shui
Feng Shui knows how to improve the feeling of balance and stability in your home. We touched on the example of clutter and how this can have a negative impact. You don't need to contextualise it through Feng Shui to understand why clutter is bad.
One of the things Feng Shui stresses is mental health and peace of mind. If everything is where it should be, and all the elements stand in balance, it's a load off your mind. For those of us with OCD, we know all too well what it feels like to see things in disarray.
The thing about achieving Feng Shui is you don't need to have OCD to notice what stresses you out. When everything fits together the way it should, it flows. When it doesn't, you notice, even if you can't put your finger on it.
Understanding Feng Shui
When understanding the practice and benefits of Feng Shui, it's important to start at the door. The entrance to your home, and indeed every room, is of vital importance. In Feng Shui, your door is actually called "the mouth of chi," and it's thought all good energy enters your home through the door.
We could all use more good vibes in our lives, so it's worth focusing on the door. Firstly, it's important to place your most important objects in a "commanding position." This is a spot that faces the entryway and has a clear line of sight to it.
In most versions of Feng Shui, the most important objects to do this with are the stove, bed, and work desk or table. This is because these are often the three areas of your home you spend the most time in. You can't always move things around for practical reasons, like your stove, so it's ok to adapt however you can.
Having your back to the door in those positions is also not recommended. Neither is it a good idea to be 100% aligned, as then the energy can overwhelm you. A little off-centre, or better yet diagonal, is perfect.
There are a number of additional principles, as well as do's and don'ts for Feng Shui. In practice, these often revolve around keeping everything neat, clean, and organised. One key thing is never to have a mirror facing your bed, as it disrupts the flow of energy.
Everything works towards improving harmony and flow from your doorway to your bed.
How to Implement Feng Shui in 2022
Aside from always working around "commanding positions," you must keep your doorways clean and clutter-free. You should never block an entryway, as that blocks positive energy and good fortune.
From a mental health aspect, you can think of it as making your home feel smaller and more stressful to live in. A way of achieving a clutter-free doorway while still being practical is to get a storage Ottoman.
For your bedroom, it's super important to pick relaxing colours that calm you. You also need to keep space on both sides of the bed for symmetry and ease of access from both sides.
Remember, Feng Shui is about the harmony of balance and flow. Anything that gets in the way of physical, mental, or spiritual flow is a no-go. If you have to shuffle around your bed, you aren't flowing, and neither is your room.
Understanding the Colours of Feng Shui
One of Feng Shui's major aspects is respecting your home's colour palette. Remember the five elements of Taoism? A great way to incorporate them into your home is via colour.
Earthy tones, like browns, darker yellows, and oranges, are soothing and help ground you. This square oak-coloured table with gold accents from the Londyn collection is popular with our customers.
The element of metal gives you focus and helps you achieve your aims. Metalic tones, like silver, are great picks, but white, off-white, and grey work too. A great place is in the kitchen or other task-oriented spaces where focus shines.
Water is the last of the more "calming' or focused elements. It's often represented by blacks and darker blues. It helps with deep reflection, making something like a chic blue chair great for studying.
The final two elements are wood and fire. Fire is self-explanatory, as the red colour represents passion, vitality, and attraction. Red flowers or a statement piece vase are great ways to achieve this, as is a bowl of fresh red fruits on the table.
Wood implies freshness and new beginnings, making it great for a redesign or new addition. You can use any of these elements either as paint jobs or as carefully curated pieces and accents. The key to achieving Feng Shui in 2022 is all in how you maintain the balance of design and placement.
Feng Shui 2022: Achieve Harmony in Your Home
Using these simple and adaptable Feng Shui 2022 principles helps you craft a home that works for you and your life. It's all about reducing stress and balancing high energy with calmness and a sense of order.
When thinking about implementing Feng Shui, you often need to pick up a few pieces to make it work. For more on how to style your home, or to do some shopping for it, don't hesitate to browse our journal page or contact us today.
