Feng Shui Designs for the Home

This basic bagua details the domains of the house as they read from the entry at the bottom, to the rear of the home at the top. Image credit - Katherine Kaess, Soulspaces International Balance includes maintaining the natural in our lives, so holistic design often minimizes the glaring presence of technology, softening its role by enclosing it in cabinets, draping it in colorful fabrics, or behind screens. As an antidote to the depersonalization of our culture, holistic design encourages conversational groupings where chairs face one another and create conversation spots. Couches face each other with a table in between. Seating does not face toward the television, but at an angle to it. Natural materials are also favored, including natural fabrics, stone, wood, and metal. In most holistic design, there is an attempt to steer away from chemically treated, unnatural products to the greatest extent possible. “I’m a big proponent of using as many natural materials as possible,” Kaess says. “It’s all about awareness of the impact of your house on you and you on the earth.” Thoughtful Placement True holistic design seeks to put things and activities in their proper places. While much of this can be determined intuitively, based on where and when things feel right to us, feng shui uses the bagua to determine the domains of the home and their connection to our lives. According to the bagua, there are nine distinct domains or zones of the home. How the bagua is placed over the floorplan of the home depends on which approach is taken. The bagua may be placed strictly according to cardinal directions, north, south, east, and west, and the astrology of the homeowners, or with the lower edge aligning with the front façade of the home. The rooms then coincide with the different centers of our lives, including prosperity, travel, health, ancestors, and others. The bagua is used to help homeowners determine which activities and which objects are best suited to a given space. Kaess tells the story of one person who moved a treasured family portrait to another wall within the same room but in the ancestral domain as determined by the bagua. She had an immediate sense of harmony, of things falling into place. This, Kaess stresses, is the goal of holistic design, no matter which tools are employed to help us get there. Our spaces should feel good to us. They should enhance our sense of well-being; they should sustain, and rejuvenate us. Here the bagua has been overlaid on a specific house plan to show homeowners how their spaces are governed and to encourage them to incorporate meaningful objects and materials in their interior design. (click to enlarge) Image credit - Katherine Kaess, Soulspaces International Kaess does offer some practical tips for improving our home environments. In the kitchen, she urges homeowners to keep the elements separate from one another whenever possible. The stove, or fire, should not be adjacent to the sink, or water, or directly next to the refrigerator. Mirrors can be placed throughout the home to encourage the flow of chi. Clutter should be reduced wherever possible because it stalls the flow of chi and bogs us down. Kaess encourages clients to walk themselves through a meditation of their homes. Lie down, relax, and close your eyes. Walk through each room and notice how you feel and what you see, what you are attracted to and what you are weighted by. This will be your first sign of how to proceed. “We can do this with what we have,” Kaess says of a holistic approach to design. “It doesn’t cost anything. It’s about awareness of our space and our relationship with that space.”

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