How to Create a Feng Shui Living Room

This is Part 3 of 5 Microliving posts about feng shui.

The living area of your home is where you spend most of your waking time, whether it is socializing, watching television, or just reading. The ideal feng shui living room should be invigorating enough to keep you happy and energized, while not providing too much mental stimulation as to become distracting. Therefore, this room is one in which the yin and yang elements should be fairly balanced.

• Allow for a free flow of energy from the door to the window. Anything that disrupts the powerful flow of chi from moving from the living room entrance to the windows will negatively impact the entire feel of the room, so you may need to rearrange your furniture to allow energy to access the room freely.
• If you have a fireplace, make it a central element. Fireplaces are a great source of positive energy, so ideally your living room design and decoration should be focused on the hearth.
• Arrange seating so that everyone can see the door. A half-circular design is the best layout to ensure that good flow of chi, and also move seating furniture away from any walls or windows to foster chi flowing all the way around the furniture from all sides.
• Use mirrors strategically. Place mirrors in areas where you can reflect good chi into areas that are dark or unhappy. This is especially effective if you can reflect windows into more enclosed areas of the living room. Never allow a mirror to reflect a bathroom or staircase.
• Hang happy portraits or artwork on the walls. Surround yourself with positive images, particularly happy portraits on the family side of your bagua chart, or flowing water photographs on the north wall of your living room.

Above all else, strive for balance in your living room area. The unobstructed flow of energy is vital for a successful feng shui living room, so do not allow clutter to accumulate anywhere, keep surfaces as clean as possible, and temper yang elements with calmer yin elements. If you make at least a couple of these changes, you will feel the difference immediately.