Feng Shui principles about how energy moves, and how we’re influenced, can baffle people who are not familiar with this metaphysical predictive art. And as a fan of architecture and design, I can appreciate how annoying it might be to a homeowner, designer or builder when they find out that Feng Shui deems an elegant and cool part of the architecture as “bad Feng Shui.”
One example might be beautiful, rustic exposed beams. How could that be bad, right? Or how about an entrance foyer with direct views of a lovely landscaped garden in the back? How could that carry any bad ju-ju, right? I could continue with many other examples, but the theme for this article is to discuss the design or remodeling blunders which end up as bad Feng Shui– and no one would be all that surprised.
The Room Built Behind A Room: In an effort to just expand the living space and with limits in where to build out, sometimes people add a room onto an original room which had been at the back of the house. Typically, I’ve seen an additional family room built behind the living room. I’ve also seen dens built behind a kitchen. When this happens, the room which had been at the back of the house is now more in the middle of the house. It then becomes a dark, windowless room. It becomes reliant on light drifting in from the additional space, which might not be enough natural light. Kudos to those homeowners who at least add skylights to the otherwise cavernous room. The original back room-turned-middle of the house room may also end up as a pass-through area. It looks and feels awkward.
A variation on this is when two adjacent rooms have a door placed in the wall which divides them, instead of just leaving the entrance to each room from a hallway. I’ve seen this when a couple wants more direct access to the Baby’s room. That might be fine for a while. In fact, that opening between the rooms might work out okay if the Baby’s room eventually becomes an extension of the master bedroom, like a sitting room, or a walk-in closet. But when that direct access to a child’s bedroom has outgrown its purpose, it creates unnecessary traffic through the rooms and disrupts privacy. With qi flow (which guides the air currents through a room), it just doesn’t feel settled.
Toilets Aligned With a Door: While it is not necessary to always keep a bathroom door closed, it’s nicer to see some wood sink cabinetry when passing by a bathroom, as opposed to looking at a toilet head on. Some bathroom dimensions seriously limit where the toilet can go when factoring in the sink and shower or tub. But sometimes it just amounts to poor planning and the toilet could have just as easily been tucked out of sight, so that you don’t really see it until you are fully occupying the room. It’s not that the modern toilet is hideous to look at, but what takes place there and what it symbolizes is just not something that should be framed by the bathroom’s door. We can agree that it would be a nicer view to pass by a bathroom and see a pretty counter space, maybe even with some art on the wall or a vase of flowers on the counter.
A Pool Too Close To the House: This is a big, expensive mistake that I have seen a few times in my career. I even bought a house with a pool that was only about 3 feet away from part of the back wall of the house. Of course, I had every intention of remodeling the pool and setting it back further away from the house. And then, due to a variety of reasons, I scrapped the whole plan and had the pool filled in. My dog thanks me every day when he runs around the backyard freely, rolling in the grass and enjoying his personal Dog Park. When it comes to the pool that is too close to the house, this can actually feel unsafe as one walks around the pool, like a sobriety test. In the same way that we shouldn’t have to turn sideways to avoid getting scratched by thorny rose bushes, we also don’t want to feel like we’re one step away from falling into the pool. Additionally, having thousands of gallons of water too close to a house could create other non-obvious Feng Shui problems.
An Attic Just for Elves: When an attic is finished and made into living space, it can be a fun place for small children to play, especially if they will be sitting on the floor. But if the attic space hardly allows an adult over 5 feet tall to stand up in the space, this feels awkward and congestive. As storage space it is tolerable, but to turn that into a full-time bedroom is not recommended. I did see one home where the person using the attic as a bedroom could only stand up in the highest area of the roof’s pitch and sleeping under such low ceilings looked like a coffin. Don’t do that to yourself!
Trends: One of the more recent trends in interior design is the Open Floor Plan Concept and it’s been around for more than ten years already. I think of it as a Builder’s trick, where rooms appear bigger, such as the Kitchen-Dining Room-Living Room all together in one big space. This Open Concept is cheaper to build, but during the COVID-19 lock down, a lot of people realized that they lacked sufficient private space with these rooms all open to each other. With families cooped up together, people could not escape to another room when it’s all one big open space. The Open Space does not buffer sound the way a few walls can and now people are appreciating the separation of rooms once again. Personally, I prefer not to see the dishes in the kitchen sink when I’m sitting in the living room. And in Feng Shui design, we like to see the functions of rooms separated when possible. Mind-set, expectations, mood, focus.
Minor Infractions: There are many design and remodeling blunders which are not going to make the occupant sick or bankrupt, but they may add to unnecessary tensions, like placing a washer and dryer in a bedroom closet or neglecting the functions of other adjacent rooms and lack of sound-proofing measures.
People sometimes choose contrasting adjacent flooring materials which are too busy next to each other. Sometimes the level of the flooring is different and creates a potential for people to trip over thresholds from one room to the next.
Hanging lighting too low or too high can defeat the whole purpose of the need for light in that area. Painting every room in your house a different color can make a house feel “choppy” and not relaxing, especially with strong, saturated colors.
There are many more examples which could be highlighted on this topic, and I’m sure the examples given have pinged your mind to think of other awkward spaces you have witnessed or had to live with. Of course there is a subjective component to this and occupants might report feeling fine in these environments, but some choices can be assessed objectively by Feng Shui standards. Feel free to share your own observations where Awkward Design Can Equal Bad Feng Shui!
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Architecture and Design Blog Series
