Feng Shui and Apartment Living by Kartar Diamond

People often ask whether or not we should apply the same Feng Shui principles to apartments as houses. The answer is, yes. Another popular question is whether or not apartments automatically have bad Feng Shui. The answer to that is, no.

What makes apartments more challenging to enhance or correct than houses:

• There is no land or outside environment to remedy or control. Sometimes the most effective remedies for health and prosperity are things you do to the space just OUTSIDE your home. With an apartment, the focus has to be totally with the interiors.

• There are some limits with apartment living when it comes to your neighbors. Sharing walls with people can subject you to sounds and smells that you would have an easier time separating yourself from in a house (although not necessarily!) Clients in houses have told me numerous upsetting stories about neighbor disputes from all sides.

• Some ideal Feng Shui remedies involve structural changes. These too are usually limited or not allowed at all in apartment living. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ask. When I was married and in our first apartment, we had a very dark entrance at the top of the stairs. My husband asked the landlord if he could install a skylight at our own expense and the landlord agreed. It was easy and cheap for my husband (the architect) to do, and the landlord knew it was an improvement to the property.

APARTMENTS CAN BE MORE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THAN HOUSES

The front and back of any structure has to be identified before complete analysis can be made. In Feng Shui, we call the front side “facing” and the back side “sitting.” This is not always obvious. In fact, most of the time, an apartment FACES its window side. The brighter, more yang side of the apartment is often looked at as the face and windows are like the eyes looking out.

Apartments often have less than ideal entrances. They are usually dark (coming from the building’s interior hallway). In small apartments, the kitchen is sometimes the first room you see when entering. It is generally better when the kitchen is not the first room you see because of a Pavlovian effect. It is also better when a kitchen has an exterior window.

Aside from some of the things just mentioned, apartments can have just as good or better Feng Shui than a house, depending on other compensating features. Is there a lucky floor you can choose in a multilevel building? Feng Shui numerology suggests picking a floor that matches your personal Trigram. (Based on your birth date) I have never advised a client to choose a floor based on that criteria however.

Since I value practicality over everything, my suggestion is to be as far away as possible from the garage entry gate or the building’s trash dumpster! The top floor will have the best views and this can make the same size apartment feel bigger. This is one reason why they are usually more expensive to lease.

Even though the higher floors may have the best views, it is preferable to live closer to the ground and the earth’s magnetic field. Once you get higher up than a couple of stories, the influence of the earth’s magnetic field lessens and the environment becomes more “yin” on the higher levels. This could make the elemental adjustments not as effective.

You can find out more in my ebook, Feng Shui Tips For Apartments and Condos, available on my website.