We have a word to describe the main door that people use to enter and exit their home. We call it the “front” door when we mean the door that is either used the most or the one with the implied formality as the door. In a Feng Shui analysis, the “front” door may not be on the “front” or facing side of the house.
In my own home, the “front” door is actually on the side of the house. One needs to walk up a pathway along the side of the house to get there as it is not the more common front door which clearly faces the street. And yet I still call it the front door.
When we analyze a house, it is imperative to know the front from the back, referring to them as the facing versus the sitting side. Way down the list is the location of the main or front door, in determining the real facing side. We look for the most “yang” features such as views, biggest windows, biggest rooms and wakeful rooms to measure the yin and yang qualities of any floor plan or outside environment.
A classic example of a “front” door which is situated at the “Feng Shui sitting side” would be the apartment with windows on the opposing side, all else besides the door geared toward the opposite direction. A large home on a hill with extensive views out the “back” may actually be facing the backyard or away from the street side. Beach homes typically try to take advantage of the ocean views.
Because the word “front” sounds synonymous with facing, I have tried to train myself to just call the door with the formal aspects to it, the “main” door or the “entrance” door instead of calling it the front door. This reduces confusion when say the house faces east, but the main door is on the north side.
The concept of “sitting” versus “facing” is an important concept to tackle right away in your Feng Shui studies because there are many applications or “remedies” based on knowing the correct orientation of the house. If a house needs water behind it, you or your professional consultant need to know what truly is the back. For non-obvious situations, you need to assess both interior and exterior clues, often finding conflicting evidence. I recently reviewed an apartment with major views to the main street. And yet there was a balcony view to a more quiet grassy area, which could have qualified as the “front yard” for a cluster of apartment buildings which all had balconies facing this grassy area. What to do? Usually there will be a tie breaker, or some feature which answers the question about orientation. But when push comes to shove, a practitioner will compare both possibilities and then query their client for feedback which will reveal the more accurate reading.
If someone uses their back door or side door more frequently than their front door, this does not change the orientation of a house. It only changes how a person is influenced by the house based on what areas they use more. The door is often called the “qi gate,” so if you use your back door ten times more often than your front door, then we could say it will have ten times more influence on you.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series
