How to Achieve a Feng Shui Living Room
For the ultimate space to gather and relax.
The living room serves a variety of purposes: It is a place to unwind after a long day, a place to host game nights or get togethers with friends, or a space to get inspired by your next career move or creative project. Feng shui living room layouts seek to bring positive energy to anyone who accesses the space. Learn more about feng shui design and how to achieve a feng shui living room below.
What is Feng Shui?
Feng shui is a philosophical idea that stems from ancient Chinese ways of life. Its literal meaning translates to “the way of the wind and the water”. It signifies living a balanced life with nature and creating a living space that embodies that idea. Feng shui interior design focuses on the arrangement of furniture and decor, as well as the use of color schemes to represent nature and convey emotion.
The goal of feng shui design is to create an atmosphere that aligns with your aspirations, whether it be to relax in solitude, connect with friends, get creative, or live a healthy lifestyle.
Tips to Achieve a Feng Shui Living Room
Use feng shui design principles to infuse your living room with positive energy to fuel your daily routines.
1. Start With a Good Flow
Embrace the tenets of a feng shui living room by rearranging your furniture layout. Face your sofa towards the entrance point to the living room to reflect the feng shui concept of always viewing entrance and exit points. Being able to see who comes and goes helps promote comfort and relaxation, while positioning seats to face doorways also encourages positive energy since you can greet guests face-to-face.
Rest a sofa against the wall so you have a side view of the sliding glass doors leading outside and a direct-facing view into the hallway or open-concept kitchen area. Position accent chairs directly across from or adjacent to the sofa to encourage conversation. Use a coffee table to ground the space and act as an anchor for tea or coffee chats.
Ensure everyone has a comfortable place to sit by prioritizing seating in a feng shui living room. Consider your intended purpose for your space – is it to have a quiet place to relax in solitude? Or is it to gather with your loved ones? Use your living room’s intended purpose to determine your seating needs. Choose a sofa for stretching out or a sectional to share with friends. Add a loveseat in the corner or a couple lounge chairs to accommodate extra guests.
Maximize your seating options with a plush ottoman or a couple poufs you can tuck under the coffee table when not in use. Have a pet? Place a plush dog bed in the corner for them to enjoy. When everyone has a place to sit, you'll feel more in harmony with your space and better able to focus.
Get inspiration for your living room color scheme by designing your home layout according to the bagua map. Feng shui design uses this "map" as a guide for which colors should go where in a room or home layout for optimum positive energy or "chi". For example, if your living room sits toward the front right side of your home, you should stick to a blue color scheme with earth tones like greens, browns, and yellows. Whereas a living room to the front left side of the home can benefit from a metallic, white, and gray color scheme.
Reduce clutter so you can focus on enjoying your living room. Place extra blankets, board games, or chargers in a storage ottoman. Line the back of the sofa with decorative baskets to use as storage and add wood-like texture. Further the light airy feel with furnishings featuring slim tapered or splayed legs.
Create balance and support your personal or professional goals when you design your living room with the right color schemes. Pick feng shui living room colors by looking at the natural world around you. Feng shui interior design emphasizes the five elements of nature (water, earth, wood, metal, and fire) and connects each natural element to specific colors and shapes, which in turn inspire different emotions and goals.
- Water: Replicate the look of water with black or dark blue color schemes and curved, grooved, or wavy shapes. Water represents wealth, prosperity, social well-being, and wisdom.
- Earth: Incorporate earth-like energy into your living room with colors like green, blue, brown, orange, or yellow and flat surfaces or square shapes. Earth promotes feeling grounded, stable, knowledgeable, and healthy.
- Wood: Create a space to expand your knowledge of yourself, your friends or family, and the world around you with soothing shades of blue, green, or teal and vertical rectangular, cylindrical, or columnar shapes. Wood serves as an emblem for growth, flexibility, and healing.
- Metal: Get the clarity you need with white, gray, or metallic color schemes and spherical shapes. Metal signifies clarity, happiness, precision, and integrity.
- Fire: Get inspired with fiery orange or red colors and energetic triangular forms. Fire echoes emotions like passion, vitality, and creativity.
What it looks like: Mimic relaxed, dark water with a black floor lamp and tea kettle. Opt for a rich green accent chair to connect with the earth and trees. Anchor your living space with a white area rug to connect with metal. Toss a fiery orange throw on the sofa to resemble the red-orange hues of fire.
Revive interiors with feng shui living room plants for fresh greenery. Purify the air in a feng shui living room and manifest good health with Ferns, Snake Plants, Pothos, and Areca or Parlor Palms. Manifest wealth and prosperity with a Money Plant. Convey positive energy with plants that have relaxed silhouettes and foliage. Swap out sharp cacti plants with succulents that have rounded leaves for an uplifting appearance.
Prioritize natural light to cultivate a warm atmosphere where you can relax or get inspired. Start by removing heavy curtains or drapes and only adding sheer curtains if necessary. Then move furniture away from the windows to allow more light in. Maximize natural light with a feng shui living room mirror. Be sure to position the mirror in a spot that captures a view of the outside, as mirrors that reflect into your living space are believed to convey negative energy.
Position feng shui art in a way that maximizes your desired energy and creates balance in your living room. Feature abstract art with grooved shapes on a west-facing wall to maximize creative energy. Showcase scenes of nature or pictures with family and friends on the east-facing wall for good relationships and better health. Conjure positive energy for professional growth with water scenes on a north-facing wall. Prioritize art with fiery colors and shapes on south-facing walls to manifest a good reputation within your social circles. Regardless of what art or wall you choose, you should hang artwork high up on the wall to filter uplifting energy throughout the room.
Above all else, a feng shui living room should bring you a sense of joy, relaxation, creativity, and positive energy. Fill your space with lounge-worthy furnishings, inspirational artwork, and feng shui decor that makes you feel happy. Feel free to change up small decor touches or the entire room’s layout until you succeed in creating the restorative space you deserve.
Want more ideas on how to create feng shui interiors? Check these out:
9 Zen Bedroom Ideas That Inspire Rest
Easy Ways to Infuse Japandi Style Into Your Home
How to Arrange Furniture in a Small Living Room
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