Feng shui living room design is vital for your family and should be addressed with its importance in mind. Most families spend a great deal of time in the living room and because it’s a gathering place, living room feng shui design ideas need to accommodate the appropriate energies to ensure auspicious elements for wealth, health, and happiness of the family.
Choose the Right Living Room Location for Auspicious Feng Shui
In feng shui, the living room should be located in a part of the house that has at least two outside walls. Avoid using a room nestled deep inside your home for a living room space. The ideal living room location allows chi energy to enter the room from outside without being slowed down or allowed to grow stagnant from moving through many rooms in order to reach the living room. This placement ensures that the chi energy is fresh and energetic enough to activate the living room elements.
Pick Living Room Colors
While color doesn’t activate chi, it can reinforce its principles and energy. Keep important feng shui tips for choosing living room colors in mind as you design your space.
Follow Feng Shui Rules for an Auspicious Living Room Layout
The living room should never be small. It should be large enough to accommodate the entire family and guests comfortably. A larger room size will encourage the chi energy to flow in and around the room. Where you place furniture can impact the way the chi energy enters and moves around the room.
General Feng Shui Placement for Furniture
Never place furniture in natural pathways through the room. This type of placement will block chi energy, cause it to become stagnant, and create negative energy.
Best Couch Placement
The main piece of furniture in a living room is usually the couch, which should rest against a solid wall. Currently, one of the popular western furniture arrangements is to place the seating group in the middle of the room without any wall support. This is called a floating arrangement and should be avoided.
Floating Arrangements
The floating arrangement is an improper feng shui furniture arrangement. Just as your bed should be anchored against a solid wall, so should your couch. This gives support to those living in the house and prevents instability in your family structure of home life, work, wealth, health, and relationships. Test this feng shui principle by sitting on a couch against the wall and then one set in the middle of the room. Notice how you feel with each arrangement. Chances are you feel safe and secure when sitting on the couch against the wall, while the one set in the middle of the room leaves you feeling vulnerable and uneasy, as though you need to look behind you constantly.
Best Sectional Placement
Sectionals are another popular furniture choice for the living room. While may accommodate a large family, they can be problematic when applying feng shui principles. The L-shaped furniture layout is inauspicious since it creates a large poison arrow in the room. If you can’t avoid this type of furniture configuration, you can lessen its impact by placing a plant at the end of arrow part.
Another technique to remedy poison arrows is to suspend a faceted crystal ball from the ceiling. Like the plant cure, the crystal ball will dissipate the energy the arrow creates.
Additional Furniture Placement for an Auspicious Family Room
When choosing the ideal furniture arrangement, in addition to a couch, you want to also include a loveseat and a single chair. These pieces of furniture afford ample places to sit while creating a space that will neatly accommodate a coffee table. Choose either a square or rectangular shaped coffee table for an auspicious shape.
TV and Electronic Placement
Electronics such as TVs and computers are yang energy and very active, so place these in areas you wish to activate. For example, the north (career) or south (fame and recognition) sectors of the room are excellent choices.
Enhance Living Room Wealth Elements With Feng Shui Symbols
Some basic elements that activate wealth can be used in most living rooms.
- Bowl of crystals, coins, and various wealth symbols can be placed on the coffee table.
- A Buddha statue should be placed in a special area, never disrespectfully left on the floor or floor level.
- Coins tied with a red ribbon can be suspended in the east corner of your living room.
- A dragon-headed tortoise should be placed in the southeast corner with a coin in its mouth, facing into the room.
- A dragon painting or statue can be placed on the east wall, looking into the room.
- An elephant statue posed with its trunk trumpeting into the air will bring good luck and wealth.
- Foo Dogs on either side of the door should face out of room, as though standing guard.
- A three-legged money toad can be placed in the southeast corner with a coin in its mouth, facing into the room.
Use Lighting to Activate Chi Energy
Lighting is important. In addition to natural light, artificial lighting such as table lamps, torchiere lamps that throw light to the ceiling, and overhead lighting options are beneficial. However, there should never be more than two doors into the living room or excessive windows, since chi energy enters and exists both. Too many doors and windows create a chaotic current of chi energy that is inauspicious and damaging.
Keep Your Living Room Free of Clutter
One of the most auspicious things you can do for any room in your home, including your living room, is to remove clutter and keep it clean and dust-free so chi can flow freely.
Activate Compass Elements With Decorative Pieces
If you don’t address the elements in the sector where your living room is located, no amount of proper furniture placement will compensate for a lack of element activation.
Another way to activate chi energy is by adding elements that correlate to the compass direction where your living room is located. In addition, you can also use the element that nourishes the main element to reinforce the element’s energy.
North Location
The north element is water. Examples of how to include the water element are:
- Hang paintings of waterscapes. Avoid stormy or rough sea paintings. Meandering streams flowing into room or waterfall are best. If using a painting of a boat or ship, it should always be sailing into the room, never away. The ship represents opportunities and wealth so you want it flowing toward you, not away from you.
- Add an aquarium with eight red fish and one black.
- Place a water fountain on the north wall that flows into room – never toward the door.
- Use black and blue colors in this direction.
You can also add metal sculptures or figures, because metal draws water.
South Location
The south element is fire. Include fire in your room design by decorating with:
- Candles
- Wood furniture and décor objects
- Fireplace located on south wall
- Items in red, pink, orange, and green colors
East and Southeast Locations
The east and southeast element is wood. You can also add earth elements, since it feeds wood. Examples include:
- Wood picture frames
- Wood bookshelves and books
- Wood lamps
- Live house plants
- Fiber rug like sisal
- Green and brown colors
West and Northwest Locations
The west and northwest element is metal. Add this element to your décor in the following ways:
- Metal bowls and trays
- Metal figurines
- Metal candle holder
- Metal photo frames
- Metal furniture
- Use blue, gray, gold, tan, and bronze colors
Northeast and Southwest Locations
The northeast and southwest element is earth. Add earth to your living room by choosing decorations like:
- Crystals and other minerals
- Pottery and ceramics, such as figurines, pots, bowls and candle holders
- Earth tones colors such as mustard, clay, brown, tan, and russet
- Cut glass and handblown glass objects
Include Your Personal Touches
While you want your living room to follow feng shui basics, you also want it to reflect your personal tastes. Don’t be afraid to add your personal touches. Your room doesn’t need Chinese furniture, objects, or symbols in order to follow feng shui principles. The true feng shui principles are about form and placement, not good luck symbols. If you apply sound these feng shui principles and rules to your décor, you’ll have a very auspicious living room.
