Feng Shui—love it or hate it, it’s undeniable that it is very much a significant part of the Singapore homeowner’s discourse. And if you’re at a loss as to how to go about practising Feng Shui in your HDB flat, or are trying your best to understand Feng Shui practises at the behest of loved ones, you’re in luck.
Compiled here is an ultimate guide to Feng Shui at home: a comprehensive primer on Feng Shui, what it is, how to apply it, as well as tips and tricks to bringing positive qi into your abode.
Contents
What is Feng Shui?
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At its core, Feng Shui is the Chinese study of the various metaphysical energies around us. The history of feng shui dates back more than 3,500 years, drawing on landscapes and bodies of water to direct cosmic energy, AKA “qi”, through any given place. It sees fortune, both good and bad, as malleable elements that can be moulded through one’s external environment.
Image credit: @houseofthebbs
Traditionally, Feng Shui would have had widespread applications that include everything from planning settlements to managing communities. But for you, the modern homeowner, it is simply about cultivating good qi, in your home.
You’d do this through the management of spaces, furniture, and even the location and direction your home faces, in order to create a harmonious balance of natural elements. This, in theory, is meant to help improve your well-being in all aspects of life.
Importance and benefits of Feng Shui at home
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The idea here is that by creating positive qi and reducing or even eliminating negative qi in your home, you invite greater fortune, wealth and even improves your health, career and relationships. Good vibes, good times, basically.
Now, admittedly not everyone buys into this, but in the same way that you might wish upon a star or buy a charm at a Japanese temple, it never hurts to indulge in a little superstition, especially if it gives people around you a peace of mind.
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Beyond an unusual ritual or two, a lot of Feng Shui practices, with its principles of reducing clutter, as well as the balance of colours and furniture in the living space can also, logically speaking, lead to similar feelings of calm.
General Feng Shui do’s and don’ts
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How to prep your home for Feng Shui
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Before you start deciding how to channel the positive qi into the home though, your Feng Shui journey actually starts right at the beginning, even before you get the apartment. This includes factors like the numerology of your address, or whether a unit is located close to elements such as a busy road or a slope.
Visually impressive, these dragon gates are thought to be wells of positive qi energy in Feng Shui.
Image credit: ArchDaily
You’d also have to consider which direction the unit is facing, whether you have a view of a body of water, and even check if the overall structure of the blocks are shaped like qi-channelling “dragon gates”.
The interior of the house also has to be considered, having to check if curved or spherical features are present in the home, as well as the positioning of pillars and any staircases.
Image adapted from: @thesmartlocalsg, @misterkym, Elaine C
But after running through your checklist and getting your keys to your new home, you’d also have additional preparations before you walk through the front door. This includes choosing the right date for moving in, wearing new clothes as well as a few rituals that you’d have to observe in order to imbue your home with good qi.
Room-by-room Feng Shui tips
Living Room
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Starting with Feng Shui in the living room, you’d find that there might be a couple practices here that you’ve already inadvertently got in place. Keeping adorable house plants is a good idea, as they bring in life energy and resemble the shade of jade, a stone that embodies health and protection.
Image credit: Juniper Print Shop
You can also consider having landscape paintings adorned around the house. Bright, verdant landscapes, according to Feng Shui, are meant to imply the bright futures to come for you and your household.
Image adapted from: Aliexpress, @hankaadamec, @cellardoortrades
There are other items too that help create good Feng Shui in your living room, from traditional items like Chinese gourds and water fountains. A couple notable surprises here would be the wind chimes, which bring fortune as they sound like jingling coins, and dreamcatchers, which Feng Shui also uses to ward off bad energies.
Kitchen
Feng Shui practices in the kitchen will require you to juggle between cleaning the area of negative energies and creating ways to channel positive qi.
Although chipped dinnerware is a no-no in Feng Shui, fixed dinnerware, such as with the Japanese art of kintsugi, remains acceptable.
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And just like in the living room, some of it actually makes good sense, such as cleaning the kitchen with salt, which happens to both ward off bad vibes and kill bacteria. Similarly, chipped dinnerware represents broken energies in Feng Shui and therefore bad luck, but also is a vector for bacterial growth.
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In fact, there are a good deal of design sensibilities involved in kitchen Feng Shui as well. We’re talking about creating a visual focal point in the space, using lighter colours, having plants and using natural materials like wood and stone to create a bright, warm and inviting environment to cook in. One that also happens to foster positive qi, of course.
Bedroom
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It might surprise those less well-versed in the practice, but the bedroom is home to a lot of easy pitfalls when it comes to Feng Shui.
Image credit: @decorfansingapore
From improper mirror placement, the positioning of the bed in the room or even its orientation, there are nuances here that would quickly sap away your qi, resulting in poor sleep and uneasy rest. Ceiling fans, especially with low ceilings, are discouraged as they would visually resemble spinning knives, inducing uneasiness in your sleep.
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But fret not, there are also ways to encourage positive qi energies in your bedroom too, including through the adoption of a neutral and earthy palette, hanging simple landscape photos and having night stands of similar height to foster harmony between a couple.
Feng Shui hacks to enhance positive qi
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And if you’re looking for a few quick hacks that don’t require too much investment or prepwork on your part, here are a few simple things you can do to channel the good vibes into your home.
Image credit: @fifithavenueinterior
For plants, you’d want to get green leafy ones such as rubber plants or money plants. Do ensure that they are well-maintained though; neglected or dying plants will sap qi away from you instead. Spiky plants like cacti, and poisonous plants are to be avoided.
Image credit: @camila_the_designer07
Running water is seen as a source of positive qi energy, so it would do you well to add a small water feature or two around the home. That said, a water feature in your bedroom will end up sapping your qi energy instead, so avoid placing those cute and aesthetic fountains in there if you desire a good night’s sleep.
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Mirrors are a finicky part of Feng Shui—they have the potential to either magnify positive qi or create disharmony within the home—and thus great care should be taken regarding their placement.
This means understanding nuances like placing your mirror beside the dining table being beneficial to the Feng Shui of your home, whilst having two mirrors facing each other is considered to be detrimental to the fostering of harmonious qi.
Common Feng Shui mistakes to avoid
Qi energy flows in curves, and a home with lots of curves facilitates good feng shui.
Image credit: SIXiDES
Whilst the sensibilities are there when it comes to Feng Shui practices, there are plenty of easy pitfalls that you might not have considered, and even unexpected nuances in what would otherwise be commonplace Feng Shui knowledge.
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From choosing to using different types of flooring in a single space to having too many sharp angles to your home, you’re going to want to look through our guides on things to avoid when trying to channel positive qi in your home.
Seeking professional Feng Shui help in Singapore
Image credit: Adelina Pang Fengshui Consultancy
Now, after going through all of that information, perhaps you might still find more comfort in having experts guide you along with the actual process of creating good Feng Shui vibes. Fortunately for you, we happen to have a list of various Feng Shui masters in Singapore for you to peruse.
Image credit: House of Feng Shui
Each of them specialises in a specific aspect of Feng Shui, be it rituals or considerations to account for when scouting for a house.
A guide on practising Feng Shui at home
For a concept that is 3,500 years old, Feng Shui sure seems very much alive and well in this day and age. And whilst we no longer involve it in our lives as much as our forebears did, it remains very much part of our home and living environment. Perhaps this article would give you a way to strut your stuff and impress the in-laws with your understanding of qi, at the very least.
Read our other articles here:
- What is a DBSS HDB flat?
- Check out what housing you can buy with S$500K overseas
- Executive maisonettes with curved airwells
Image adapted from: @habitamp, Pinterest, SIXiDES
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