The living room is one of the most significant areas of the home where residents congregate and socialize… or just to watch the latest episode of a popular drama together.
Among the common rooms within the house, homeowners can usually make-do without study rooms, entertainment rooms, laundry rooms, etc. But seldom without a living room. Even when a living room is not clearly present, it is commonly because of a small house such as a studio apartment where the living room doubles up as a bedroom as well.
While we spend the most time alone or with a partner in the bedroom, the living room is where we spend the most time with other family members.
Proper feng shui of a living room takes into account various factors such as:
- Layout
- Shape
- Size
- Location of front door
- etc
This allows one to customize, and even personalize, feng shui for the house as each house is different.
But there are certain living room feng shui rules that apply to all homes no matter the facing direction, bazi of inhabitants, flying stars, kua numbers, etc.
These are usually based on basic feng shui and interior forms. Things that supersede most compass school feng shui concepts.
For example, it would matter very little in terms of auspiciousness if the main door of a house is at a sector where the water star is the white star 8… if the door is directly facing an electric pylon 30 feet away.
Keeping in line with the following living room concepts would be the start to better feng shui at home.
1) Living room first
One of the most basic feng shui concepts regarding the living room is that it should be the living space that a resident sees when entering from the front door, before seeing the kitchen and dining area.
This is because the other areas such as the bedroom, kitchen and dining area are more private areas.
There is actually some practicality to this arrangement as guests who enter the premises would walk straight into space where they will most probably be hosted. They wouldn’t get a view of the kitchen or bedrooms which are spaces that are more private.
It’s like entering a spa location and the lobby or reception area being the first space we experience before going into the facility areas. It would be weird indeed to enter the pool area first before getting to the lobby.
Some properties consider the main entry door into the house as being the garage. This is fine as long as the entry from the garage into the house is the living room.
To clarify this point the focus here is not on the location of the front door, but that when people enter the house and into the living spaces, the living room is observed before the kitchen, dining room, or bedrooms.
2) Energy tunnel
Speaking of main doors, if your main door enters into the living room, then there must absolutely not be a window directly in front as you enter via the door.
When this configuration of an energy tunnel exist, which allows the view into the house from the main door through to the external environment on the other side, it is very inauspicious and generally a wealth loss affliction.
Even if you happen to make a nice personal income for yourself, you would not be able to save or accumulate wealth. Homeowners facing such predicaments would spend as much as they earn, if not more.
The most common remedies are to build walls, place partitions, install curtains, etc, to block the tunnel. Thus, preventing chi from escaping the moment it enters the premises.
3) Kitchen stove not in view
In general, the kitchen stove should only be observable when you are in the kitchen or cooking area.
It is never advisable to locate it in an area where it can be seen from other living areas such as the bedroom or living room. Otherwise, the fire energy can induce moodiness and temperamental tendencies onto residents.
It must also be noted that the kitchen is not the same as the stove. The stove is just one aspect of the kitchen. So it’s fine to have a view of the kitchen from the living room, just not the stove.
This is a common problem faced by open kitchen design concepts.
4) Top light bottom heavy
Another basic rule for the living room is that the ceiling should look and feel lighter than the floor. This is because the former represents heavenly energy while the latter represents earthly energy.
When we flip this and have a heavier top than bottom, it can cause the energy of the space to go out of whack.
The fundamental relationship between the ceiling and floor is discussed here. But to summarize it, there are 3 main aspects of adhering to this rule.
- Top bright bottom dark
- Top light bottom heavy
- Top round bottom square
Even the best performance sports car will be useless if it is upside down.
5) Sofa placement
The sofa is one of the primary furniture that makes a space identifiable as the living room. It’s placement is as important to the living room as bed placement is to the master bedroom.
The couch is the place where we rest and relax. We spend the most time sitting on it when in the living room space. This is why sofa placement is of utmost importance when we feng shui the living room.
The sofa is ideally taking up a command position. But that is not always possible as architects are getting very creating with living spaces these days.
If you are unable to setup a command position, then it is essential to at least adhere to the following rules of couch placement.
- No mirrors or walkways behind sofa
- Entry into the living room is not behind the sofa
- Wall behind sofa to act as support
- No overhanging beams or slanted ceiling above sofa
- Sofa is not facing a staircase
- Sofa is not placed at an angled orientation against a corner, with the exception of L-shaped sofa sets
Bad placement of the sofa can cause bad luck to all residents of the house.
6) Television set placement
The two resident fixtures in living rooms are the sofa and the television set.
But unlike the sofa with so many rules of placement, the TV has much less criteria to fulfill when determining a suitable designated location.
It doesn’t matter if the TV is under a beam, has no backing wall, or is not in a command position, etc.
However, the position and orientation of the TV is usually a key determinant of where the sofa set would be. So just be mindful that the sofa set’s position should not be compromised by the location of the TV. If anything, it should be the other way around.
And if the TV is in an area with sha chi, you might be badly exposed to it when seated since the sofa would most likely be facing the TV.
For example, if the television is leaning against the staircase, and the stairs have very hostile structure, then you will be looking right at the hostility when you are watching TV. So do put these things into consideration when deciding on the placement of sofa and TV.
There is one thing about televisions that many feng shui masters are not happy with. And that is the reflection that the screen can produce when it is switched off.
Because of this, the suggestion is often to have the TV covered when not in use. Or install it on a cabinet with sliding doors so that it can be closed and hidden when nobody is watching TV.
If your television set has a matte screen instead of a glossy one, then there is no issue.
7) Bright lighting
There should be ample lighting fixtures in the living room that brings brightness.
If you like cozy warm or cool lighting should be left at the bar area, bedroom or meditation room, etc. Living rooms need to be bright with preferably daylight lighting.
You can use soft lighting for this space only when it is comparably brighter than all the other living areas in the house including common areas and private areas.
This is a space that would naturally be the house sector with maximum yang chi where people can draw on. Good lighting enhances the strength and amount of yang energy that feeds the household.
To further increase yang energy, windows should enable sunlight to enter the premises whenever possible. So curtains of windows in the living room are best left undrawn during the day.
8) Air flow
For most homes, the living room is the living space that is either connected to all other living spaces, or it is the space that people have to walk through before getting to other living spaces.
This implies that whatever type of energy the living room is able to harness will be spread to the other living areas in the house.
While bedrooms, study rooms or storerooms can sometimes be stuffy with little air flow, the living room needs to be a space where there is proper ventilation fresh air flow.
So homeowners would either have to make good use of their air circulation systems or open the windows often to replenish stale energy with fresh ones.
It’s no coincidence that living rooms are usually built at the facing of apartments and houses. This is so that it would be able to draw on the side of the property with maximum yang energy.
9) Declutter
Clutter is the age-old nemesis of feng shui. When they have a significant presence in an area of a house, it disrupts the smooth flow of energy in the area… which can also indirectly affect other areas linked to it.
It must be said that the living room can be a space which can be very difficult to declutter.
So many people use it, so many decorative items and furniture are in the area, and even when it has been tidied up, clutter can reappear within hours.
The solution to this is to either build a lot of storage fixtures or keep everything in the storeroom.
There is no sidestepping this issue. Clutter has no place in a feng shuied house.
Nevertheless, don’t mistake minimalist concepts as clutter-free spaces. Minimalist interior designs are clutter-free, but a clutter free environment does not necessarily mean minimalist.
10) No standalone pillars
Even though many homeowners would be bemused by living rooms with standalone pillars, it is actually more common than people think.
This usually occurs when builders choose practicality over beauty and construct a supporting pillar the stands in a structurally strategic place in the living room.
Not only are they an eye sore and present challenges to homeowners who are planning their space, they are also like a sword piercing through the heart as expressed in feng shui.
When they are present in your house, you need to remedy it by installing a wall or cupboard over or around it, essentially converting the pillar to a wall. Or use mirrors to make it “disappear”.
11) Primary wealth location
In the practice of feng shui, more and more people are championing what they call as compass school feng shui, scientific feng shui, or classical feng shui where wealth locations are identified by formulas such as from flying stars feng shui or 8 mansions feng shui.
But the most traditional method of identifying a wealth corner is what is called the primary wealth location. And it’s potency is seldom disputed.
It is one of the most powerful wealth locations within a property and you don’t need a compass to locate it.
It is essentially the corner of the space diagonally across from the entry point into the space.
As the living room is associated with the patriarch and (to a lesser extent) everyone else in the household, identifying and activating this space would bring good fortune to all residents.
It is the best place to display water features, items that symbolize wealth, your trophies and awards, etc.
If enhancing wealth luck is part of your objectives in implementing feng shui in your home, this wealth location is definitely an area which you definitely should not ignore.
