Have you ever been in someone’s home and have a welcoming feeling and warm environment? Chances are that is the Feng Shui, or the flow of energy allowed by the placement of the furniture and design of the interior. A home with a good Feng Shui set up exudes harmony and serenity. You can use Fen Shui design principles when selling your home to entice buyers and increase the chances of closing the deal.
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice for achieving balance between the forces of yin and yang (the symbol of Feng Shui) and the translation from Chinese literally means “wind and water”. Even though this is one of the oldest arts of placement, it is still used today as a very modern means for achieving balance and controlling the interior design of your house to bring health, happiness and prosperity. If you adhere to the Feng Shui principles and the basic elements of color, art, furniture, plants, shape, and where in the room elements are placed, you can achieve balance in your home that will appeal to new buyers.
When designing each room of your home applying the rules of Feng Shui, it is important to use the bagua, which is a blueprint of Feng Shui for a room. The bagua is divided into a total of nine areas representing specific life situations. Normally you would examine what specific areas of the bagua apply to your life and apply to the areas that address your needs. Since selling a home has to appeal to a wide variety of people whose specific needs you are unaware of, the best thing is to just get a healthy balance with everything represented equally.
The 5 Feng Shui Elements:
- Water
Water Elements should be placed in the northern corner of a room or house. The idea water element decoration for your house is a fountain or even a fish tank. In place of an actual water decoration a feature using blue or black can be used since they are the colors that represent water in Feng Shui; or you can use mirror or glass as well.
- Metal
Metal Elements should be placed in the western corner of a room or the home. Metal elements can be decorative pieces that are made of actual metal or marble or stone. Instead of that, it can also be something colored silver, gold, bronze, or even grey. Since the metal element represents financial success in Feng Shui and since purchasing a home is such a huge financial obligation, metal elements should probably be added to every room of the house to help ensure the success in selling your home.
- Earth
Earth Elements should be incorporated into the design in the center of the room and center of the house. The main purpose of the earth element is that is creates a firm ground for building and strengthening relationships; no doubt an important factor for people buying a new home. In order to achieve this, the best representation of earth in a home is with plants or flowers. However, your earth element can be décor with earth toned colors: browns, oranges, and yellows. Or the elements can be made of clay or ceramics. Another way to represent an earth element is through paintings or pictures of natural landscapes.
- Fire
Fire Elements belong in the southern corner of the room or house. The ideal fire element in a home is the fireplace, and although there is little control over where one is built, there are other fire elements like lamps and candles that you can have control over the placement. Fire is the most powerful element and can represent excitement and passion, so it can help make the master bedroom appealing to couples. It also can help to increase productivity, so it usually does well to add a fire element in an office space. Besides actual fire décor elements, you can also use art work or furniture that is red, orange, or yellow.
- Wood
Wood Elements according to Feng Shui rules should be placed in the eastern corner of rooms or homes. Wood is said to represent loyalty and increase creativity and inspiration in people. In addition to browns, green can symbolize wood.
Here are five Feng Shui techniques you can use to reach the goal of making your house appealing to buyers:
- Reduce clutter as much as possible. Consider removing extra furniture from the home and even putting it in storage rather than having it taking up room when showing your house.
- Plants and water can be used to reduce stress and make a very welcoming environment. Combining the two elements together is called blended Feng Shui.
- Plants can be used to purify the air, so in addition to being your earth element, they can help provide fresh air, adding to the positivity of the house.
- Keep any cords for electrical appliances and computers neatly wrapped up and out of site. This helps to reduce clutter and helps the flow of chi that is the goal of Feng Shui.
- Especially when showing the home, open up the windows for fresh air and natural light wherever possible.
Bio: Jennifer Barnum is Design Editor and Maine Cottage Painted Furniture. She enjoys writing about home décor and design ideas and tips.