How Hardwood Flooring Can Improve the Feng Shui of Your Home
What Is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui Tips for the Floor in Your Home
- Floor Material
- Channeling the Flow of Qi
- Feng Shui Floor Colors
- Feng Shui Floor Shapes or Patterns
- The Layout of Your Flooring
Feng Shui Tips For Each Zone of Your Home
Hardwood Flooring and Feng Shui
Solid Oak Flooring Offers Good Feng Shui
The power of a beautiful hardwood floor in any home can’t be overstated. Besides its beauty, it affects your feeling, space, lifestyle, and your home’s value. Did you know that it may also attract good vibes into your home? Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of arranging and organizing a room, a house, and even an entire office building. The purpose is to channel the natural flow of energy, called Qi (pronounced Chi).
Those familiar with feng shui understand incorporating some of its practical ideas when planning for a wood floor can make a big difference. In feng shui, wood can help you achieve an inviting, calm, serene, and peaceful atmosphere.
Our blog this time invites you to keep an open mind to the ideals of feng shui and how a hardwood floor can improve the flow and positive energy of your space.
What Is Feng Shui?
Feng and Shui in Chinese mean “wind” and “water.” This combination of science and art originated in China sometime between 2,000 and 6,000 years ago.
The philosophy of feng shui is fundamental in new construction, especially in Asia. It’s a practice of orienting the building and arranging the living spaces to balance the natural world. The goal is to harness positive energy forces and to establish harmony between people and their environment.
True believers feel that following the rules of feng shui makes us happier, peaceful, and more successful in our homes or offices. Who doesn’t want more of that?
The Bagua Map
The word “Bagua” in Chinese means “eight areas.” A Bagua is the energy map which feng shui practitioners superimpose on a home’s floor plan. It highlights eight types of energy relating to different life circumstances plus a ninth area covering overall health and wellbeing.
These areas are:
- Career & Life Path
- Love & Marriage
- Family & Health
- Prosperity & Abundance
- Helpful People & Travel
- Creativity & Children
- Skills & Knowledge
- Fame & Reputation
Each area has unique characteristics. For example, wealth uses the color purple, the number 5, rectangular and columnar shapes, and its element is wood.
Presumably, a rectangular wood floor is an excellent start to attracting wealth into your home.
There are also 5 elements that influence Bagua areas.
The 5 Elements
Without getting too deep into feng shui theory, we need to mention the five elements of wood, fire, earth, water, and metal.
These elements stem from the Taoist beliefs that the five elements interconnect in life. They work together to create a harmonious system. The basis of feng shui is to balance these five elements in your home and your living areas.
Feng Shui Tips for the Floor in Your Home
Feng shui is all about bringing positive energy into the home. Everything affects the room’s energy, including the flooring materials, the color of the room, positioning of the furniture, and other features. Here are some of the essential elements of Feng shui and how to use them.
Floor Material
The type of material and its colors are essential elements for the room and the home. If you love a beautiful hardwood floor, there’s good news. The preferred flooring material for Feng shui is wood. Hardwood, like oak, will bring positive energy to your health and wellbeing.
Softwoods like pine are supposed to create a relaxing environment. Think about how soothing it is to stay in a rustic cabin in the woods made with knotty pine. Pine is the wood used to make saunas. So, there is something good about having wood under your feet or surrounding you.
Another wood floor option is to use exotic wood finished with natural oil. Choose tung oil for a natural wood floor finish. You can read more in this article, “How To Finish Your Wood Floor with Tung Oil.”
Channeling the Flow of Qi
The wood planks can direct the flow of Qi energy, like traffic on a highway. Be mindful of the direction of the boards. For example, you wouldn’t want to lay boards across a narrow hallway because they act as a barrier to the flow of Qi. Instead, follow the length of the hall. If you wish to slow down the flow of Qi in the room, lay the planks diagonally.
Feng Shui Floor Colors
Color is significant in feng shui. Since floors are considered an Earth element, the colors should be earth tones like brown, tan, green, and gray. These are calming colors that promote harmony and health.
Choose colors for the walls and ceilings that complement the floor color. Feng shui dictates that using deeper or darker shades might dampen the energy of the room. However, adding green, live plants can boost the energy in the room and enhance the wood floor’s beauty.
Feng shui dictates that it’s better to select neutral, earthy, and natural colors. Since the concept of feng shui is to enhance the connection of people with their surroundings, it’s best to leave the hardwood floors as close to their natural color as possible.
Feng Shui Floor Shapes or Patterns
Shapes are another essential design aspect of the feng shui process. Shapes and layouts can either strengthen or block the flow of energy. Sometimes, the wrong shapes can create dead zones or stagnant areas inside the home.
Regarding floor patterns, feng shui suggests making the floors less noticeable. The idea is not to make them so obvious that it draws attention and energy down towards the floor. Drawing energy downward relates to being down and out, a negative feeling.
For proper feng shui, avoid highly visual patterns such as herringbone, stripes, or checkerboards. Also, you should avoid starburst and diamond shapes. According to feng shui philosophy, a diamond is a checkerboard inverted to a 45°angle. The points represent “poison arrows” that point toward every door, blocking the energy. For the same reason, avoid starburst patterns.
One shape that does work is the hexagon because it has no sharp arrow points. With a bit of understanding and good design practices, it is possible to have a beautiful floor that adheres to feng shui principles.
The Layout of Your Flooring
A feng shui floor design uses the same material throughout the house. Having different flooring for every room disrupts the flow of Qi and reduces the positive energy. If you insist on having other flooring, try and change only the kitchen and bathrooms.
The way the boards lie will dictate the direction of energy flow. Whether you want to adhere to feng shui or not, laying boards across a hallway’s width doesn’t look good. It makes it look narrower and shorter than it is already.
One possible exception is if the hallway leads directly to a window or door. Laying the boards across the width slows down Qi and prevents it from exiting the home.
Feng Shui Tips For Each Zone of Your Home
We talked about Bagua and the eight zones above. Here are some design tips for each of the zones.
East-Facing Rooms
To boost the energy of feng shui in east rooms, use wood floors and furniture. Avoid using things made of metal. Favorable shapes for east rooms are rectangular, wavy, square, and natural shapes, such as stones.
Southeast Rooms
Decorations for this room should have natural crystals, wood, rugs, and earthenware. Add shapes for southeast rooms like wavy, flowing, square, and rectangular.
South Facing Rooms
For these rooms, use wooden furniture and all-natural fibers like sisal, linen, and jute. Accessories and accent piece shapes for southern rooms are pyramids, triangles, stars, and diamonds.
Southwest Rooms
Include rock crystals, candles, and earthenware., but leave out mirror-like surfaces or wooden furniture. Use triangles, diamonds, stars, and pyramids as part of your decorations.
West Rooms
Go with things made of rock crystal, metal, all earthenware, and glass. The best shapes are round and square.
Northwest Rooms
Look for earthenware (ceramics, clay, pottery, etc.), glass, metal, and natural crystals when furnishing a northwest room. The three shapes are Oval, round, and square.
North Rooms
For the best Qi flow in this room, decorate with shiny surfaces like glass or metal. Feng shui shapes include wavy, round and oval.
Northeast Rooms
Furnishings for these rooms are the same as for Northwest rooms. Use candles, rock crystals, and all earthenware. For shapes, go for pyramids, stars, diamonds, triangles, and squares.
Hardwood Flooring and Feng Shui
There is no hard rule for flooring, but solid wood ticks all the boxes for a healthier and more organized home. Wood is one of the five essential elements that enhance growth and creativity. Installing wood floors throughout your home adds continuity from room to room.
Although you can use other flooring materials such as tile or stone, wood is more relaxing. Practically speaking, homebuyers prefer wood over other materials. Select a matte finish instead of a high-gloss floor. Paint the ceiling a bright color with plenty of light to help energize the room. The theory is that a high-gloss floor reflects light. People tend to keep their heads down looking at the floor, which reduces their energy.
Solid Oak Flooring Offers Good Feng Shui
Feng shui is flexible when it comes to the type of wood for floors. You can’t go wrong with oak because It’s durable, economical, and looks beautiful in any decor. For the best energy, use the same wood and color throughout the home. Having light floors in one room and dark in the next blocks the flow of energy.
Oak with a natural, matte finish offers the balance of light you want in every room. Oak floors are practical too. They hold up to kids, pets, spills, and traffic for generations.
If you plan to install solid oak floors, check out Easiklip’s line of solid oak floors. They offer four light colors, Natural, Rustic White Bleach, Greywash, and Rustic smoke. They match well with light-colored walls to draw positive energy into any room.
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