Feng Shui favors simple, straightforward designs, as opposed to odd shapes, unusual angles, and weird nooks. For the most part, Feng Shui dictated what we didn’t do (e.g. no spiral staircases), rather than what we did. However, Feng Shui principles did affect the layout of the house.
Our entrance opens up into the main living area of the house, instead of into a hallway, the kitchen, or some odd room. According to Feng Shui, the space entered into is where the focus of the inhabitants lies, so entering into the living room is seen as most auspicious because it creates the intention to make togetherness with family and friends most important.
We placed our kitchen on the east side so that the morning light would assist us with our morning rituals and help us to wake up. We placed the master bedroom on the west side partially because of EMFs from the kitchen (see design details > floorplan > baubiologie in the floorplan) and also because Feng Shui suggests having the bedroom face the driveway so you will have command of your property and be able to see who is approaching. Following this general principle, all doors open into rooms in such a way that you can easily see who’s entering.
If the Feng Shui of a house is good, you do not even notice it. Examples of difficult Feng Shui can often be cured by placing and rearranging objects within the space (see design details > home furnishings/arrangement > feng shui of furniture arrangement).
However, one problem has proven impossible to cure. Specifically, our Feng Shui consultant advised us not to site our entrance on the north side of house. We opted not to follow this advice, because we did not want our entrance and mud room to take up valuable space on the east or west side of the house; also, our driveway comes in from the northwest, so siting the entrance on the north side seemed to make sense. In retrospect, we regret not following our consultant’s advice; in the winter (which seems to last about 6 months of the year in southern Vermont), the north side is the last to melt and the first to freeze, making the walk to our cars quite treacherous and leading to frequent falls.
In 2006 we changed our doorway from the center of the house to the West side of our mudroom and began entering our home via what had been a wood porch on the Northwest side of the house; this new arrangement was very successful due to the fact that while we were still, technically, entering from the North, we were no longer traversing all the snow that had fallen off the roof of the house.
With the 2008 addition, we have created an enclosed connector from this same new doorway across to the new building. A central entry in this connector enables visitors to enter one doorway and turn right towards the new building or left into the old building (our home). Once again, our entry will be on the North, but with minimal snow falling off the connector roof we hope to avoid some of the pitfalls of our previous Northern entry.
