Sheffield School of Interior Design Distance Education

Feng Shui for Home Buying

Buying a new home is a daunting prospect, and the process can be riddled with questions: What neighborhood do you want? Do you want the charm of an older home, but crave the convenience of a modern home? Maybe you're concerned about the view from the kitchen windows, or the outdated kitchen appliances.

Bringing in the art of Feng Shui gives you another dimension to consider, but rather than overwhelming you further, it can help you by focusing your intention so that you end up with a new home that will truly be all that you want.

To get some tips on how Feng Shui can help in the process, we spoke with four of the Sheffield School's Feng Shui experts: H.G. Chissel, Marolyn Toule, Ellen Pincus, and Nurit Schwarzbaum.

The first thing to bear in mind is that, as with any Feng Shui advice, the information offered here is quite general, and obviously can't be tailored for each individual reading this article. To any space, you bring your own unique preferences, strengths, deficiencies, needs and history; ideally, you would take those into consideration as well as more general guiding principals.

"Certain things are better overall, and some things are better for certain people," Schwarzbaum, a Sheffield Feng Shui instructor, said.

H.G. Chissel, one of the developers of the Sheffield Feng Shui Course, said that the process of finding the right home for you starts even before you begin cruising neighborhoods and going to open houses. He advises real estate agents to help their clients first to develop their own image of their ideal home.

"Encourage your clients to envision their dream home as clearly possible, with special focus on how they want to feel in their new space," he said. "Have your clients sketch their ideal home."

Remember the old real estate chestnut, that the three most important factors in a home are "location, location, location"? This is just as true with Feng Shui. According to Chissel, you want to avoid homes "situated below the street, at the end of cul de sacs or T-intersections, directly facing any sharp angles, or on a steep slope."

Ellen Pincus, one of the developers of our Feng Shui course, cautions that you should pay close attention to what the home is facing, and to avoid a home facing an institution, whether it's a hospital, school, or government building. You should especially avoid a home that's in direct view of a cemetery.

Even churches should be avoided, Marolyn Toule, a Sheffield Feng Shui instructor, said, because they are often the place of funerals, and you don't want the home in line with the energy of so much grief.

But even though it may seem easier to change a bad color choice in a living room that to rectify bad placement of the home, if all else is in order, if you feel good in the home and really love it, there are always Feng Shui remedies for any problem, such as hanging a bagua mirror in the window. This allows any negative energy to be reflected back into the world, and is a fine remedy, as long as it's done "with love and compassion," Toule said.

You can also plant fast-growing trees or a hedge to block the view, she said.

While you're still outside, consider the approach to the house as well, Chissel advises. "Look for driveways that are clearly marked and provide good circulation, like half circle and full circle driveways which encourage social interaction and use of the front entrance."

The entrance of a home is always an important consideration in Feng Shui, and practitioners advise creating a entry way that is uncluttered, clean, and welcoming.

"Homes with a clear view to the front door without obstruction of large trees are preferred," Chissel said. "Look for homes with a walkway between the front door and the sidewalk or street. The stairs should not be directly in line with the door."

Ideally, according to Pincus, a room will have few "weird angles," and will have symmetrical rooms. Walls should meet at 90 degree angles, or should curve. "You don't want a long, narrow space," she said.

The floor plan itself is an important consideration. A "railroad" layout, a long corridor with the rooms off it, will give a home a lot of "dead" space. Instead, you want to feel that the energy is flowing through the house. Just imagine how the fresh air would circulate through the home, if all the windows were open, and you'll be able to envision the circulation of the energy.

"The overall floor plan should encourage a natural circulation of energy and activity to all rooms of the house," Chissel said. "Be careful of homes with "dead" living rooms and dining rooms."

Any factors that make you feel closed in will portend poorly, such as low ceilings, but that's something you probably will notice on your own.

"A lot of it is intuition," Pincus said. "Stand in the room and see how you feel. Do you feel open or suffocated? That has to do with Ch'i flow."

Toule pointed out that you should make note of any "missing pieces" in a new home's layout by utilizing a bagua map with the floor plan. Every home will have some deficiency, but this way you can foresee what the missing pieces might be, and plan remedies for them.

Of course, there is only so much planning you can do, but if you've been studying Feng Shui, you'll bring your knowledge with you, so you'll know, for example, that the bed should face the door without being directly in front of it, and you can take this into consideration when looking a new place.

Finally, all the practitioners at Sheffield agreed that it's worthwhile to look into the history of a home. A home in which a couple has gotten divorced, or which has been the scene of other unhappiness, may carry with it that energy of sadness and loss.

"In general look for homes that have been loved and feel like a gift from a caring person," Chissel said.

Toule and Schwarzbaum agree that it's always a good idea to do some kind of a "space clearing," before you move the furniture in. This can be as pedestrian as simply cleaning the place thoroughly yourself, which will give you a sense of ownership, or it can become more esoteric, by burning scented candles, ringing bells, or even having a full-blown ceremony with a Feng Shui master.

"The idea is you want to break up the energy patterns and create something for yourself to bring your own imprint to the space," Schwarzbaum said.

With some knowledge of Feng Shui, including what can be remedied and how, you'll be much better equipped for the journey of finding that dream home, and making it your own.

—Sarah Van Arsdale

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