Feng shui has been practiced in China for hundreds of years, but this design philosophy has only recently made a splash in the world of real estate. The concept has gained popularity in the Western world during the past 30 years, and now some homesellers are using it to try make their homes more appealing to potential buyers.Does it work? Some swear it does and it does, at the very least, force a homeowner to more carefully consider the staging of their home for sale.
While many people have heard of the art of feng shui, and even of some of the things you can do to implement some of the principles in their own space, they are less than familiar with with Feng Shui Bagua, the way that the ‘chi’ in a home is measured that guides the effectiveness of Feng Shui techniques in each unique space.
Essentially the bagua is a map. There are many different versions available but they all basically show the same thing, what energies each part of your space represents. By using the Feng Shui Bagua map to access your living spaces then you can determine just where you will need to place certain objects in order to increase the flow of positive chi in the areas that are most important to you.
Using a Bagua Map
There are also several different ways to read a Feng Shui map of this kind. We are going to cover the simplest and most commonly used today, the Black Hat Sect method (yes such a sect really did exist in Ancient China) in our brief, step by step guide:
To begin, find yourself a picture of the bagua that you like (there are lots of free ones online including the one below ) and either print it out or, is you are a bit of an illustrator create your own. Then, with this task complete, choose the particular area you want to analyze. This can be as large as a whole room, or as small as a desk.
Stand either in the entrance way to the room or directly facing the object you are analyzing, as this is considered to be the mouth of the chi. This also always falls within the Wisdom and Helpful People section, so already one of the areas of the space is defined.
Holding your map, your can use the Wisdom section to act as your compass to determine where the other parts of the space fall. although the actual names also vary from map to map they are basically laid out as follows, including the colors and materials associated with each form of ‘chi’.
Feng Shui Bagua
Wealth Associated with purples, blues and reds. As an Earth element is also associated with wood.
Fame and Reputation A ‘chi’ associated with fire and bright, vibrant reds.
Partnership Another Earth element, but this time associated with softer pinks
Family Earth again, wood again, but represented by greens.
Health The final Earth element, represented by cheerful and sunny yellows and oranges.
Children & Creativity It is a metal element associated with light pastel shades.
Knowledge An Earth element is enhanced by mid tone blues and greens, especially shades of aqua and seafoam.
Career It is represented with darker shades of blue and black and is a water element.
Helpful People It is the final element and it is a metal based one represented by grays and the monochrome shades of black and white.
It is unlikely that you will want to represent and enhance every section on the bagua map in a single space. Pick and choose carefully. In a home office space for example your will probably want to enhance the Career, Wealth and Knowledge sections the most. In a family room though you perhaps should focus on Family, Health and Children & Creativity.
Once you are familiar with the Feng Shui Bagua map it becomes rather easy to use. There are no hard and fast rules about the items or furnishings you can use to enhance each property, so in this respect feel free to unleash your inner designer and let your creativity and imagination soar (and maybe even sell your home a little faster!)