How to Feng Shui the Bedroom - Colors and Object Placement

Ask yourself whether you feel that your bedroom is a peaceful sanctuary, your favorite spot of retreat and a wonderful love nest or not. If the answer is no, maybe there is something wrong with your bedroom feng shui. A simple rearrangement of furniture and a little tweak in the color theme may be able to enliven your bedroom quite a bit.

Feng shui (pronounced fung-shway) literally means "wind and water." It is an ancient Chinese art of space arrangement, object placement and decoration. In feng shui practice, everything is categorized into either yin or yang. Yin conveys slowness, relaxation, passivity, coldness, gentleness and tranquility. Yang, on the other hand, stands for rapidity, excitement, vigor, heat, hardness and restlessness. The fundamental idea of feng shui is to arrange things in a way that keeps yin and yang in good balance so that the "life force or spiritual energy" called "chi" can flow through all objects in your home freely.

This notion applies to bedroom feng shui as much as the rest of your home. A good bedroom feng shui should depict a sense of comfort and safety, create a romantic atmosphere for lovers, and invigorate sleepers for a new day. According to all feng shui gurus, if you keep everything in good balance and allow chi to flow freely, longevity, contentment, success and prosperity will also come. Everything that surrounds us, so to speak, affects our life.

On a higher level, feng shui can get quite complicated. If you hire a professional feng shui consultant to help decorate your bedroom, a lot of things will be called into consideration. For example, in which direction your bedroom faces, in what year your home was constructed, your birthdate, your partner's birthdate, other buildings surrounding your home, etc. But of course, not all of us can afford to hire a feng shui consultant. So we will just have to do it ourselves! And the good news is it's not that difficult. Here you will learn some basic feng shui precepts, applicable to all types of bedroom.

In feng shui, colors are divided into two groups. Yin colors are supposed to soothe your soul and help you relax whereas yang colors tend to motivate and excite you. As a bedroom is a place for retreat, yin colors should be dominant. Having too much yang will stir up too much tension and stop you from relaxing. However, your bedroom should not completely lack the yang energy, for having too much yin can cause languidness and the lack of motivation.

Yin Colors

• Pink
• Green
• Blue
• Gray
• Black

Green and blue are said to be the colors that can enhance our health. Feng shui practitioners believe that the color green symbolizes longevity, growth and rebirth while the color blue represents calmness, flexibility and inner peace. To paint your bedroom walls green or to use it as the theme color is like bringing nature into your room. It can revitalize those who have been ill and be the soul tonic to those who are already healthy. Similarly, decorating your bedroom with the color blue is believed to be good for relaxation and meditation. When your mind becomes more refreshed, your body will do the same.

Red, purple and gold, according to feng shui masters, can induce good luck and prosperity. However, they are yang colors, therefore you should not use too much of these shades in your bedroom where you are supposed to rest and relax. Use them as accent colors, instead.

Black, white and gray are the colors that can improve luck in your career. Black symbolizes good income and insightfulness. White represents creativity and mental strength. And gray is said to create the sense of self-empowerment and confidence. Keep in mind that even though black is a yin color, it tends to absorb negative chi when you use too much of it to decorate your home.

The best colors for enhancing your love life are pink, yellow and orange. Feng shui practitioners believe that pink can create positive energy for all couples both in terms of sexual fulfillment and selfless love. Yellow can induce acceptance and tolerance, though using too much yellow to decorate your bedroom may create anxiety. Orange, the vibrant blend of red and yellow, can lend passion and undertstanding to you and your partner.

Read more about Color Feng Shui for Relationship.

• Shun away from the door - Place your bed as far away from the bedroom door as possible. (See the above picture.) The ideal corner for the bed is the one diagonally opposite to the door. Most feng shui masters say that this position can help you gain a sense of relaxation and safety while resting. Also, it's the position where you can benefit most from the chi that flows through your bedroom.
• Get solid support - The head of your bed should be placed against a wall or have a solid headboard. Feng shui practioners believe that this symbolic support will give you calmness and strength to handle difficulties in life.
• Create a symbolic scope - Create a wide space in front of your bed. The bed position should allow you to have a perfect scope of vision of the whole room. A limited range of sight within the room can block the flowing chi and diminish your life's vision. The wider the space in front of your bed, the more broadly your perception of life expands and improves. Being able to see the entrance to your bedroom also symbolizes that you are in command of your own life and feel confident to face whatever life is bringing.

• The Death Position - Don't position your bed in line with the door. (See the above picture.) In other words, your feet should not point directly to the door while sleeping. This bed position, according to feng shui practitioners, is the "Death Position," as in Chinese culture the deceased is carried out feet first. It is a feng shui no-no. By having your bed face the door directly, you will be too exposed to excessive chi, which accordingly will bring too much energy, stress, negative influences and health problems.
• Stagnation from the foot - Avoid placing the foot of your bed against a wall. A footboard, in feng shui, is also considered "a chi blocker." It is said to cause stagnation and obstruct progress in your career.
• Overhead gadgets can create restlessness - Don't position your bed right under a ceiling fan, overhead beam, skylight or the low side of a slanted ceiling. These features, feng shui gurus claim, if placed directly above the bed will create a lot of depressing energy that can cause restlessness while you sleep.
• Don't throw the chi out the window - Avoid placing the head of your bed right under a window. Unlike a wall, a window does not provide the sense of safety and support. It can cause a fitful sleep and drain away your chi throughout the night, making you feel exhausted in the morning despite just having had a long night of sleep.
• Don't lose the chi from down under - Avoid putting the mattress on the floor. Sleeping directly on the floor, in feng shui practice, is not recommended. As I have mentioned, feng shui is all about keeping the chi flowing freely between objects in your bedroom. The gap between your mattress and the floor, therefore, will allow the chi to circulate below you.

• Ward off yang energy - Do not keep your television, computer or exercise equipment in your bedroom. These things can create an overflow of yang energy, which keeps you awake and agitated at night. In feng shui practice, a bedroom is supposed to be the place for quietness, peace and intimacy. So keep away all the electronic devices that may interrupt your peacefulness. Try to shut off the stresses of the day when you step into your bedroom. If you feel like you really want to have a computer or T.V. in your bedroom, you should place a folding screen between your bed and the computer desk or T.V. stand. Hanging a beautiful fabric from the ceiling is another nice way to separate your relax space from the entertainment or work area.
• Two for two - If you want to improve your romance luck, you should put nightstands on both sides of your bed. Use them as your shrines of love. Accessorize them with things that come in a pair. For example, a pair of candles, mandarin ducks or little vases of fresh flowers. Having two or three books on your nightstands is all right, but don't overload them with piles of books or thick files you bring back from work. These things can ruin your mood for intimacy.
• Open your eyes to a sight of inspiration - Hang your favorite piece of art on the wall opposite your bed so that it will be the last thing you see before you go to sleep and the first thing you perceive after you wake up. Try to choose an art piece that inspires you or represents your goal in terms of success, love life or spirituality.
• Avoid reflections of problems - Don't place a mirror near or opposite the bed. It is believed to reflect all your concerns and worries, bounce around too much energy and accordingly keep you awake at night. Some feng shui masters even say that positioning a mirror opposite your bed will invite an unwanted third party into your relationship. If you don't want to remove a mirror from your bedroom, try to cover it with a light fabric when it is not used.
• Green corner - From a feng shui perspective, plants are associated with growth, progess and rebirth. Placing a little plant in a corner of your bedroom, therefore, is believed to prevent the chi from stagnation.
• Space under the bed - Don't store anything under your bed because that will block the flow of chi. You should always keep it clear and clean. Your life can get pretty messy if under you bed, there is another bed of dust balls.
• Erase bad memories - Fung shui practitioners believe that every object obsorbs positive and negative energy from our past. Therefore you should get rid of things that are associated with bad memories or at least do not keep them in your bedroom, the place where you are supposed to leave all your worries behind. When it comes to a mattress, every feng shui guru will tell you the same thing: you should never buy a used one. You would never know to whom it belonged or whether somebody died in it. In fact, you should buy a new mattress every few years and give it a few good hours of sunshine every few months.