Living Room Feng Shui | Living Room Furniture Layout
Implementing feng shui techniques to your living room furniture layout can help you add to focus, energy and nourishment to your everyday life.
When we think about feng shui, we immediately think of bedroom feng shui. However, as the living room is the place where we gather with our friends and family, as well as where we choose to spend time to unwind and relax, it is important to create good feng shui in this room.
Feng shui works to maximise the flow of qi (chi) which is believed by some to be a natural energy and life force that provides the main source of productivity, safety, and allows us to focus to achieve our goals.
Creating a positive flow of energy, and mindfulness to your living space can have an amazing impact on your mental and physical wellbeing. It can create harmony between individuals and their environment.
We’ve outlined some of the core principles of feng shui living room rules and achievable actions, so you can create your own feng shui living room layout.
Use the Bagua map to add purpose to your living room
To begin with, familiarise yourself with the Bagua map (also known as the energy map). The Bagua map is one of the most powerful tools in feng shui living room rules, as it allows you to see a systematic approach of applying the nine areas of energy to your home or a living room.
You can use the Bagua as a floor plan for your living room. Or it can be used as a floor plan for a whole home, to add different purposes to different rooms.
The nine areas of life on the energy map are wealth, fame, health, love & partnership, creativity, helpful people, career, spiritual growth and travel.
Decide which one of the nine areas resonates the most with your living room and use this to enhance the qualities and purpose of your living room. This can easily be done by using colour, or objects.
Consider the flow of your living room furniture layout
To optimise the flow of chi in your living room, it is important to make sure there is a clear flow of movement around your living room furniture layout, with no pieces of furniture obstructed.
This also includes creating space between furniture and walls, even if it is just a few inches. Ensuring furniture does not touch walls will allow an open and free space for feng shui to work in and around your space.
Place sofas in a commanding position
Feng shui sofa placement can have a huge impact on your living room feng shui. As with the bed in bedroom feng shui, it is vital to establish a commanding position for your sofa or any other chair in the living room.
Feng shui sofa placement ensures that whoever is sitting on the sofa has a clear view and vantage point of whoever is entering the room, at all times. If this isn’t possible, and you are looking at feng shui for a smaller living room layout, place a mirror in a place where you can see the entrance to the door. Being able to see the main entrance to the room will allow you to relax.
The sofa should also be placed by a stable wall to create a feeling of safety, as opposed to floating in the room – just like the headboard in the bedroom.
Although it should be close to the wall, allow a little bit of space between the wall and sofa for a good flow of energy. Similarly, ensure that your sofa is not placed in front of any windows, so that it does not obstruct your view of the outdoors, as well as allowing chi to positively enter the living space.
Declutter your living room
It is easy to accumulate a lot of stuff in your house, however, clutter doesn’t make for good feng shui, in your living room, or anywhere in the house. Reducing or eliminating clutter from your living room is a necessity to allow for chi to flow.
Clutter can also have a negative impact on your physical and mental health, as it often mirrors the busyness and chaos in our everyday life. Having a tidy, clear space that is made up of items that you either use, need or love is more than ideal for living room feng shui.
With more space for chi to flow, the more space for good health and positive energy to flow and create a welcoming living room for you to enjoy.
Decorate with meaningful colours
Feng shui uses colour to enhance particular aspects of your life. What colour is best for the feng shui of your living room, can be determined using the Bagua energy map, as well as the five elements.
There are no strict colour rules in feng shui, they are dependent on what areas of your life you want to focus on. For example, if you wanted to use the five elements as a basis to use for adding colour and textures into your space it might look like this:
- Water: bringing in black or very dark blues
- Earth: using earthy browns, orange and yellows
- Fire: adding in fiery red colours
- Wood: blue and green colours
- Metal: using white, greys and metallics
If choosing to use the elements, be sure to include a small part of each element for good living room feng shui. The five elements allow for good balance through nature to our health.
You can also use your instinct to decide which colour to decorate your living room with, so if there is a particular colour you are drawn to, or alternatively that you don’t like, you can decide for yourself what colours you need.
Colour doesn’t just refer to the colour of your walls either. It is not essential to have all your walls a particular colour, you could opt for neutral coloured walls, and then use furniture, decor or rugs to establish the colours you need to.
Fill your room with life through plants
A simple, yet extremely effective way to add feng shui to your living room, is to fill your spaces with live plants. Live plants don’t only look great, they are great for adding life energy into your home and purifying the air. Look after your plants with regular watering, light and space to keep them healthy.
Feng shui TV placement
TVs should not be placed in a bedroom, however, in most living rooms, it is inevitable you will have a TV. To make sure your TV does not interrupt your living room feng shui too much, ensure your TV is at a comfortable viewing height and angle and works with the dimension of your living room. For a feng shui small living room layout, this is particularly important.
An absolute must not for TV feng shui living room layouts, is to place the TV above a fireplace, as this interrupts viewing and interferes with the energy from the ‘heat’ element.
Space Clear
Whether you’re looking for a brand new living room furniture layout, or to simply add a bit more feng shui, clearing your space is important, to revitalise the energy of the room and house. Some easy ways to clear your space include:
- Air the room out by opening the windows and doors for at least nine minutes to allow for any old energy to leave and make room for the new.
- Use salt to absorb any unwanted energies to be cleared. Himalayan salt or table salt can do the job, as well as Himalayan salt lamps.
- Create vibrations either in the centre or walking around your living room with Tibetan metal bowls or singing bowls that cut through the energy.
- Smudge herbs, sweetgrass or flowers either in the centre of your living room or walk around with it.
- Diffuse essential oils to shift the energy of the room and clear the space.
Choose your art carefully
Opt for art that you can bring meaningful colour into or that expresses one of the five elements. You should also like your art, and not have any art that is attached to negative feelings for example if it was not chosen by you, or an ex-partner or relative chose it. Your artwork should be what you want to see aesthetically, not be full of history.
The positioning of your artwork can also affect the energy of the room. If the artwork is too low, it can cause low energy and mood. If you are looking for a feng shui small living room layout, choose artwork that is appropriate for the size of the room, so not too large that it dominates the space, and should make the room feel spacious.
Feng shui is built on years of ancient beliefs and research that can be applied in a large number of ways to every room of the house. We hope we’ve provided some inspiration for your living room furniture layout as well as an insight into creating living room feng shui, and a more nourishing living space.
To summarise:
- Map out and add purpose to your home using the Bagua energy map
- Ensure that chi can flow in and around your living room furniture layout
- Place sofas in a commanding and safe position, not in the centre of a room
- Avoid clutter throughout the living room and home
- Decorate the walls and through art with meaningful colours
- Add energy through plants, and space clear when you need an energy refresh
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