Feng Shui uses a range of design choices to enhance the energy of spaces and align them with their uses. For example, bedrooms need quieter, calmer, more regenerative energy, which Chinese systems of thought call yin. Work spaces need more active, yang energy. In additional, Feng Shui associates areas of the home with areas of human endeavor, and enhances them to support those areas. Whether you believe these enhancement actually affect those areas of our lives, or just improve the "feel" of a building, Feng Shui is an interesting way to think about the energetics of space. For instance, homes with blue floors or carpets apparently don't sell well. We tend to experience blue underfoot as unstable, like water or sky. Earth colored floors feel safer. Feng Shui also pays a lot of attention to the placement of furniture, especially beds and desks, and how this affects our confidence, relaxation, focus, etc. I'll be incorporating some Feng Shui principles as I think about the interior design of my home.
The Five Elements
Feng Shui seeks to balance the energies of the five Chinese elements: water, metal, wood, earth and fire. Too much or too little of any element can cause imbalances in the household energy. My home will be heavy on the metal, and probably wood, low on earth and fire, and maybe water, so I will need to pay special attention to those elements, which can be enhanced using the actual materials, but also symbolic representations of them in art, or through color and form. Too much metal can lead to nervous exhaustion and overwork. Adding water element helps control it. Too little fire can lead to lethargy and a lack of joy.
Feng Shui divides the home into nine squares, called guas, each representing an area of life. They are associated with a Chinese element, and the related shapes, colors, and symbols of that element. When my trailer arrived, I placed colored stones representing each gua's energies inside the floor of the Vehicle.
Feng Shui divides the home into nine squares, called guas, each representing an area of life. They are associated with a Chinese element, and the related shapes, colors, and symbols of that element. When my trailer arrived, I placed colored stones representing each gua's energies inside the floor of the Vehicle.
Some of the new materials researched for me by the design class I consulted with add richness to my palette of choices. For example, a wall covering made of spun glass would be considered a water element material, and having just painted a room with clay paint, I can testify to the earthy feeling that comes from applying even a thin layer of clay to a wall. Red colored materials add the vibrancy of fire, and I love the brightly woven textiles of Central America, so I may choose to use cushions to add fire element. While cotton is a wood element fiber, silk and wool and other animal products are considered fire materials. Triangles are also a fire element shape. Red silk and wool triangular pillows!!
My home is built inside an aluminum frame trailer with aluminum exterior walls, and the best way to protect myself against the possibility of mold is for the interior walls to also be of metal. That's a LOT of metal! In order to create balance, I need to emphasize the other elements. Metal is controlled by Fire, which also fosters energy and joy. Fire can be enhanced in a number of ways: the color red, animal products such as wool and silk, feathers, bone and leather, triangular shapes, images of animals or the sun, lights, candles, and actual fire.
I will have a wood stove, and wool felt covering the walls and ceiling. I just bought a beautiful deep red Palestinian wool rug with stripes in black, green and white. I will have abundant daylight during the day, but will need to make sure the rooms are well lit in cloudy weather and at night.
Wood feeds fire, and I will have plenty of it: hardwood shelves, drawers, counter bases, and my desk, plus wood flooring in most of the house and a small green house.
As I seek to balance all the elements, earth and water will be the most challenging. Earth is represented by square flat objects, ceramic tiles and pottery, stone, cements, and earth tones from yellow to dark brown. My shower and entryway will be covered in Mexican ceramic tiles in rich earth and wood tones, and themselves contain fire and earth, besides being flat and square. I will also use tile for my kitchen counters.
Rock salt lamps combine fire and earth element and bring a lovely pink glow, as well as emitting healthy negative ions. Actual soil can harbor mold, but my rock memorabilia--rocks from the many places I've loved, can represent earth, as can crystals.
I will have a wood stove, and wool felt covering the walls and ceiling. I just bought a beautiful deep red Palestinian wool rug with stripes in black, green and white. I will have abundant daylight during the day, but will need to make sure the rooms are well lit in cloudy weather and at night.
Wood feeds fire, and I will have plenty of it: hardwood shelves, drawers, counter bases, and my desk, plus wood flooring in most of the house and a small green house.
As I seek to balance all the elements, earth and water will be the most challenging. Earth is represented by square flat objects, ceramic tiles and pottery, stone, cements, and earth tones from yellow to dark brown. My shower and entryway will be covered in Mexican ceramic tiles in rich earth and wood tones, and themselves contain fire and earth, besides being flat and square. I will also use tile for my kitchen counters.
Rock salt lamps combine fire and earth element and bring a lovely pink glow, as well as emitting healthy negative ions. Actual soil can harbor mold, but my rock memorabilia--rocks from the many places I've loved, can represent earth, as can crystals.
A glass box full of beautiful stones can bring both water and earth energy, as glass is a water element substance. A long time ago, an Armenian student gave me a clay figure of Anahit, Armenian goddess of fertility, healing, water and wisdom. It's a traditional salt container, hollow, with a round hole in front. I have other clay figures, but will have very little space to display them, and each one must be securely fastened for travel. Seat belts all around. Because my house is mobile, earth element will be very important in creating a feeling of stability and groundedness.
In fact, I will be using an actual grounding rod, like a kind of anchor I throw down whenever I park. It will ground the electrical systems of the Vehicle, and also connect me to the earth.
Water element is expressed in wavy forms, actual water features, such as aquariums, fountains and water walls, glass, mirrors and images of water. I considered using recycled glass for my countertops, but the product I liked best was very heavy and expensive.
In fact, I will be using an actual grounding rod, like a kind of anchor I throw down whenever I park. It will ground the electrical systems of the Vehicle, and also connect me to the earth.
Water element is expressed in wavy forms, actual water features, such as aquariums, fountains and water walls, glass, mirrors and images of water. I considered using recycled glass for my countertops, but the product I liked best was very heavy and expensive.
Special Feng Shui Challenges
One of the big Feng Shui no-noes is to place a bathroom in direct line with the front door. Unfortunately, I have no choice, but have found some ways to compensate. First of all, traditional toilets are energy drains, with chi flowing down into the sewers. My composting toilet turns human waste into natural abundance, fertilizing flowers and trees. So I have decided to see it as a good thing that it's in the Wealth area of my house. Secondly, I have made the entrance quite beautiful, with tile floors, and a glass walled greenhouse to one side. I also found a lovely bead curtain with a tropical scene on it, adding a sense of spaciousness as well as covering the entrance to the toilet area. I will probably have to back it with something to make it a truly opaque bathroom door. I can't use vinyl shower curtains, so I'll probably buy the kind of nylon used in camping gear.
My bed will be in the "bunk" area of my gooseneck trailer, suspended over the back of the pickup truck when attached, and over air when not. To ground that area, I'll have rocks in the four corners of that small room, and will also have a grounding wire that attaches to a metal rod I can stick in the earth when I'm parked. Feng Shui expert Karen Rauch Carter suggested that I paint a mural on the outside of the Vehicle that shows a soil line with the beginning of roots dangling down to create the illusion that the house rests on the ground.