Ever walk by those trinket stores in Chinatown and wonder “seriously, what the heck is this for?” Yep. Those metal coins with the square hole in the middle, the three legged money frog, and carp windsocks all serve a purpose in the Chinese art of decorating according to energy flow.

I wish I knew all there is to know about feng shui. Carp wind socks aside, it just makes sense to me that the better you feel in your office or apartment, the more likely you will be able to focus on what you need to do to be able to succeed. It’s about decluttering, having healthy plants around, leaving a window open 20 minutes a day for air flow. Essentially, it’s about taking pride in your space.

I started looking into feng shui to find out how I could activate the energy flow in my crib to bring me lots of dollars and luck and boyfriends. (In that order, preferably.) One small decor change led to another, and before I knew it, my apartment was pretty much upside down. I scoured the interwebs, sifting through some of the super involved stuff for feng shui masters, as well as Pam / Beth / Sherry’s Angelfire sites, and discreetly tried to interrogate the employees in Chinatown decor stores. Here’s what I found.

The southeast corner of your pad is for wealth and prosperity.

The southeast corner is all about money makin’. Why, you ask? Trade in early China originated in seaports of the southeast of the country, instilling this area with wealth power. This corner is governed by the element wood, so candles or light features don’t work well around here because fire doesn’t jive with wood. What is great here are plants with round leaves, a bowl of goldfish, or a water feature. If you can’t hack a goldfish or commit to a plug-in babbling brook, a picture of a water feature will do. One that’s not stagnant or dirty, but lively and energetic. This is what I did, and I put it in a gold frame to optimize the money bringing power of a magazine ad of a lady shaving her legs in a waterfall. Who knows?

Reducing clutter in this area is also a good idea. Physical grime like dirt and dust hinders the smooth flow of energy, and the accumulation of old magazines and knick knacks lying around is bad too. I have an oversized Papasan chair in this corner that is begging to be used as a hamper. Begging! This site will indicate to me in days to come how committed to feng shui I can be.  

Southwest corner is the romance corner.  

If you’re hoping to find Mr. / Mrs. Right, or wouldn’t say no to a hot make out session with someone tolerable, place things in pairs around here. Doves or swans are the best. The only object I have in a pair are these wooden cat book ends that I had been keeping in my closet because I thought they were too creepy to have around. Now that I actually realize this, I’m not so sure they make a good fit for my dating corner.

If you have a toilet in this area, it’s a disaster. Toilets anywhere are a disaster. (Your luck goes down the drain whenever you flush). Interestingly, in the homes of wealthy Mandarins of older China, there were no toilets. Every time a bodily function had to go down, bathtubs filled with water were brought in by servants and then taken away after. Bathrooms are a concept of the west, apparently. Personally I’d probably be a lot more miserable if I needed someone to ready me a bath every time I had to pee. One way to deflect the bad luck of a bathroom is to put a full length mirror outside the bathroom door, and always keep the toilet lid down.

Northwest corner is for networking.

So my networking corner is a broom closet. Fek. This was an unfortunate discovery, because I’m really trying to get better at networking these days. (Follow me on Twitter @kaitfowlie. I give awesome decorating tips.) This corner is ruled by metal, and the colours white and silver. I own nothing metal, but I did manage to remove about 6 pots of dead herbs hanging around on a shelf left over from the summer. You don’t want to have dead plants around anywhere. Healthy ones literally cleanse the air, and can help you cover up harsh angles or other undesirable parts of your place that have a stagnant flow of energy.

Northeast corner is the knowledge corner.

This corner is ruled by earth, so earthenware pots or wind chimes are great. Metal exhausts earth, so don’t keep any appliances around here if you can help it. This corner happens to be where my bed is. As far as I’m concerned, this is not a site for knowledge. It’s a site for sloth, dreaming, recuperating.  Also in this corner on the wall I have a skateboard deck that a friend of mine painted for me. It says “inspiration is a cumbersome beast, blackened by neglect.” It was his attempt to mock me for using big words in the wrong context. So much for activating my knowledge corner.

~ Kait Fowlie