“My bedroom is my sanctuary. It’s like a refuge.” — Vera Wang

The bedroom should be a haven of intimacy and solace. It should be a place to unwind, shed the stress of the day, and rejuvenate the body and mind; a place for romance, and to deepen the bond of your relationship.
Does your bedroom provide all that? Is it a cozy nest, a rejuvenating sensual oasis? Is it peaceful, quiet and conducive to long deep sleep? Or is it used as a home office, a media center, an exercise room, or a place for storage? How you treat your bedroom makes all the difference in how it nourishes you.
One of the most important rooms in Feng Shui is the Master Bedroom. Therefore what you do with your master bedroom has far reaching implications to your wellbeing, harmony and relationships.

All Bedrooms – Locations and Directions
The front of your home is the most active; therefore rooms such as offices, exercise rooms, and kitchens are the best here. Bedrooms need the more peaceful location at the back of the house. Unfortunately we don’t always have control over this, and have to do what we can to turn a bedroom in the front of the house into a peaceful haven.

Furnishings and Décor
Televisions in bedrooms tend to activate you and do not allow for restful sleep. Sleep research states that before retiring, reading or writing in a journal for the last half hour will slow your body down, and allow for a more peaceful sleep. The key is to keep the TV in a cabinet or armoire so it can be closed upon retiring. If this can’t be done, I have recommended placing a decorative drape over the TV so that the electromagnetic screen isn’t staring at you all night.
Bedrooms should be relatively free of clutter. The bed is indented to be a place of rejuvenation, so especially avoid accumulating clutter under the bed, as it obstructs the flow of Ch’i.
The rule of thumb for mirrors in the bedroom is “one small one or less, and not facing the bed.” Mirrors are too active for the tranquility of bedrooms. If you or your children have the misfortune of having large closet door mirrors, and find it hard to get restful sleep, you may consider curtaining them at night or adding decorative wooden or screen like panels instead.

Bedrooms and the Bagua
The Feng Shui Bagua (Ba-gua) Map, is represented as a grid of nine sectors. The Bagua comes from the Chinese philosophy, “The I Ching,” and literally means “eight trigrams”, with the center used for grounding. Bedrooms should take on the qualities of the Bagua area they reside in, except for the Master Bedroom, which you will learn is treated with the qualities of the Love Area, no matter where it is located in the Bagua.
Some examples are:
Career – waterscapes, glass/crystal items, black and asymmetrical shapes
Knowledge or Family/Friends – wood element, plants, blues, greens
Wealth – purples, opulent items
Fame – fire element, reds, candles
Children/Creativity – metal element, pastels
Helpful People – metal Element, spiritual guides, travel posters, grey, white
Center – earth element, yellows, and ceramics
You can review any of the areas in past columns on my website:
http://www.fengshuibymaria.com/newspaper-columns.html

Specific Directions per Bedroom Type: It is important to consider the Bagua, but as I mentioned above, each bedroom does have specific Feng Shui principles and guidelines, regardless of where in the house it’s located.

Master Bedroom – Your Romantic Boudoir
Your environment can nourish or weaken your intimacy. The more intimate bedrooms tend to be cozy and Yin. I The best bedroom colors are found in the warm skin tones of all races of people: from light beiges and tans, creamy cocoas, blushing pinks and peaches, subtle yellows, earthy reds, copper, gold, bronze amongst others. The colors that are too cool and do not work in bedrooms are pure white, grey, black, blues, and greens. They may look beautiful in designer showrooms, but when they dominate they create a chilly room versus a sensual one. In the Master Bedroom the art and pictures should represent the qualities of the Love and Marriage area of the Bagua: pairs of items such as figurines and candles, pictures and art reflecting couples and romantic representations, pictures of you and your significant other. It is not recommended to put photographs of your children and family in your master bedrooms. Photographs of your family are better served in areas of your home where family is dominant, such as living rooms, family rooms, playrooms and hallways. The bedroom is a romantic oasis, not a place to display photos of mom, dad or the kids.

Singles Bedrooms
Whether male or female singles looking for love need to create a romantic boudoir to prepare your room for another; two nightstands, two lamps, two throw pillows on the bed. Remove exercise equipment, family pictures, excess dolls and stuffed animals. Enhance the room with pairs of items, and romantic art depicting pairs of subjects such as people, animals, flowers, trees or sculptures. All these further energize your desire and intention to be romantically involved.

Guest Rooms
Give your guestrooms the same serene elements that your bedroom has. Use its location on the Bagua to enhance with the colors, items, elements and shapes of the area. Leave the door open, and make the room inviting with scented toiletries and little comforts. Avoid making this a chaotic storage room.

Children’s Rooms
Serenity is the key word here. Most children’s rooms are filled with primary colors, busy bedspreads, and active posters and toys. Parents complain that children are too active, when in fact they are being overly stimulated by their bedrooms décor. Choose colors from the same palette mentioned earlier, especially calmer colors such as warm pastels, peach, cream and cocoa. Change art to a motif that is more tranquil and calm, like self-esteem boosters and bulletin boards for their own creations. When you calm the bedroom down, you’ll calm the child down.
Using Feng Shui principles it’s easy to make your bedrooms work for you.

Feng Shui at Work
Our bedroom happens to be in the Knowledge and Self Cultivation area, unfortunately in the front. To keep it calmer we have painted it a light mushroom color, brought in a few silk plants and wooden furniture to be true to the Knowledge area, softening and creating a cozy atmosphere. We highlighted romance with many pictures of my husband and I, romantic art, pairs of items and added burgundy accents. Above the bed is a picture of two Georgia O’Keefe poppies. The flowers represent the wood element, while the pairs and red tones represent the love area. It is cozy, Yin and has become our little retreat.
When bedrooms experience challenges: A single client recently moved in to an apartment with the bedroom partially in Creativity and Partially in Love. The room is painted grey and the other half of the Love area behind the wall is a water heater, furnace and lots of ugly plumbing. I recommended she paint the room a skin tone, and add romantic art with pairs. To repel the plumbing energy I recommended she hang a mirror behind the art on the wall facing backwards toward the plumbing, and to hang 30 mm round faceted crystal both in the bedroom corner to anchor the missing area, and above the hot water heater to keep the energy moving. She decided to hang a beautiful pink and red curtain of ribbons in the hallway hiding the plumbing. The Ch’i in the room already feels better and she’s moving forward with her creativity and love life.

Affirmations:
Remember that in Feng Shui, intent plays a significant role in enhancing any area of your home or business. That’s why all enhancements need to be made with intentionality; written or stated affirmations that are expressed as if they already happened are very important. Examples or affirmations for bedrooms:
“I am in a fulfilling, loving relationship”, “I feel rested and rejuvenated. ”
For questions or home consultations email at mtmccull@aol.com and put “Feng Shui” on the subject line, or visit my website at www.fengshuibymaria.com, (where you can read past columns), or Facebook “Feng Shui by Maria”, where I post pictures as examples to enhancements.

* I NOW have a BLOG – Just go to the website and click on “Blog”: You can view many pictures and, I will respond to your questions quickly.

Learn more in my next class:
Learn more about the Bagua and the 5 Elements in my next series of 3 classes through Acalanes Adult Ed (1963 Tice Valley Blvd. in Walnut Creek):
Thurs. afternoons 1:00-3:00 p.m., Sept. 14, 21, 28 Go to www.acalanes.k12.ca.us/adulted to register.
(Participants will receive $40 off a home consultation.)
Until then…Blessings!

Maria McCullough, is the owner / founder of Feng Shui by Maria (www.fengshuibymaria.com), a speaker and educator with over 20 years of experience. She specializes in residential, landscape and business consultations. She is a graduate of the Western School of Feng Shui and has personally trained with Terah Kathryn Collins, founder of the Western School of Feng Shui, specializing in Essential Feng Shui® and author of numerous books including “The Western Guide to Feng Shui.”

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