How to Feng Shui Your Home's Landscape Design

Feng Shui has been used for centuries, especially in Asian cultures, to create a harmonious, positive environment for the world we live in. It is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics intended to create harmony and balance by using colors and designs to maximize the benefits. While some Feng Shui knowledge may seem irrational and complicated, there are certain, more simple things that you can do to create positive energy within your household. Here's what you can do to add a little bit of Feng Shui to your home's landscape design:

Be Natural
To benefit from Feng Shui teachings, you want to make sure that you limit the amount of manmade, manufactured materials in your house. Plastics are less encouraged than glasses. Glasses are less encouraged than woods. You can basically stick to your eye on this one. If you know your piece of furniture went through an intense manufacturing process, ditch it for something more natural like a wooden chair or desk.

This also means natural light is better than artificial light. Have more windows with curtains instead of rooms that only have lights in them. If you think you'll be in a room more often than others, have more windows in that room and let them shine on where you'll be. Natural sunlight is great for the body, and as Feng Shui shows, even better for the soul.

With more windows, it's important to keep them open, too. Filtered air may seem nice, but studies show that air outside the house tends to be cleaner than the air inside homes, due to offgassing. So, open up those windows and let the fresh air in, says Feng Shui.

Regarding air, plants are a good idea, too. Plants eat up carbon dioxide and release oxygen in return, both processes which are invaluable to human existence. Plants will clean the air in your home and release a positive, lively energy to your home. Placing plants throughout your home is a great idea to increase the benefits of Feng Shui.

Be simple
When designing your home under the guidelines of Feng Shui, do it with a minimalist approach. Complexities are discouraged. Rather, move those chairs sitting in the middle of the living room and get rid of those boxes eating up space in your basement. Make everything easy to find and quickly viewable. You shouldn't have to worry about tripping over anything or losing something. This also means that you have to clean up! One of the main ideas of the Feng Shui aesthetics is that you live in a clean, simplistic, and balanced home. You don't have garbage sitting around because you take care of yourself. Simplicity is good, according to Feng Shui.

Be Feng Shui Colorful
There are five elements that define the colors used in Feng Shui aesthetics: fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.

Fire is represented by red, orange, purple, pink and yellow. As you can tell, these are the brightest colors meant to energize your day. Accordingly, it's important that you don't have these colors in all of your rooms because it will be too exhausting on your body. Rather, balance them by having the fire colors in something like a workout room, and then having more relaxed colors, like those of the water element, in your bedroom.

The water element is represented by the colors blue and black, symbolizing ease, calmness, and purity. It's best to use these colors where you plan to be relaxed; this may be in your bedroom or TV room, for example.

The wood element of vitality and growth is illustrated by the brown and green colors. These are natural colors, as you may expect, promoting a natural and healthy lifestyle. The earth element, shown by light yellow and beige, symbolizes stability, organization, and protection. You should use these colors in rooms where you have to focus, like a computer work room or business room. And finally, the metal element. Represented by gray and white, this element gives energy of precision, clarity, and efficiency. By balancing these colors throughout your home, you can have positive energy following you from every corner of the house.

Sources:
Rodika Tchi, "How to Get Started with Feng Shui." About.com.
Rodika Tchi, "Feng Shui Color Guide - How To Use Colors in Feng Shui." About.com.