What is Feng Shui?
If you have heard about Feng Shui, it was probably a while ago when it was all the rage for home designers. Well, it hasn’t gone away and in this weeks blog we look at home it influences your wood burning stove.
And if you haven’t heard of Feng Shui, we’ll try and quickly explain with a simply description. Feng Shui is a Chinese design principle that helps the flow of energy in your home or garden by arrangement and orientation. It is believed by positioning and arranging your living environment correctly, energy will flow and influence your life in a positive way. It’s basis forms around the five elements; fire, wood, earth, metal and water.
The Fire Element
As you have guessed, the stove in your home will represent the fire element. In Feng Shui, fire represents high energy and emotion. It isn’t only represented by your stove, but also by the hot colours like red or hot pink, lights, candles and pictures of something very active.
According to Feng Shui, you need to create balance and harmony, therefore to balance too much fire, i.e. your room may be red with a large stove, you need more of the water element, so a more calming element to tone it down. If you have too much of the fire element, then it creates too much energy, leaving you agitated and drained.
Are we Feng Shui experts?
We are defintaley not experts in Feng Shui. So instead we scourered the internet to find you the best design and arrangement ideas as well as tips from many Feng Shui resources. However, we are experts with stoves, their spare parts and installation. So if you need help with your stove, then get in touch.
Placement of your Stove
The best position for your stove is on a South wall. This is because in Feng Shui, the South’s energy is Fire and also relates to your future and luck. However, if it isn’t possible to move a stove due to chimney limitations, you can counter act this by using objects relating to the Fire element on the South wall.
It used to be said that wood burning stoves were bad for Feng Shui. This is no longer the case as the original texts referred to open chimneys which lost energy through the gap. Modern stoves do not apply to this.
Around your stove
The whole area around your stove should be free of objects and not cluttered. This helps the Chi energy to flow around your room. Also, your seating area should not be too close either.
In Feng Shui, your stove should be the main focal point of your room to allow so that is can provide energy and flow abundantly, However, many people make the TV their focal point. How many times do you see this done by designers? Not very often. To combat this focal point issue, have a method of concealing your television when not in use so you can enjoy the stove and the energy it brings.
Another point to note is that Feng Shui is about harmony, so if your stove is large and creates too much energy for your room, you can balance this by using more water elements, like placing a circular mirror above your stove.
Storing Firewood
Feng Shui is all about order and not creating clutter. Therefore, when storing your firewood, make sure it is neatly stacked and not left lying around. In your home, use neatly stacked firewood next to your stove to introduce the wood element. Wood is part of the Health and Family. Using neatly stacked wood in a metal holder can help to calm the Fire element from your stove. Another method to clam the fire is by using plants nearby.
And Finally
We hope this blog post has been an interesting read. Feng Shui can be a useful design tool for home owners. Having a stove does not have to interfere with your home design ideas and the art of Feng Shui can help you get even more from your stove.