The kitchen is often referred to as the heart of the home. It is where we nourish our loved ones and gather for celebrations. A poorly arranged kitchen can cause stress and anxiety, while a carefully designed kitchen in accordance with the guidelines of Feng Shui can provide a warm and inviting energy. Remember, a Feng Shui kitchen can help lead to a Feng Shui living room. Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese practice of balancing the flow of energy through a space.
The following five Feng Shui rules will help you perfect the energy flowing through your kitchen.
1. Avoid Kitchens Across from Bedrooms or Bathrooms
The calm, slow energy in bedrooms and bathrooms clash with the lively, productive energy of the kitchen. These rooms should not face one another to avoid muddled and confused vibes, or, some say, even health problems. If there is no choice but to have your kitchen face a bedroom or bathroom, it is recommended that you place some sort of screen or partition in such a way that the bedroom or bathroom is not visible from the stove.
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2. Avoid Red and Black
According to Feng Shui, the stove represents the element of fire, and so does the color red. Placing fire on fire is said to encourage aggressiveness and hostility. The colors red and black are both believed to affect mood negatively- red provoking anger and black encouraging sadness and depression. These are not colors that promote the nurturing energy and togetherness we seek in a kitchen space.
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3. Never Leave Dirty Dishes out Overnight
Letting dirty dishes stay out in your kitchen overnight invites negative, sickly energy to settle in. Dirty dishes represent filth, squalor and disease. Be sure to wash dishes as soon as possible, or at the very least load them into a dishwasher where they will be out of sight and less likely to attract dark, ominous energy into the kitchen while you sleep.
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4. Don’t Face a Mirror at the Stove
Feng Shui prudence will tell us that reflecting the stove in a mirror will block any energy that would attract wealth and prosperity to enter the kitchen, resulting in poor financial outcomes for those who dwell there. Placing a mirror above the stove to reflect the chef while cooking, however, is considered a good way to open the gates to positive monetary energy flow.
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5. Always Keep Fresh Flowers and Fruit on Display
It is important to encourage and attract liveliness into your kitchen. Keeping fresh cut flowers, live houseplants, and bowls of fresh fruit on display invites healthy, vibrant energy into the room and your, your family, and your guests’ lives. Be sure not to leave rotting fruit or dead flowers out though, or you will risk inviting sickness and despair in instead.
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Feng Shui can seem incredibly complicated and intimidating. It's possible, however, to break down and simplify these age-old philosophies into easy to follow modern guidelines for optimizing the energy in our homes. Incorporating these five Feng Shui rules into your kitchen design will optimize the positive, invigorating energy you and your guests feel there, and will give you enough basic knowledge of the art to begin to assess other areas of your home’s living spaces.
