The Feng Shui Room & Yin-Yang
Feng Shui Guide
Feng shui (pronounced
"fung shway" and literally meaning "wind" and "water"),
a far eastern meta-physical oriented philosophy, and with origins dating back
over 3,000 years, is used in design by focusing on the
harmonious simplicity of room space, object
placement and equilibrium.
Through careful consideration of color, spacing and alignment,
the feng shui room adds positive “chi”
(or life force) energy to your home, which is believed to
increase mental and physical health, ward off evil spirits, and bring
wealth, prosperity and serenity into your life.
There are several mechanisms for enhancing the
circulation of chi within your feng shui room. Lighting and brightness serve to
quell the dark forces while stimulating the positive chi within your
surroundings.
Likewise, plants are used to add life to the interior by both conveying chi
as well as producing it.
Chinese mirrors are another great way to enhance chi, and
are especially effective as a defense to troubled locations where only
a weak positive or a highly negative chi is present. And water,
symbolizing money, can be incorporated into the home through babbling
fountains, or a clean, healthy fish tank.
In addition to the interior,
additional feng shui home decorating tips in order to maximize chi include
consideration of the home's
exterior qualities, such as physical placement (i.e., ideally the front facing south),
as well as proximity to surrounding hills and mountains (providing
protection), bodies of water (symbolizing wealth), and the stars.
Yin-Yang
The ancient Chinese philosophy
of yin-yang is an understanding of the coexistence of opposing forces which
complement each other and seeks to unite opposites. But
what does it mean and how does it pertain to Asian design styles?
As a
core Asian philosophy, yin-yang represents life's opposites and striking
balance, which
translates extensively into how Asian homes are decorated.
Examples
of yin (black-female) include being dark, passive, down, wet, weak,
inner, or cold. Yang (white-male), on the other hand, is exemplified by such things
as light, activity, up, dry, powerful, outer and life. Light versus dark, hard
and soft, round or angled, past and present, are often contrasted against each other in Asian home decor in
such a manner as to weave this philosophy into daily life.
This
philosophy is not about "good" versus "evil" but rather it conveys the
universal truth about the inherent opposites, the push and pull, the tug of
war, which occurs throughout our entire existence.
yin-yang symbols
One popular example of this
continual interaction between opposites in Asian decor is found when black is
used to contrast with lighter colored objects, such as
displaying white stones against a black dish in order to achieve the
illusion of
balance.
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