by Jen | Oct 4, 2013 | Happiness at Home, Home Staging, How To, Interior Decorating, Western Feng-Shui
Eclectic Garage And Shed by Hershey Photographers Amy Renea
Did you read yesterday’s post? Ok, we’ll wait while you click here.
Be it ever so lovely there’s no place like home. What’s one thing you can do to your house to make it feel “homey”? Add plants. Greenery. Flowers. They give instant home appeal. This goes for staging your house for sale, as well. Plants make a room more inviting and more inviting gets buyers.
Portland Interior Designers & Decorators Jessica Helgerson Interior Design
Did you know that house plants can improve the quality of air in your house? The air quality in your own home is usually much worse than the outdoor one. Synthetic chemical cleaning products, foam in our furniture and carpet, and other building materials in our houses all emit toxins. Then there is mold, tobacco smoke, poorly ventilated cooking sources… I’m sort of freaking myself out. Open some windows everyone. I’m perusing around the web and a lot of folks concur these are some of the best house plants for air-cleaning (the site I’m looking at right now is DrAxe.com Maximize Your Health):
Areca palm
Reed palm
Dwarf date palm
Boston fern
Janet Craig dracaena
English Ivy
Australian sword fern
Peace Lily
Rubber plant
Weeping fig
Then there is the Feng Shui side to this. Plants bring great energy into your home. Plus, you can’t have good energy in your house if the air quality isn’t good. Bamboo plants create good feng shui AND clean the air in your home. Have you seen the Feng Shui Money Trees in Lowes or Home Depot? I think I’ve seen small bamboo ones even in dollar stores. Well, the logic behind these is any healthy, vibrant lush plant represents vibrant and well-rooted energy—a growing energy you would like to see reflected in your money (check out About.com Feng-Shui). Common ones are jade trees (a succulent) and Pachira Aquatica Bonsai. Do with this as you choose but a plant that can clean toxins out of my house, bring good energy, make my rooms look better, and maybe help me attract money? I’m in.
AND. According to a University of Agriculture in Norway study, indoor plants can reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by more than 30 percent, partially by increasing humidity levels and decreasing dust.
Myers Design
AND. House plants make people feel calmer and more optimistic, says Bruno Cortis, M.D., a Chicago cardiologist. He says that studies have shown that hospital patients who face a window with a garden view recovered more quickly than those who had to look at a wall. What about watching the news? If I put 600 plants around my TV will I feel calmer over the government shutdown??
Anywhoooo.
All this being said–I’m a plant killer. I try. I do. I water too much, I water too little, I put in direct sun, I put in not enough sun. Sigh. Here’s a list of the hardest plants to kill. I got this list from ivillage.com Clean House Happy Home where you can also see pictures.
Pothos
Aloe
Spider plant
English Ivy (also a good air cleaner)
Jade plant
Rubber tree (love these and also on the air cleaning list)
Diffenbachia
Peace Lily (air cleaning list)
Snake plant
Ficus (don’t do it)
A couple I am skipping because they look really ugly.
Fiddle-Leaf Fig
Areca Palm (This is also on the air cleaning list and I have had one for FOUR years. It still lives!)
I’m going to the store and getting 600 more of these tomorrow. We’ll see if it helps.
by Jen | Sep 23, 2013 | House Tours, Western Feng-Shui
Two Things.
Did you know if you open your windows and clap your hands you empty the negative energy from your house?
Trust me. What do you have to lose except negative energy? Plus it is MONDAY…
We did it.
AND did you know that getting rid of 21 things frees up the energy in your house?
I did it. Just don’t tell my boys.
The energy in the play room is PHENOMENAL. 21 things gone.
Monday’s challenge. Open your windows, clap your hands, and get rid of 21 things.
Positive Energy is waiting.
by Jen | Sep 17, 2013 | Western Feng-Shui
Have you ever walked into a room and just felt plain old yucky when you entered it? You probably blamed it on the fact that it was too dark, bright, smelly, uncomfortable, stark, cluttered, hot, cold or just weird. Well, all those things contribute to whether a space has good energy or not. We want good energy. Too many things are just draining the heck out of our energy so for crying out loud our own house should NOT.
Feng Shui is basically how energy flows in your space. It is an ancient art and science that is thousands of years old. The idea behind it for our purposes is we want optimal health and good fortune in the spaces we occupy–and applying Feng Shui practices can make this happen.
So today we are going to talk about where our beds and where our desks should be positioned–for the best energy or optimal Feng Shui.
The Feng Shui commanding position in any room is the spot that is furthest from the door and not in the direct line with it.
It is usually diagonally from the door and facing the door. Usually this means a corner opposite the entrance to the room.
Another important part is you need to have a solid back to the area behind your bed or desk–so a window is bad. You don’t want to feel vulnerable, you want a solid grounded background behind you and a good view of the door.
This sounds like common sense but until you read it you don’t realize how true this is. If your bed looks good on a different wall backed by windows looking into the hallway then you probably are going to “blow this off”. Until you go to bed tonight and think maybe this is why I always feel anxious, or have to triple check the locks on the door, or have trouble falling asleep—maybe it’s just bad energy.
I’m all about good energy, even if it means rearranging my room for the 300th time.
Want to read more about Feng Shui? Check out What Door Do You Use? and What Door Do You Use? One Door’s Journey–A Follow-Up.
by Jen | Apr 18, 2013 | Happiness at Home, Interior Decorating, Western Feng-Shui
I feel like this title is suppose to be symbolic in a self-help kind of way–like “Who’s Packing Your Parachute?”, or “How Full is Your Bucket?” But what I really mean is, what door do you use? When you come home, what door do you enter through? I would love to claim to be a feng-shui expert, but if you read my post Strong Moms Empower you would know I am terrible at the analytical collection of data.
Catherine Brophy — Chinese Astrological Chart
And you apparently need to do one of these to do Eastern Feng-Shui. Well how about Wester Feng-Shui? My understanding is that it only scratches the surface vs the deeper, more serious, and traditional method of the Eastern way. But, hey, let’s not be deep and just scratch the surface…
Years ago, I actually read multiple books on Western Feng-Shui so I’m practically an expert… Feng shui (the computer keeps auto correcting this to “fang she”—and I keep missing it, will this post get published with a rogue “fang she”?) is basically how you arrange your belongings so there is optimal flow of energy in your home. Ok, that sounded really boring. It is how you arrange your environment to enhance your life! Bam! Nothing boring about that!
And we are back to what door do you use? I like to keep things hopping in a circular fashion so you never know what is about to come next. Will it be doors or “fang she” or will she TIE IT TOGETHER???!!!
Whatever main entrance you use it is the place where you and your visitors form lasting (entering and leaving) impressions about your home. I think most of you are thinking “ouch”. Can I see a show of hands as to how many use the garage to enter the house?? If this entrance is dark, chaotic, or a constant reminder of undone chores THEN IT IS DEPLETING JOY. What about the front door and foyer? Is there clutter, sports equipment, shoes, coats, piles, school bags, mail, junk hanging around? What about the front path and porch? Weedy? Chipping paint? Neglected “fill in the blank”? THIS IS YOUR GREETING AND GOOD-BYE! I hate to use caps but it needed to be done.
Here are two checklists. One is to mark the places that need help. The other is a list of ideas to get you going in the right direction using feng-shui.
List One—What Needs Help
Garage Entrance:
Messy?
Dark?
Full of the WRONG seasonal shoes, coats, and sporting equipment?
Is the door dirty, smudgy, grungy and chipped?
Is the door mat old and ugly?
Stairs? Clean? Nicely Painted?
Front Door Entrance:
Is there a front walkway to the door?
Weeds?
Crazy overgrown bushes?
Is the front porch full of junk? Dead plants? An Armchair?
Do you, and this is important, have any other upholstered living room furniture on your front porch or let’s go there, your front lawn?
I actually just ammended this post to add this: Do you have holiday decorations up for a holiday that is already over? And by holiday I really mean Christmas.
Is the front door dirty, chipped, and rusty?
Is the doorbell yellowed and tired?
Foyer:
Cluttered?
Dirty?
Entry rug in bad shape?
List Two–Feng-Shui Ideas to UPLIFT YOUR JOY LEVELS
Organization is key in all areas. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here. If you are stuck try http//www.amyvolk.com. She has good ideas, a blog detailing these good ideas, and if you live in Hampton Roads she and her team can come to you.
Light! Sunshine, clean windows, new light bulbs–these are good things.
Fresh Paint. (Fresh, clean and inviting is always ZEN.)
Hang your best painting in your foyer.
Make sure the front door area and foyer are free of clutter.
Install a mirror in your foyer.
Consider making your house “shoeless” and keep a basket for guests’ shoes near the door. Removing shoes at the door virtually eliminates dirt being tracked into the house, and symbolizes leaving wordly cares and concerns at the door. (Love this).
Fu Dogs, Lions, or Dragons (not real…) act as guardians and carry the message, “Enter here only if you come in peace”.
Chimes, fountains, flowers
Red is the color of welcome (in Western Feng-shui)
Wreaths, bells, and affirmational signs bring blessings of good Ch’i (energy) to the door.
THE POINT IS TO MAKE YOUR ENTRANCES INVITING SO THAT THEY WELCOME YOU HOME EVERY TIME YOU OPEN THE DOOR. (Caps again). And that my friend is good fang-she.
Terah Kathryn Collins Feng-Shui Personal Paradise Cards were used as sources for this post.
