Feng Shui Living Room Design Ideas & Tips for Harmony

Updated March 17, 2021
feng shui furniture arrangement

Good feng shui living room tips create the vital chi energy needed for your home and family. The best feng shui living room layout generates and attracts yang energy to bring abundance, wealth, health, and happiness to your family. Your living room layout will follow the feng shui rules of placement. The feng shui living room design is functional and aesthetically pleasing. You can apply each rule in a step-by-step process to create an incredible space.

1. Keep Your Living Room Free of Clutter

The first rule of feng shui is to get rid of clutter! When you remove clutter, the chi flows freely throughout your room. It cannot be overstated that clutter is the enemy of feng shui. A decluttering checklist ensures you cover everything.

Pregnant Woman Vacuuming carpet

Clutter includes dust and dirt, as well as peeling paint, dirty windows, broken blinds, and stacks of books, papers, and magazines.

  • Anything that is worn, tattered, or sagging should be replaced, such as draperies, pillows, and furniture.
  • Whatever is broken should be fixed or replaced, such as broken lamps, burned out lightbulbs, or a window that doesn't open.
  • Stained carpets or rugs should be professionally cleaned.
  • Sooty fireplaces should be cleaned out.
  • Dingy painted walls should be given a fresh coat of paint to spruce up the room.

2. Choose Feng Shui Living Room Colors

You can reinforce your feng shui design by selecting the best feng shui colors for your living room. Your living room color palette should have more vibrant, light yang colors than dark, soothing yin colors.

Northumbrian country home

Feng Shui Energy Map Colors

To help you select the best possible feng shui colors, you can use the bagua and the assigned colors of each sector. This valuable feng shui energy map is placed over the layout of your home to find the compass direction of your living room. You will then use the guidelines for the feng shui color palette that matches that sector. This approach for choosing colors for your living room ensures the yang energy (light) dominates the living room to support the yang energy that family activities generate in this space.

Examples of possible living room color palettes:

  • Medium to light blue with green and brown secondary colors
  • Light blue and navy blue with white, yellow, red, or green accent color
  • Gold or Sunflower yellow with red accents and green as a secondary color

3. Follow Feng Shui Living Room Layout Rules

The living room space should be large enough to accommodate the entire family and guests comfortably. A larger room size will encourage the chi energy to flow in and around the room. Where you place furniture can impact the way the chi energy enters and moves around the room. If your living room is small, you can use tips specifically for a small living room.

Cozy Beach Style Living Room with Fireplace

Avoid Placing Furniture in Pathways

You should never place furniture in the natural pathways of the living room. This type of placement will block chi energy and cause it to become stagnant. The stagnant chi will then create negative energy.

Place the Sofa Against a Solid Wall

Just as your bed should be anchored against a solid wall, so should your sofa/couch. This placement gives support to you and your family. The wall placement prevents instability in your family structure of home life, work, wealth, health, and relationships.

4. Avoid the Furniture Floating Arrangement

The open floor concept brings some unique feng shui challenges with so much open space. One of the popular furniture arrangements is to place the seating group in the middle of the room without any wall support. This floating arrangement should be avoided in a feng shui living room layout since it will destabilize your family life, health, relationships, wealth, and careers.

Contemporary Living Room

You can test the floating arrangement feng shui principle by sitting on a sofa set against a solid wall and then one set in the middle of the living room away from the wall. Notice how you feel with each arrangement. Chances are, you feel safe and secure when sitting on the sofa against the solid wall, while the one set in the middle of the room leaves you feeling vulnerable and uneasy, as though you constantly need to look behind you.

5. Use Remedies for Back of Couch Facing Entryway

If you have no choice but to place your couch or sofa with the back to the entryway, there are a couple of feng shui solutions you may want to try. You may want to try each of these remedies to find the one that best suits your needs.

Beautiful carved console table with silk plant and lighted fixtures in a den

Use a Screen to Create a Faux Wall

You can create a faux wall with a decorative screen placed behind the couch. You can then set a sofa table on the other side of the screen. This placement will force anyone entering your home to wall around the screen to gain entrance into the living room.

Use the Feng Shui Living Room Mirror Remedy

You can place a mirror, so it reflects the entryway as long as it is not directly across from the entry door. The ideal placement for the mirror is diagonally across from the entryway. The mirror should allow you to see the entryway when you are sitting on the couch.

Place a Sofa Table Behind the Couch

In addition to the mirror, you can use a sofa table behind the couch. You can then anchor one or two buffet lamps, or a table lamp. You can fill in the space with a couple of plants to create a faux wall effect. You may decide to add a floor plant on either end of the sofa table to fill in the rest of the space behind the couch.

6. Use a Sectional Placement Feng Shui Cure

Sectionals are another popular furniture choice for the living room. You should place this large piece of furniture against a solid wall. While the sectional may accommodate a large family, this piece of furniture can be problematic when applying feng shui principles.

Close-Up Of Crystal Ball Hanging Against Wall

Two Remedies for Inauspicious L-Shaped Sectional

The L-shaped furniture layout is inauspicious because it creates a large poison arrow in the room with the end that juts out into the room. If you can't avoid this type of furniture configuration, you can lessen its impact by placing a plant on the floor or table at the end of the arrow part. Another technique to remedy poison arrows is to suspend a multi-faceted crystal ball from the ceiling. Like the plant cure, the crystal ball will disrupt the energy the arrow creates. The crystal ball doesn't need to be low hanging in order to disperse the sha chi (negative energy).

7. Consider Three Furniture Pieces Ideal for Feng Shui Living Room

When choosing the ideal feng shui furniture arrangement, you want to include a sofa, loveseat, and a single chair. These pieces of furniture afford ample places to sit while creating a space that will neatly accommodate a coffee table. Choose either a square or rectangular shaped coffee table for an auspicious shape.

Feng shui layout

8. Use Proper TV Placement

Electronics such as TVs and computers produce yang energy, so place these in areas you wish to activate the yang energy. For example, the north sector (career) or south sector (fame and recognition) of the living room are excellent choices.

Cool TV Room

9. Add Lighting to Attract Chi Energy

Lighting is important for your living room chi energy. In addition to natural light, artificial lighting, such as table lamps, torchiere lamps that cast light onto the ceiling, and overhead lighting options draw chi energy into your living room.

Interior of a domestic room with lamps

10. Prevent Chaotic Chi Energy in Living Room

While you want to attract chi energy and utilize the light from windows and doors, you also want to avoid creating chaotic chi. This happens when a space becomes overstimulated with yang energy. The overload of chi energy can be harmful and create restless feelings. These can quickly elevate emotional responses, resulting in arguments or worse.

Chi energy in livingroom

Too Many Windows Create Chaotic Chi

One way that too much chi energy enters a living room is when there are too many windows. The chi energy enters and leaves your home through windows and doors. A long wall of windows is like having the wall open to the outside without any barrier.

Feng Shui Remedy for too Many Windows

You can add heavy draperies to cover part of the excessive windows. Another window treatment is blinds or shades to redirect the light and chi energy.

Feng Shui Remedy for too Many Doors

Just like excessive windows, more than two doors in the living room is considered too many doors. You can keep one door closed when not being used to prevent too much energy flowing between the doors and the windows.

11. Activate the Compass Elements With Decorative Pieces

Another way to activate chi energy is to add the element that correlates to the compass direction where your living room is located. In addition, you can also use the element that creates and nourishes the living room element for a powerful reinforcing chi energy level.

five elements

Why You Need to Activate a Living Room Element

If you don't activate the element for your living room, no amount of proper furniture placement can compensate for the lack of chi energy. When you activate the element, it will attract auspicious chi energy into your living room and all the benefits it bestows.

12. Activate North Sector Water Element

The north sector is ruled by the water element. A few suggestions about how to introduce a water element into your living room can be helpful. If you decide to add a water feature, only use one.

  • Art objects in black and blue colors
  • Aquarium with eight red fish and one black
  • Water fountain on north wall flowing into room
  • Metal sculptures or figures to draw water element
  • Wavy lines water shapes in fabrics and artwork
Interior of formal Sofa In Window with cushions

Hang Paintings of Waterscapes

You can hang paintings of waterscapes, but should avoid paintings of a stormy or rough sea. Paintings or pictures of a meandering stream or a moderate waterfall are the best choices. If you select a painting of a boat or ship, it should always be sailing into the room and never away from the room, a door or window. The ship represents opportunities and wealth, so you want it flowing toward you.

13. Activate South Sector Fire Element

The south sector element is fire. You can include the fire element in your room design. Include wood objects, since the wood element fuels the fire element.

  • Candles
  • Fireplace located on south wall
  • Wood furniture and décor objects
  • Art objects in red, pink, orange, and green colors
  • Triangle shapes
Interior of modern Lounge

14. Use Wood for and Southeast Sectors

The east sector and southeast sector have the same element. This element is wood. You can also add water elements since it feeds wood. Examples include:

  • Wood picture frames
  • Wood bookshelves and books
  • Wood lamps
  • Live house plants
  • Fiber rug like sisal
  • Water feature, such as a table top water fountain or aquarium
  • Art objects in green and brown colors
  • Rectangle shapes
Living room with hanging egg chair and plants

15. Use Metal for West and Northwest Sectors

The west and northwest sectors are ruled by the metal element. You can include the earth element since it produces the metal element. You can add this element to your décor in several ways.

  • Metal furniture
  • Metal bowls and trays
  • Metal figurines
  • Metal photo frames
  • Metal furniture
  • Ceramics and pottery
  • Use gray, gold, brass, white, pewter, and bronze colors
  • Round shapes
Living room with white leather and chrome sofa and matching armchairs

16. Add Earth to Northeast and Southwest Sectors

The northeast and southwest sectors are ruled by the earth element. You can add the earth element to your living room by choosing specific decorations.

  • Crystals and other minerals
  • Pottery and ceramics, such as figurines, pots, bowls, and candle holders
  • Earth tones colors such as ochre, mustard, clay, brown, tan, and russet
  • Cut glass and hand-blown glass objects
  • Square shapes
Close-Up Of Clay Jars

17. Include Your Personal Touches to the Living Room

While you want your living room to follow feng shui basics, you also want it to reflect your personal tastes. Don't be afraid to add your personal touches. Your room doesn't need Chinese furniture, objects, or symbols in order to follow feng shui principles. The true feng shui principles are about form and placement, not good luck symbols. If you apply sound feng shui principles and rules to your décor, you'll have a very auspicious living room.

Sunlight Domestic Living Room

18. Enhance Living Room Wealth Elements With Feng Shui Symbols

You can certainly add specific feng shui good luck symbols in your living room. Some basic elements that activate wealth can be used in most living rooms. If you prefer, you can place a feng shui symbol in the southeast corner (wealth luck sector) of your living room.

Living room Buddha statue
  • Place a bowl of crystals, coins, and various wealth symbols on the coffee table.
  • Place a Buddha statue in a special area, never disrespectfully left on the floor or floor level.
  • Suspend coins tied with a red ribbon in the east corner of your living room.
  • Place a dragon-headed tortoise in the southeast corner with a coin in its mouth, facing into the room.
  • Put a dragon painting or statue on the east wall, looking into the room.
  • An elephant statue posed with its trunk trumpeting into the air will bring good luck and wealth.
  • Foo dogs on either side of the door should face out of room, as though standing guard.
  • A three-legged money toad can be placed in the southeast corner with a coin in its mouth, facing into the room.

19. Choose the Right Living Room Location for Auspicious Feng Shui

In feng shui, the living room should be located in a part of the house that has at least two outside walls. You should avoid using a room nestled deep inside your home for a living room space. The ideal living room location allows chi energy to enter the room from outside without being slowed down or allowed to grow stagnant from moving through several rooms in order to reach the living room. This placement ensures that the chi energy is fresh and energetic enough to activate the living room elements.

Furniture arranged in living room

Feng Shui Living Room Tips for Happy Home

When you follow the feng shui living room tips, you ensure your home will be in harmony. Your family will thrive in a feng shui living room layout that invites auspicious chi energy.

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Feng Shui Living Room Design Ideas & Tips for Harmony