Feng Shui Homework: Enhance "Travel Energy" in Your Home

Franca Giuliani - In my path I have met only a few people who hate traveling. In general I find that most people like it. Personally, I think traveling is a very important factor of life. It gives us a chance to learn new things, meet new people, and think of great ideas - all which can enrich our lives very much.
 

 In feng shui, the bagua sector that represents this energy is found at the front right corner of your space: Helpful People and Travel (in the bagua above, it's listed as "Mentors and Networking"). It refers to the Heaven trigram and Father energy of a family. This is a very powerful sector that emulates authority, control, and soaring possibilities. Having the element of metal, items with round shapes, and grays and whites in this area of your home - even in the front corner of a room - can be very beneficial for enhancing its forces.

Since it also represents travel and mentor support, it's important to have in this space symbolism of travel and symbolism of people or guides that inspire you.

And, yes here's another opportunity to be creative when you're decorating with feng shui in mind. For instance,

• If a bathroom falls in this area, consider using a world map motif as a shower curtain. Start collecting hotel soaps from your journeys and use them as decor pieces.

• If a kitchen falls in this space, you may want to enhance it with cook books for different countries and ethnic foods.

• If here is where your living room is, there's so much you can do! Add an ottoman made of Moroccan fabric, or an item found in a Tuscan country house. Just make sure you pick things from places that you love.

• No matter what room it is, adding something that represents your guides or people you admire is wonderful. Perhaps, frame one of their quotes.

Now, if your space is missing this part of the bagua, don't fret! Adjustments can be made. If you can work from the outside, add a lawn ornament such as a statue of an angel or spiritual guide at the corner point where your space gets squared off. From the inside, add mirrors on the surrounding walls to symbolically push back the space. And, where possible use the element metal, greys and whites, and any item that represents travel.

Your Feng Shui Homework

The month of October is a very powerful time to address the Northwest portion of your space.

Your homework for this month: start to emphasize the traveling energy and travel design motifs within your space, as described above. 

Until next month,

Be well, 

Franca

Franca is one of the Feng Shui instructors at Sheffield School; visit her website for more information. If you're interested in learning more about feng shui and interior design, then we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

• Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.
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5 Decor Favorites We Found at 7 West in NYC

Mary Harper Group: Red Ants enamelware from Golden Rabbit

September is not only Back to School month ... it's Shooting Our New Sheffield Interior Design DVDs month! We're updating all the videos for our Complete Course in Interior Design, and we're having an amazing time interviewing top interior designers, the best furniture and design showrooms, workrooms, green design experts, and other resources for every room of the house. We just finished taping interviews at 7 West, an amazing showroom-packed building filled with decor delights here in Manhattan. We wanted to rave about the following pieces and their respective showrooms. Please click on each photo for more information.

Two's Company: Skull Decanter

Surya Rugs: HH-118 Throw Pillow

 

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How to Choose Blue for Home Decorating

Franca Giuliani - This September started with the reminiscence of a blue moon (which occurred on August 31). For those of you who may not know, a blue moon is the second full moon occurrence in a given month. Some also say it is the fourth moon to appear in a season. Now the moon is not actually blue, so why do they call it that? There are a few different stories. The oldest one I found was because of a way to describe something so absurd that it would not happen, as in “That will happen when the moon turns blue.” And of course we eventually got the phrase, “once in a blue moon.”

No matter its origins, a blue moon is considered having powerful and magical energies. In honoring this moon, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about what the color BLUE actually means, and how we can use it in our space and lives for better harmony.

Based on a feng shui perspective, BLUE is associated with the North East/Knowledge & Self-Cultivation and the East/Family & Health sectors of the bagua. Really DARK BLUES (almost black) relate to the North /Journey & Career. SKY BLUE is associated with the South /Illumination.

Yes, BLUE is associated with sadness and melancholy. “I feel so blue,” or “I have the blues.” But in feng shui, BLUE illustrates calmness, peace, tranquility, and introspection. Therefore, it's used quite often in bedrooms (a certain shade of BLUE-GREEN can also work) to help with sleep. It can be used where people convene, such as offices, to help avoid conflict. Keep in mind, though, that everyone relates to color differently; therefore,

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Let's Go Home Decor Shopping at the MoMA Design Store!

Jessica Carnevale Stretch Chair (2010)

I wonder how many of our interior design students and home decor buffs like to go window shopping through catalogs. I receive so many each week, but I browse through them all, and do so voraciously.

Jason Feinberg and Alyssa Zeller-Feinberg Gummy Bear Light (2011)

It's fun to see what's newly available for the home, and in particular, I love the influence of international design trends on our formerly "Martha Stewart" American design scene (not to take anything away from Martha; we owe her a debt of gratitude for establishing a high standard for American decor and entertaining, and she still sets the bar in many ways for the U.S. vernacular).

Matisse "Polynesie Le Ciel" framed print

But I digress - catalog shopping! Here are a few of my favorites from the Fall 2012 MoMA Design Store catalog.

Makoto Komatsu Crinkle Bag Vase (1975)

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How to Decorate Your Wedding with Farmer's Market Flowers

If you're thinking of great wedding inspiration for the coming spring season, look no further than 100 Layer Cake - one of our favorite wedding blogs. They cover a variety of weddings and feature top wedding vendors, from the best photographers to the best florists. And we also love their do-it-yourself projects. This one is all about how to decorate your wedding with inexpensive - yet so lovely! - flowers straight from a farmer's market. 

Let’s preface this post by making it very clear that we are NOT florists of any kind. So clearly our decorations are not as lovely and polished as the professional florists we all admire so much. But, that’s kind of the point. If you’re willing to put a little time in, and get a little dirty, you (or your family/friends) can do your own flowers without as much hassle as you might think.

We gave ourselves a budget of $100 at the farmer’s market. We used our painted mason jars and a collection of vintage white pottery for vessels, and luckily had a box of flower foam in the garage. Which made this project pretty darn easy, inexpensive, and super super fun.

One little bit of advice … before you hit the market, we’d recommend having a clear idea of the colors and flowers you’re planning to bring home. You can always go to the market in the weeks before your event to scope out what’s going to be available. But of course weather is a big factor when it comes to local flowers, so you’ll have to be a bit flexible.

Our colors for our table were black, white, neon pink, and gold. So we decided to use mostly white flowers with a bit of soft pink. We ended up with hydrangeas, dahlias, baby’s breath, tuberose, white button chrysanthemum, and gorgeous gorgeous lisianthus.

If you’re going to use florist foam (which is a good idea if you plan to arrange these a day or two before the wedding), you’ll need to

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