I came across this pic in a craigslist real estate ad. It reminded me that sometimes I suggest clients add a soft fabric swag to a blank doorway. This treatment can be used to solve privacy issues, poison arrow issues, bathrooms / closet areas that are open to master bedrooms and not pretty to look at…and more. While I don’t think the furnishings in this home deserve any design awards, the curtain does win feng shui points.
Filed under Feng Shui
Photo from http://www.wanderlustcambodia.com
I’m a sucker for red. Anything painted bright red always attracts my attention and makes me smile. It’s difficult to be depressed when you’re around the color red. Think Dorothy’s ruby red slippers in the Wizard of Oz. Or those bright red toy wagons and firetrucks you played with as a kid. It’s the magic-fantastic feng shui color. Here’s why:
*Red signifies activating positive feng shui energies to attract good fortune, fame, and passion.
*Red symbolizes the fire element and warms up an environment.
*Red lifts spirits and warm the heart.
*Red is a confident color and bestows that powerful confidence on the wearer.
*Red wakes you up and puts you on alert (that’s why it’s used in stop signs and lights).
The picture above is from the online shop Wanderlust Cambodia. The actual store also uses red very effectively so that you are immediately drawn to this creative space. That’s owner Elizabeth Kiester standing in front of her shop below.
Photo by NY Times
Check out the website as there’s a ton of cool stylish stuff to buy (clothing and decor) like these coated round canvas storage totes pictured here for $38 bucks. I like this in red and because it has yin rounded shape. Same with the top picture of the pillow filled red bench: there is a nice balance of yin curves with squared cushions plus this nook would be a perfect retreat if it was located in your Love & Relationship area.
Photo: wanderlustcambodia.com
Are you happy yet?
Filed under Architecture, Fashion, Feng Shui, Fun, Interior Design, Qi, Uncategorized
All Photos (c) Katy Allgeyer
Typical day in Maine, ayup. Beautiful weather, crisp clear skies. And lots of lobster boats like this one above on dry land. But take another look. What’s different about “The Susie”?
With a man and a dog nearby, you can clearly see that this is not a regular lobster boat after all. It’s an adorable–and actually seaworthy!–small replica of a lobsterboat. What does this have to do with feng shui?
If you’re decorating your home or office, don’t just think about color and fabric. Think about placement for good flow. But also think about scale. Scale relates the size of all your pieces of furniture and accessories to the room size. It’s obvious when an overstuffed chair is too big for a room once it’s placed inside the actual room, but sometimes when you’re in the store or showroom the same chair looks like a good fit. You won’t be disappointed until you install it at home. Keeping proper scale in mind will help you to achieve feng shui balance and good flow.
How can you get a handle on scale? Have a tape measure handy. Measure your rooms before shopping. Decide the parameters your chair will fit into and then bring the tape measure with you to measure potential chairs.
Of course the other thing to keep in mind is that each piece needs to relate to the scale of the other pieces in the room as well. Often people get outsized armoires to hold TV sets and then their couch isn’t large enough to hold the balance in the room. A little planning before buying will go a long way.
Filed under Design, Feng Shui, Interior Design, Uncategorized
EEEeeeeeeK! You may have heard my cry today but it was not due to a mouse (we’ve had those, too, since returning to the Maine cottage mind you). No, today it was my printer that scared me. My art business depends on it working properly. Even though I have it plugged into a surge protector the printer “went dead” and would not reboot this morning. I discovered we had had a power failure during the night and the backup generator did not go on because we didn’t have it set up to do so yet. I did a Google search and tried everything suggested:
* Unplug and plug again.
*Reboot computer.
*Deinstall software and reinstall it.
Nothing worked! Finally I found some info online that said to simply try this:
Unplug the printer and LEAVE IT UNPLUGGED FOR AT LEAST 5 MINUTES before plugging it back in and trying to turn it on. Guess what? It worked! I would have tried a feng shui incantation and some smudging and set the intentions for the printer to work again but I’ll save that for a last resort.
Filed under Career, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Office, Self Help, Uncategorized
If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting so much recently it’s because I was making the annual transition to summer headquarters in Maine. I arrived today and as usual, Maine took my breath away with her beauty. Our state’s slogan is “Maine: The Way Life Should Be”. After 5 summers here I have to say I am in agreement. The fresh air, the gorgeous views, the slower pace, the creative flow…this is the way life should be.
On our island, there are many wonderful artists and galleries. I feel connected to spirit, nature, beauty, and art and all of that equals LOVE in my world. Even though I am situated in a rather remote part of the world, I am connected to the global pulse via the internet, SKYPE, HBO, etc. With my mind clear of clutter, I’m able to hone in on dreams and connect with my feng-shui-by-mail clients with ease. Yes, that’s right: I can read your feng shui without even being inside your home. I developed a process of remote reading that is reliable and accurate and reasonably priced. Contact me for more details.
Meanwhile, shutting your home down for a long length of time has its feng shui drawbacks. We shut off the water so the pipes won’t freeze, the furnace gets unused, phone and electric are suspended…and the mice move in! Eeek! The energy inside the house feels stagnant when we return so windows need to be opened to air out the ch’i. A good smudging later on is also on the agenda.
Do you close down a vacation home? What is your checklist of things to do when you return?
Filed under Feng Shui, Getting Organized, Qi, Travel, Uncategorized
Photo Credit: FreeFoto.com
They used to call it the secretarial pool (and on Mad Men they still do): that wide open space with waves of desks one right after another. If you work in this open office type of environment no one needs to tell you about the lack of privacy, the constant noise level, and the myriad of distractions to keep you from your work. Some people thrive off of this communal atmosphere (cops, newspaper reporters, and stock market traders to name a few). Others flail around in the pool, getting nowhere fast. Could this be you?
How can we use feng shui to cope with and to improve a situation where what little space we have is being invaded constantly? Is there a way to put up an invisible boundary that can help us concentrate and get the job done under adverse conditions such as the ones I’ve described? The answer is: yes.
Make room on your desk for a potted plant. Believe it or not, choosing a plant with spiky pointed leaves will do the trick. A prickly cactus plant is even better (and requires less attention on your part). Locate them to the center of your desk or to the center sides where people adjoin your desk. Be careful to avoid placing it in the upper left or upper right hand corners of your desk. The reason? Your goal is simply to put up a barrier to negative influences. You don’t want to stop the flow of opportunity in your wealth area or to create prickly communications with colleagues in your love & relationship area.
Another useful feng shui solution is to harness the power of the mighty dragon to protect your territory. Buy yourself a carved statue of a dragon (easily found in your local Chinatown or online; do a search for “feng shui import” companies) and locate it in the wealth area of your desk (upper left hand side). It doesn’t need to be large or expensive. Dragon symbols are powerful wealth activators. But they also serve to scare away negative energy and put up a protective shield around their domain. Which just happens to be YOUR desk!
Filed under Career, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Office, Plants & Outdoors, Uncategorized
Photo Credit: Thomas J. Story for Sunset Magazine
I came across this enchanting houseboat at Sunset Magazine today. It’s 1000 sf of living space and it’s a pre-fab houseboat that kind of looks like a mobile home on water. Go see the slideshow…the windows are placed artfully to get the most out of the waterviews. Could you live on the element of water? Or are you more of an earth element type?
Filed under Architecture, Feng Shui, Fun, Uncategorized
Photo Credit: Les Indiennes
This is my favorite pic of the week that I pulled from Apartment Therapy who pulled it from Les Indiennes who made the lucious fabrics in India and guess who is going to India next February? See–there is always a method to my madness. But the reason I love this photo besides the yummy indigo color on open fields of fresh cream is this: there is an excellent balance of yin (feminine round shapes) and yang (masculine square angled shapes). That’s good feng shui. Notice the round pendant globe lamp. Even the square cushions have big round polka dots printed on them. I also want to point out the cloth backdrop going up the wall from the day bed. This is a perfect example of a soft headboard effect to use behind a bed. It can add balance to other tall furniture within a room. See what I mean?
Filed under Feng Shui, Interior Design, Uncategorized
Photo Credit: Mark Compton for Dwell Magazine
This sweet little vintage 1959 Airstream trailer was lovingly remodeled by Andreas Stavropoulos in Berkeley. See the interior renovation at Dwell Magazine. There’s something to be said for living in a compact space: it forces you to deal with your clutter! That’s good for your feng shui. It looks like this guy has eliminated the bathroom facilities that are usually so cute in Airstreams. I’m not sure that’s good feng shui or very practical but I do like how he organized his interior.
My boyfriend owns 4 vintage Airstreams. One of them is being totally redone (we’ll post pics in the fall when it’s ready) and we’ll be taking it on the road hopefully this winter. Two others will be gutted and converted into gallery space eventually. The fourth is in mint condition and serves as a guest house on the apple orchard in Stonington, Maine. We welcome visitors!
Filed under Creativity & Future Projects, Design, Feng Shui, Fun, Interior Design, Uncategorized
Photo Credit: Roger Davies for Elle Decor
This is what some of my blogger friends call a “drool worthy room”. Elle Decor has the entire makeover of the barn this bedroom is situated in if you click here. I love the bed and the whitewashed bare barn but I always look with feng shui eyes. So let’s improve the feng shui here with some Feng Shui By Fishgirl touches:
1) Beam me up, Scottie! There are not only beams from the ceiling, but also cross beams from the twig bed. An easy fix is to tie a white linen or cotton “crumb-catcher” canopy to the bed. You can find a sheer fabric so you still have a light airy feel to it. White equals metal in feng shui terms and metal cuts the impact of the wooden beams. That disperses the energy so you don’t feel oppressive weight bearing down on you while you’re trying to get a good night’s rest in that gorgeous twig bed!
2) Balanced Side Tables…unless this is a guest room where one won’t be staying long, the feng shui would be better served by two matching nightstands and/ or two matching lamps. If it’s the master bedroom, the idea is to have equal balance so that no partner has dominance over the other. Unless you’re into that kind of thing of course, but that’s a different blog altogether!
3) Poison Arrows…the uncovered windows are in alignment (directly across from each other) and this causes a “poison arrow” of too-fast-moving ch’i. Again, a filmy cloth barrier would do the trick and still let the light and openness into the room. It doesn’t need to be a curtain. It could be a shade or shoji screen or even a bead curtain. Use your creativity!
Be sure to check out Elle Decor for the rest of this cool barn house. What would you do differently? Or, what do you love about it?
Filed under Architecture, Feng Shui, Interior Design, Uncategorized
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