Feng Shui for Real Life

Setting up a nursery or special room for your new baby is more than just decorating and painting in pink or blue, it can also be about using Feng Shui to arrange the room so your baby will feel comfortable and be happy and healthy. The room you choose for the nursery, the location of the crib, the colors on the walls, and the decorations your choose are all important Feng Shui considerations.

Room Location and Crib Position
If you have an option, choose a room in the Creativity/Children area of the house. Try to avoid a room that faces the street or that is over a garage or an empty space. If the baby’s room is not a complete rectangle or square, correct this problem by hanging a small mirror on the wall that is incomplete to symbolically move it out.

Avoid positioning the crib with your baby’s feet pointed directly out the door, with the baby’s back to the door, against a window, directly under a ceiling fan, or against a wall shared with a toilet or utility room. Try to keep your baby's bed far away from the door, and limit the number of electrical appliances close to the crib.

It’s also important to avoid a room with sloped ceilings or exposed beams since they can symbolically “weigh down” on a tiny baby. If you have no choice and you must place your baby’s crib under a slope or beam, symbolically raise the ceiling by painting clouds, stars, or vines overhead to simulate sleeping under nature. Or use those stick-on stars that gently glow during the night.

Make sure there are no hard corners from furniture pointed at the baby in the crib. These “poison arrows” send harsh energy that makes it difficult to achieve restful sleep. Rearrange the furniture so no sharp edges point at the crib, or soften them by draping fabric over the edges.

Color and Decorations
Another important part of Feng Shui for the nursery is to decorate in soothing, muted, and restful color combinations like green and blue, white and beige, or pink and yellow to encourage sleep. Avoid a black and white color combination because this yin-yang choice has too much contrast. Avoid painting a nursery in the colors red or orange because these are considered active “yang” colors that could keep your baby awake. While it’s important to have stimulating colors and shapes around your baby, try not to make the room feel too busy.

Choose wood rather than plastic for furniture, and whenever possible choose natural materials for bedding, window treatments, rugs, and even furniture and toys.

Choose moving and flowing designs that represent the Water Element in Feng Shui to make your baby feel relaxed, and designs from nature that represent the Wood Element in Feng Shui to promote your baby’s growth. It's best to avoid designs or decorations on the wall that have arrows, diamonds, or triangles pointed at your baby because these represent harsh energy. And be careful to select any animal designs carefully so that these creatures are cuddly and friendly images, rather than aggressive jungle designs that include fierce lions, tigers, bears, and reptiles.

Create gentle movement around the Feng Shui nursery by hanging a mobile, especially near the window where the breeze will catch it, and play soft music on the CD player. Open the windows frequently to clear any stale air out of the nursery, and consider diffusing aromas of chamomile, rose, vanilla, or lavender to help your baby sleep.

Finally, be sure to place photos of the baby’s parents, grandparents, and godparents in the room so he or she will always have a guardian watching.