Feng Shui Tips to Help Improve Your Hallway
With Feng Shui, a hallway has the representation of arteries or veins where the blood actively flows through the body. This is fitting because this is associated with and connects to wood energy. It pairs nicely with the role that a hallway provides within the home. That of a connection to other places. To help make the hallway and its living connection to other spaces to be a pleasant one, here are some Feng Shui tips to improve it.
Long, Short or Medium Length Hallway?
Long hallways are problematic when it comes to Feng Shui. They have the potential to be bad for the home. This because a long hallway without proper treatment matches the slow, depreciating energy of Si Chi with Sha Chi, sharp energy that is not to be combined.
Window and door positions relative to the hallway, and how long it is compared to its width all play a part in how Feng Shui a hallway current is. One positive that may already exist is if there’s a window in the hallway space. This is always a good thing. But if there isn’t one present, don’t despair.
Adding artwork that brings liveliness and bright colours into the hallway is preferred. However, place them randomly to create surprises and interest, rather than a predictable pattern from perfectly vertically arranged framed artwork. Use artwork or something else to draw the eye to the focal point.
Staircase to Heaven?
A staircase is an important aspect of any home when it is to have good energy.
Actually, the chi energy moves gracefully to other levels within the home by way of the staircase. As such, it’s a valuable way to avoid energy from becoming unnecessarily stagnant.
Staircases that do not have a pleasing design lack the harmony or appropriate balance which gets disrupted and this bleeds into other spaces from there. The uppermost part also must lead to a brightly lit upper-level hallway for auspicious chi.
Using an aluminium balustrade is a good way to ensure that balance and harmony are restored. It can then spread positively to other areas. Certainly, this type of aluminium balustrade from Majestic Stairs is worth strong consideration for positive chi. Also, their strength and stability are in line with Feng Shui rules around safety and other practical concerns too.
Lighting, Feng Shui, and Your Hallway
Thinking away from the hallway for a second, the entire home should be one that is bathed in an attractive light. The intensity should be significant enough that no part of the home is darkened, which is not positive.
Therefore, this naturally follows for hallways too. It must be bright but also not inconsistent with the rest of the home. In other words, positive energy can flow from room to hallway to another room, and on and back in a consistent manner.
Aim to use minimalistic lighting features like LEDs in the ceiling or decorative lamps on either wall of the hallway. These should not be intrusive to the overall design but still do their job sufficiently well at the same time.
The Focal Point
As mentioned at the top, having a key focal point in a hallway is an effective way to draw the eye and attract positive energy too. While it’s particularly recommended for Feng Shui with long hallways, it works equally well from a design perspective in medium-length or short hallways too.
The point of focus can be what you feel is right. It should seem somewhat dramatic, eye-catching, or noticeable to you. However, not garishly so.
Also, look to use a different feature that isn’t present as much, if at all, compared to the rest of the decorations in the hallway. Therefore, if paintings have present in several places along the hallway, consider a mural or something else that’s distinctively different. This provides much-needed balance.
Should You Use the Bagua Map?
The Bagua Map is essentially a colour guide with nine distinctive areas to it. Each colour is a play on a certain theme.
For instance, the centre of a Bague Map is the heart, the centrepiece. In Feng Shui, it’s believed that energy is at the centre and is distributed throughout the home to each area from there.
If you have a map for your home already, look at what colour scheme is appropriate for the respective hallway location, and ensure it matches that. If it does not, possibly change the colour scheme to address it as soon as possible? That would be best.
Alternative Decorations in the Hallway Too
It’s best to alternate decorative features that aren’t hung on the wall. This avoids them getting in the way or blocking positive chi energy.
For longer hallways especially, breaking up the distance with the use of planters, a convenient armchair, and other furnishings spaced out appropriately works well. Be sure to use either side of the hallway space and avoid anything that looks or feels uniform or pre-planned. This avoids the potential negative of an elongated hallway when it’s not possible to reposition doorways or shorten the hallway through other means because the home is already built.
In an ideal world, this is managed at the design stage of a home that’s created with Feng Shui in mind. However, it’s necessary to adapt to fixed home designs by using other furnishings and techniques to get around it and ensure positive chi abounds and is not obstructed.
Hallways are tricky things. There is often more than one and sometimes they’re an afterthought for people. When renting or purchasing a home, the hallways can be difficult because they have the potential to receive and trap energy or create bad energy too.
Therefore, when living in a home with long hallways and maybe including narrow ones too, it’s necessary to be creative. Carefully consider the decorations for a narrower space, the colours that get introduced through the Bague Map patterned scheme, and any artwork with dashes of vibrant hues. They all play a part in transforming a hallway with potential bad energy into one that is positive, welcoming, and attractive too.