Feng Shui for the Entryway
It’s crucial to design your entryway—your front path, front door, and foyer—according to the principles of feng shui. The entryway is the main way that chi enters your home.
Front Path
Your front path should bring chi to your front door gently and smoothly.
- Use curves: A straight front path allows chi to come through your front door too quickly. A curved front path helps to slow down the chi flowing to your door.
- Groom your yard and path: Chi is attracted to land and architecture that’s well maintained. To keep chi flowing to your front door, keep your front path and the surrounding lawn free of weeds and cracks.
- Avoid shar: Objects or landscape features that allow chi to gather too much speed and momentum produce bad chi, called shar, which is overwhelming and unhealthy. Common sources of shar include long, straight roads or angles formed by two walls that point directly at your front path.
You may not be able to control all the circumstances listed above: if a long, straight road already points directly at your front path, there’s not much you can do about it. But paying attention to the other factors, such as making sure your front path curves and is well tended, can help minimize the effects of those problems.
Front Door
Your front door’s state of repair, as well as the door’s size and type, are all important in feng shui.
- State of repair: An attractive, well-kept door will attract good chi, whereas a run-down door will cause bad chi to enter your home. Be sure to keep your door physically beautiful by repainting it when necessary. Also make sure that the door swings without scratching the ground and opens and closes without making any sound.
- Size: Too small a front door will not allow enough chi to enter, resulting in a home that feels stifled or stagnant. On the other hand, too big a door will allow chi to leak from your home, which can lead to financial loss. Your door should be in proportion to a normal-sized adult, or roughly 80″ × 30″ (200 cm × 75 cm).
- Double doors: Many Western homes have front doors that are actually made up of two doors placed side-by-side. Together these doors are often too large—if you have a double door, use only one side of it to avoid the loss of chi.
The Foyer
While the door itself is crucial to bringing good chi into your house, what your front door opens into is just as important. A cluttered, dark, or otherwise poorly maintained entryway will attract bad chi. But other, less obvious factors can cause the good chi that your door attracts to be lost before it provides any benefit. Be sure to consider the following when designing your entryway:
- Location of the back door: The foyer and front door should not face the back door directly. If they do, chi that enters the house will race through the house and exit out the back door.
- Mirrors: Some feng shui experts believe that mirrors can reflect chi. Avoid placing mirrors directly opposite your front door—they’ll reflect the good chi that enters right back out through the front door.
- Basement stairways: Many Western homes have stairways right near the front door that lead to the basement or a lower floor. These downward stairways attract but then trap chi, so that rather than circulate throughout the house, it pools and stagnates in the basement. If you can’t move a downward staircase in your home, limit its influence by blocking it with a door.
