Feng Shui in the bedroom
The bed stands with its headboard against a solid wall, not with your feet towards the door, and lying down you can see door and window.
Feng Shui in a children’s room
A children’s room is extremely difficult because too much happens in too little space: sleeping, playing, including with friends, and learning. The bed and desk are therefore best placed with a solid wall behind them and a view of the door and windows. During a consultation, I choose colours using the child’s Bazi and the Flying Stars.
- Bed and deskWall behinddoor in view
- Sleeping directionHead to the eastor north
- ColourFrom Bazinot the Kua number
Where should the bed and desk go?
The best position for bed and desk is the Power Position: a solid wall behind you, with the door and ideally the windows in view. The head of the bed goes against this wall; a headboard helps. A bed made of Swiss stone pine or another solid wood is best, and the desk should also be made of real, sturdy wood. The room also needs enough storage, preferably in closed shelving, boxes and baskets, so there is at least the possibility of keeping things tidy.
If a child does not want to do homework at a tiny desk in a cramped room with their back to the door, common sense tells us why. And Feng Shui is often no more than common sense. The same applies to adults; there is more about the desk in Feng Shui in the office guide.
When the desk has to go by the window
The desk usually faces a window or wall, leaving the child with their back to the door. A wall in front feels like an obstacle, while the door behind makes them uneasy. They turn round whenever someone comes in, using energy that is then missing from their work. At the window, the broad view outside also invites daydreaming, and homework often ends up on the dining table after all.
If the desk cannot go anywhere else, small mirrors on the wall to either side help the child see the door, like rear-view mirrors in a car. How these small mirrors work as rear-view mirrors is covered in the mirror guide. In front of a wall, a picture of a beautiful lake or valley opens up the view.
Keep sharp edges away from bed and desk
Make sure no sharp edges point at the bed or desk, such as a ceiling edge overhead. These edges can come from furniture and walls, or from outside: building corners, dead branches and aggressive roof shapes on neighbouring houses. Move the bed or desk out of their line.
Two children sharing a room
When two children share a room, each needs their own area, and each bed has the support of a wall. A room divider, such as shelving or a curtain, creates two zones. Position the desks so neither child sits with their back to the door, and keep the play area in the middle clear. The details depend on the shape of the room.
Which compass direction suits children?
In general, east is a good choice for children, as the room layout for the whole house also shows. A child sleeps well with their head to the east and feet to the west, following the sun’s course. Alternatively, the head points north and the feet south, following the Earth’s magnetic currents.
If neither is possible, one of the favourable directions in the Kua number system can help. It also shows which compass direction the children’s room should occupy.
High sleeper or bunk bed: yes or no?
Bunk beds save a lot of space, but can also cause sleep problems. The low ceiling above the top bunk can cause fear, restless sleep and claustrophobia in some children. If your child consistently sleeps well, the high sleeper can stay. It is then worth decorating the ceiling with an illusion painting or wallpaper depicting the sky.
Why a children’s room is so difficult
A children’s room is like a jungle of life in all its aspects: dependence, conflicts between parents, parental love, puberty, loneliness, friendships, learning, dreaming, growing up, rebellion, childhood illnesses and so much else that moved and shaped us as children.
All of that is supposed to fit into what is usually 10 to 14 square metres, perhaps with sloping walls too! That is simply too little space for so much life. Architects may say: “But children’s rooms used to be even smaller! And in large farming families, children had no room of their own at all!” That is true.
But our way of life has changed. Children now spend far more of their lives indoors. Games consoles, computers, phones, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat take up time that would otherwise be spent outside in the neighbourhood or in nature. Once, village and community were at the centre; today it is individualism, and that needs more space, while space in urban areas grows scarcer and more expensive. That is where the real problem begins, because good positions for the bed and desk simply need room.
Tidiness and storage
Tidiness is a recurring subject, and it does not come naturally to most children. Use baskets and easily reached drawers so that all the important things can be put away neatly. Yes, there will be shouting, and yes, it is hard work. I have no magic answer either, I am afraid, except to keep going.
Boxes and drawers beneath the bed are practical, but air stagnates there and Qi (life energy) can no longer circulate freely. Turn the mattress at least once a month. How a big tidy-up and declutter succeeds is explained in a guide of its own.
Technology and lighting
Avoid DECT phones, extension leads with multiple sockets, mobile phones, Wi-Fi and other electronic devices in children’s rooms.
For lighting, I recommend daylight lamps, good LED lighting or traditional incandescent bulbs where they are still available. Their light spectrum is much more pleasant. Read more about Wi-Fi, DECT and electrosmog in the electrosmog guide.
Which colours suit a children’s room?
The colour of a children’s room can be chosen to suit the child. For that, I need a Bazi personality analysis, using the date, place and hour of birth. Bazi is Chinese astrology, though it has nothing to do with the planets; it draws on TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Together with the room’s Flying Stars, this usually allows a good choice of colour. Many consultants use the personal Kua number here, which I do not consider correct. The Kua number is a personal direction system and has nothing to do with determining colours through personality analysis.
Use light and pastel colours. It need not always be blue for boys and pink for girls; in Chinese culture, blue even belongs to girls and pink to boys. Choose colours that appeal to your child, calm them and make them happy. Children should have a say, but within clear limits. It is not advisable when they constantly want the DIY shop’s entire colour range in their room.
Busy decorations can also influence a child’s behaviour, especially sleep. Avoid aggressive imagery such as weapons, bloodthirsty posters or symbols from unfamiliar languages. If something hangs in the room that you cannot read and whose meaning you do not know, I advise great caution, because symbols often work without language. Also avoid tall, oppressive, overly dark, jagged and heavy furniture.
I explain how colours and elements belong together in the colour guide.
Feng Shui for a nursery
The cot goes against a solid wall, not beneath a window or in the direct line between door and window, the so-called straight-through passage. Calm, light colours suit it best. Keep the changing table and baby monitor away from the head of the cot, and lead cables away from it. Keep toys in the cot to a minimum, and use warm, dimmed light at night. What the straight-through passage looks like at a sleeping place I show in the bedroom guide.
Children’s rooms used to extend outdoors
In the park, in the garden, on the undeveloped plot next door with its large cherry tree, on the football pitch, at the outdoor pool, in friends’ gardens, by the lake or river: much of childhood once happened there. Some of it still does.
A conversation with a colleague who knows geomancy very well made a particular impression on me. She and her husband had decided to travel through Germany for two years with their two children in a horse-drawn wagon, living wherever it was beautiful and permitted. She told me there was practically no season and no day when her family was not outdoors. “It was all a matter of clothing and getting used to it,” she said. “It was wonderful to experience every season so closely and feel what a year in nature’s rhythm is like!” The children’s room, like every other room, was outside!
That also showed me how far we have moved away from nature. I will only briefly mention the light pollution from lamps everywhere, at all hours. There is no “real” night in the city any more; you only experience it in the desert or jungle. I do not want to argue that “everything was better in the old days”; we cannot turn back time. But we can become more aware of the constantly changing conditions in which we live.
Further reading
I have written more about children’s rooms for the online architecture forum Houzz (in German).
Kua number and compass directions
Your Kua number comes from your year of birth and sex and shows four favourable compass directions, two for rest and two for activity.
Bazi
For me, Bazi is an analysis of potential, and I prepare one for the occupants in every Feng Shui consultation.
Feng Shui colours and their meaning
In Feng Shui, colours belong to the five elements, and each compass direction has its own, such as red in the south and green in the east.
On-site consultation
There are many more details to a children’s room, and they differ from family to family. I settle them with you on site, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. More about consultations for flats and houses.