In Feng Shui one of the primary concerns is with Chi flow to and within a space. What we strive to achieve is a gentle meandering flow, the “Goldilocks” balance so to speak where the chi does not move too fast or too slow but “just right”. To understand how this works in practice we say where the eye goes chi flows.
One hot trend in decorating right now is bold striped walls – namely horizontal stripes. Striped walls are often pretty dramatic and always eye catching in shelter magazines. They can be a wonderful way to add interest and boldness to a space but often my Feng Shui eyes see too much movement or fast moving Chi. Stripes move the eye along their length creating a forced perspective moving the Chi in that direction. Depending on how they are used they can either move the chi too fast or bring the chi into balance, the trick is knowing when and how to use them.
Here a few examples to illustrate chi movement with stripes – hopefully they will help you decide the best way to use this trend in your home. Please note, before anyone gets upset, this is not meant as a critique of anyone else’s design work but I am using these examples to illustrate Feng Shui principles and my take on how to use them to inform design choices.
Very Fast Moving Chi: A long narrow hallway is sped up with stripes moving the eye very quickly toward the door and though zig zagged the stripes on the floor are also moving you toward the door.
Fast Moving Chi: Again, Fast Moving Chi, though not as fast as the first photo. Here the stripes re-enforce the narrowness of the hallway and the striped rug on the floor also moves the chi quickly in the same direction. One thing that helps however are the pictures on the wall as they break up the stripes a bit, slowing the chi. So if you do use stripes in a hallway adding bold art to break up the movement is a good way to achieve balanced chi flow.
Balanced Chi: I love the use of the stripes here to add width and movement to an otherwise small and potentially stagnant end of hallway space. The stripes on the walls are also lower in contrast which is more restful to the eye and also broken up beautifully with bold art work.
- Photo via Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/156148312055694711/
So, If you are considering adding some stripes to your walls and you are not sure how best to use them contact me and we can work together to create a space that has both chic and balanced chi. Happy Painting!