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Feng shui

Feng Shui Bedroom: Where to Place Your Bed

The best feng shui bed position is the commanding position: the bed sits diagonally across from the door with a solid wall behind the headboard, so you can see the door without lying in line with it.

Check your bedroom

Walls with a window
Also true in the room

Look at the plan from above, with the door wall wherever it falls. Positions run clockwise: on the top wall, first third is the left end.

Example room

Best position: headboard on the right wall, top of the wall

  • Grey: your bed
  • Green: recommended bed
  • Red: door
  • Blue dashes: windows

The recommended bed puts the headboard against the right wall, top of that wall, beside the door. A rectangle is the easiest shape to place a bed in: use the long wall opposite or beside the door for the headboard and keep both sides of the bed open.

What to change in your current layout

  • A window sits behind the headboard, so the head has no solid support. Choose a solid wall for the headboard. If the window cannot be avoided, use a heavy headboard and thick curtains.

The five rules behind the checker

See the door from the bed

Classical feng shui places the sleeper where the door is visible without turning. A bed with its back to the door leaves the entrance out of sight.

Stay out of the line of the door

A straight line from door to bed carries the strongest draught of movement in a room. The bed sits diagonally across from the door, or off its centre line.

Back the head with a solid wall

The headboard is the mountain behind the sleeper. A window, a door or a thin partition behind the head gives no backing.

Keep both sides open

Space on both sides of the bed lets energy move around it, and in a shared bed gives each person an equal place.

Clear the space above and below

No exposed beam above the bed, and nothing stored under it that cannot be moved easily; the space under the bed is meant to stay open.

The commanding position is the idea that unites these rules. It comes from the way a room is read: whoever sits furthest from the entrance, with a wall behind them and the door in view, has the position of command. The same logic puts an office desk across from the door, and it is why the room layout rules start with the entrance.

Bedroom furniture: what goes where

Headboard

A solid headboard of wood or upholstered material is preferred to open metal bars or slats, because it gives the support a wall would. It should sit tight to the wall with no gap, and a bed with no headboard at all gets a wide piece of furniture or a padded panel behind it.

Bedside tables

Tables come in pairs, one on each side, even when one sleeper uses both. The pair makes the bed read as balanced and gives both sides of the bed equal weight. Rounded corners are kinder than sharp ones that point at the pillow.

Wardrobes, dressers and storage

Tall furniture belongs on the walls beside or opposite the bed, never leaning over the head. Under-bed storage is the weakest point in the rule that the space beneath the bed stays open: keep it to soft, seasonal bedding, and keep shoes, papers and electronics out.

Mirrors, television and screens

A mirror that shows the bed doubles it, and a dark screen facing the bed is read the same way. Cover them at night or place them where the bed is out of view. Chargers and routers belong away from the head of the bed.

Colour, element and direction in the bedroom

A bedroom is a Yin room, made for rest, so its colours stay soft. Earth tones such as sand, beige and warm clay steady the room and suit a bedroom on the south-west or north-east side of a house. Wood greens and soft blues suit the east and south-east, and pale metal tones of white, grey and cream suit the west and north-west. Strong reds and bright oranges carry Fire and are used in small accents rather than on whole walls. The Bagua map shows the element of each side of the room, and the Kua number calculator gives the direction group to face when you sleep.

Common questions

What is the best bed position in feng shui?

The commanding position: the bed is diagonal to the door or at least out of line with it, as far from the door as the room allows, with the headboard against a solid wall and a clear view of the door from the pillow.

Should the foot of the bed point at the door?

No. A bed whose foot points straight at the door is called the coffin position, because the dead are carried out feet first. Move the bed off the door's centre line or turn it to a side wall.

Can a bed go under a window?

A solid wall behind the headboard is the rule. If the only wall that works has a window, a solid headboard and thick curtains stand in for the wall.

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