Feng Shui exists all around us, even in your home kitchen. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art focused on harmonizing people with their environment. It focuses on balancing elements and allowing Qi to flow to better their wealth, health and happiness. While a few aspects seem rooted in superstition, some of their kitchen design recommendations for better Qi make logical sense.
When looking into these tips, we’ll look at why the Feng Shui philosophy says certain aspects are not harmonious. But we will also follow up with why these tips work very well for kitchen design in your own home. Here are some tips to improve kitchen Feng Shui.
1. Do not face the stove to align with the kitchen door
Feng Shui reasoning: The door aligned with the stove leads to bad temper and money loss. The stove is an item of wealth and a direct path to the door means money will easily leave.
Kitchen design reasoning: If you are cooking on the stove, you don’t want to be surprised with the door traffic behind you. People coming in and out the door is distracting. Thus, it is bad if you are cooking with something hot.
Solution: If you place a mirror behind the stove, it will reflect the bad feng shui of this placement. Also, you are less likely to be surprised when the door opens behind you while working with hot food.
A better solution is to move the stove out of the direct path to the door.
2. Extend your wall cabinets to the ceiling
Feng Shui reasoning: Negative qi along with dust will get trapped there, reducing the effectiveness of the positive Qi.
Kitchen design reasoning: Dust will collect on the top of the wall cabinets and that surface is difficult to clean. If you are sensitive to dust allergens, this will be problematic.
Solution: The feng shui solution would be to put plants or décor to keep the bad Qi from collecting there.
The kitchen design solution would depend on the size of the gap. Crown molding or a small panel can be added to the top of a wall cabinet to bridge that space. Otherwise, a full upgrade of new wall cabinets that extend to the ceiling creates new storage available to you.
3. Do not put the stove next to the sink
Feng Shui reasoning: Sink represents the element of water, and the stove represents the element of fire. Putting water and fire next to each other will cause conflicts in the kitchen and the home. Therefore, the incompatibility of these elements can cause unnecessary arguments, losing money, and sickness.
Kitchen design reasoning: The sink, the stove, and the refrigerator are the most important elements of the kitchen. Designers follow the “golden triangle rule” of the kitchen where there should be a clear workflow path between these appliances. Putting the sink next to the stove makes movement inconvenient, especially if two people are using these simultaneously.
Worst case scenario, you don’t want a malfunctioning sink next to a stove that will affect it or vice-versa.
Solution: The feng shui solution is to put a plant between the water element and fire element to neutralize the conflict. The rationale is that water creates wood (plant) and wood fuels into the fire and creates a “productive cycle.”
The kitchen design solution is never put these appliances next to each other, especially if remodeling the kitchen. If put on the same wall, the recommendation is to keep these at least three feet away from each other. If two people are at the sink and stove at the same time, they won’t interfere in each other’s work.
4. Avoid painting the kitchen red
Feng Shui reasoning: Red and orange are colors of fire and they will unbalance the fire element of the stove. Too much fire creates too much energy and leads to moodiness, irritability and therefore a more argumentative kitchen.
Kitchen design reasoning: While not exactly addressing the color red, but red kitchens are often darker in tone. It’s more pleasant to be in a lighter-toned kitchen to bring some brightness into the kitchen. A lighter kitchen is going to look more spacious and reflect more lighting sources in the room.
Solution: Feng Shui recommends more muted tones and brighter shades for the kitchen. If you look up recommended kitchens, you will see more light yellows, greens, whites, and browns for the overall room. This does not limit any accents or your accessories in other colors.
The kitchen design solution is allowing the owner to choose the colors that make you happy; it’s your kitchen! Just be aware that lighter hues will make your kitchen brighter and lots of lighting is recommended. However, if you change your mind, you can repaint the walls or even your cabinets for a new look!
5. Avoid using the magnetic strips to hold knives
Feng shui reasoning: Having exposed knives with sharpened edges brings about negative Qi. Or at least serve as reminders or unpleasant thoughts caused by exposed knives that can lead to discomfort from guests.
Kitchen design reasoning: Avoid Easy access to sharp objects if you have children or pets.
Solution: Different feng shui practitioners have differing opinions on the practice of storing these knives. Moni from “Nine Steps to Feng Shui” offers that storing knives even in a wooden block brings about bad qi. Ken Lauher, an active practitioner of feng shui, recommends placing a butcher block for the knives close to food preparation area will be fine.
In either case, another practical solution is to store kitchen knives in a drawer in your base cabinet. If you have children, this drawer can be childproofed with a lock. Overall, specialized drawers with organizers to store your knives are available as a solution for your kitchen.
6. Store garbage away, including hiding your trash cans
Feng shui reasoning: Having the kitchen disposal bin visible is connected to clutter. Even though it is a place to throw things away, the wastebasket itself perpetuates negative qi in your kitchen.
Kitchen design reasoning: It is nearly impossible to have a kitchen without a trash basket given how much eating food or food prep creates. However, if you spend a lot of money on a kitchen remodel, having an ugly wastebasket unintentionally becomes the focus. Ideally, you want to incorporate how you handle trash into your kitchen design rather than treat it as an afterthought.
Solution: Feng shui advises putting trash in another room completely like the pantry or outside to keep that negative energy out. However, depending on the size of the room, this can be impractical enough to not practice. You can at least have lids on your trash cans so you do not need to see the clutter.
If you want to incorporate this into your kitchen, there are pull-out trash cabinets that can be part of your design. These can be found online as “kitchen cabinet bins” or “waste sorting for cabinets.”
7. No aligning door paths from the bathroom to the kitchen
Feng shui reasoning: Having a direct line between the kitchen and the bathroom is a clash between a fire (kitchen) and water (bathroom). This is also bad for digestion when negative qi circulates from the bathroom to the kitchen.
There are several feng shui matters dealing with the relationship between the bathroom and the kitchen. This also includes no second-floor toilet directly above the stove or having the stove share the same wall as the bathroom.
Kitchen design reasoning: It’s common sense to not have the smells from the kitchen and the bathroom intermingle. Nothing is more unappetizing for someone to use the bathroom, before, during or after food preparation and hearing those sounds.
Solution: If at all possible, avoid this scenario in home design as it is nearly impossible to fix. But the feng shui solution is that curtains over the door will aid in blocking that bad energy.
