Interior decorating is a profession which is and has been easily entered into by individuals possessing little or no knowledge of the complexity of this curriculum.
Because interior design/decoration is a profession requiring a great deal of study and experience to master it, it is wise for the homeowner or business person seeking decorating assistance to ask to see the credentials of the designer/decorator they are considering hiring.
Many decorators have a portfolio available, which not only shows their credentials, but also samples of their work.
No matter what decorating theory the person ascribes to, it is wise to ask their qualifications. There are many who would qualify better as pirates than decorators, with the erroneous advice they provide and the high fees they demand.
Feng Shui Decorating Theory
Jill Blake, Joy Abrams, Karen Carter-Roach, Rodika Tchi, Danielle Friedman, are just a few ladies offering decorating advice, utilizing feng shui philosophy. These ladies are popular for their books, Internet articles, and in some cases seminars.
While they each may have their own variation of how to get a space decorated, they all tend to agree on the basic foundation being the concepts of feng shui.
Basic Feng Shui Concepts
Jill Blake expressed basic feng shui decorating concepts in this fashion in her book, “The Healthy Home” (Page 14).
“In decorating, feng shui is an ancient art of placement, based on the idea that the way you organize your home, choose rooms, decorate them, and place your furniture will enhance your well-being. Applied to the home or the office…feng shui can be used to enhance the happiness, prosperity, and good fortune of the occupants, while creating serene, healthy, and balance surroundings.”
How Do They Achieve This?
Feng Shui philosophy is based on the five elements (fire, water, metal, wood, and earth). There are both creative and destructive cycles to these five elements. Feng Shui decorating relies heavily upon the creative cycle. The creative cycle is how the five elements promote each other. For example, water feeds wood; wood fuels fire; fire makes the earth; earth creates metal, and metal holds water. The destructive cycle is how the five elements diminish or destroy each other. According to feng shui it occurs this way:
Water extinguishes fire; fire melts metal' metal chops wood; wood uproots the earth; earth dams water.
The approach a feng shui decorating consultant will take is to determine if one of these five elements is dominate in the home and if it is creating a negative effect. Incidentally, everything is affected by the decoration of your home according to feng shui concepts.
By everything, this includes health, wealth, romance, travel, relationships, family, creativity, reputation, and knowledge.
What is wrong with this approach? It is geomancy. Geomancy is a form of divination. Those who place great faith in the Lord God should realize this and back away from any connection to feng shui. Why? The Almighty has zero tolerance for divination, sorcery, spiritism - in short the occult. (And feng shui is a form of the occult; carefully study has proven this fact.)
However just using the five elements is not the complete concept of feng shui decorating.
Other components are the use of the chi (pronounced chee), bagua map, and intricate color theory having nothing to do with traditional decorating color theories, and the use of arrangements in conjunction to the bagua map and the five elements.
What is the chi? The chi is a life energy force believed by feng shui devotees and practitioners, to be circulating within each person and throughout the universe. According to this belief the chi needs to be harnessed within our homes and lives to promote a healthy flow of it.
The bagua (Ba Gua, or Pa Kua) is the map of feng shui. It is one of the most valuable tools a feng shui decorating consultant will have in their possession. They will use it to evaluate your home or whatever space you want decorated. It is an octagon shaped grid with nine divisions. Generally there is a center space with eight spaces evenly placed around it. But the bagua might also be a square shaped like a “tic-tac-toe” grid. Each square called a gua, represents one of the nine areas of life:
- Prosperity
- Fame and Reputation
- Relationships and Love
- Family
- Health
- Creativity and children
- Skills and knowledge
- Career
- Helpful people and travel
Joy Abrams states that feng shui decorating consultants work with those who will use the space. However this is in sharp contrast to the statement Jill Blake made in regard to the consultant asking questions about your birth date, as a personal horoscope will be created to help determine the position of the furnishing in your home or business. (And, yes, this is another form of divination - astrology). This approach can only take into consideration the preferences of one person. Similarly the fact the five elements are heavily relied upon as a means for obtaining the right balance of the chi in a home posses a most interesting situation. What if you are classified by feng shui as being a water person, liking cool colors and a serene environment, and your spouse is classified as a fire person, liking hot colors and a more vibrant and exciting interior? Whose preferences win out in this situation? Now compound this situation by adding your children's preferences (and yes, kids do count!) Your kids may not be either water or fire according to feng shui, but could be earth, metal or wood. According to feng shui one element must have a dominate role, or the destructive cycle is thrown into action. How would life style decorating handle such a problem?
