Linda Varone | Nurturing Spaces Feng Shui

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Gardens that Grow Wonderful Memories

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Gardens are unique as a place for creating wonderful memories. My favorite garden is one I saw on a garden tour in Newbury, Massachusetts several years ago.  It was not the fanciest, but it was the most personal in expressing the lives of the family that lived there for 3 generations.

gardens grow wonderful memories stepping stones on moss covered path in garden
The best gardens invite you in.

Walking up the gravel drive I noticed pachysandra circling the bases of trees.  A shaded patio next to the screened porch was made of old brick pavers with moss growing in the cracks. A wrought iron table and chairs invited conversation and relaxation.  I could almost hear the clink of ice cubes.

Straight ahead I saw a tall hedge with a narrow opening. Squeezing through, we entered an outdoor room, enclosed on three sides by the hedge and on the fourth by a garden house.  The garden house was a small cottage with a roof and three walls, the “missing” wall opened to the outdoor room. It had a soot stained stone fireplace on the back wall and was furnished with well worn upholstered furniture covered with faded chintz. It was the perfect place for a drizzly summer day read or cool spring evening gathering.

The far back of the yard had a large lawn, perfect for games, with the tall hedge corralling both kids and balls, while muffling the sound of excited play.

Back at the house, near the kitchen, was a stand of tall pines.  Clustered under the broad branches I saw several small crosses – the graves of several generations of family pets.

This garden is unpretentious, loved and lived in. It offeres places for different activities and even different age groups.  It is a garden where wonderful memories are made.

Few of us have a multi-generational home on a few acres of land. But we can rethink our garden. We can create areas within our gardens that support gathering, quiet, contemplation, and active play.

Rethink the interaction between inside and outside.

  • In the garden arrange something especially beautiful to be seen from a particular window.
  • Inside arrange furniture near that window to encourage connecting with nature.
  • Think of how adding lights or a fireplace can make your garden more welcoming in the evening.
  • Or simply open your windows and let in fresh air and energized Chi into your home.

What gardens have you known or experienced that create wonderful memories for you?

If you would like guidance creating a memorable garden or outdoor space contact me.

Feng Shui Patio. Feng Shui Porch

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Feng Shui Insights for Outdoor Living

Feng Shui Patio: Set up the patio chairs and the sun umbrella. Find your sun block and sun hat. With the long summer days finally here enjoy the best of nature. Unwind and recharge yourself in the same moment. Whether you are entertaining or relaxing by yourself, make the most of your outdoor space and have a refreshing and relaxing outdoor experience.

Feng Shui porch/ Feng Shui Patio. Yellow front porch with two rocking chairs.
Feng Shui Porch. Feng Shui Patio

 
 
 
 
 
 

” [Front porches] became an integral part of the house, as essential as a dining room or a working kitchen….Front porches came to symbolize the lifted mood. Inside the house were never-ending chores waiting to be done. Porches were for escape, relaxation, neighbor talk, and a touch of the outdoors….Potted plants added color and warmth. Swings, comfortable chairs and rockers were popular fixtures, as were goldfish bowls and birdcages. Flowering trellises shaded out the hot afternoon sun and gave fragrance to gentle breezes.” – Hugh Stevens, Country Journal


This nostalgically perfect place ended with the advent of automobiles and air conditioning, but its charms are unchanged and can be reclaimed. Porches, patios, sunrooms and decks can give you a greater connection with nature with the added comforts of “civilization.”

There are significant differences between the classic porch and the more modern patio or deck.

Something was lost. Below are insights from Feng Shui and Environmental Psychology so you can create a cozy and welcoming space that is used and enjoyed.

A porch has a roof and feels like an extension of the house.  While your patio or deck is a flat slab of concrete or platform of wood projecting from the back of the house. The result: They leave you feeling exposed to the full effects of the sun – a cause for concern in an SPF 50 world – and exposed to your neighbors. You experience a loss of privacy. This feeling of exposure results in patios and decks not being fully enjoyed.

No matter how well furnished, an exposed outdoor space will be used for grilling, period.

Feng Shui discovered two thousand years ago that people are more relaxed when they feel supported from behind. I call this the “embracing mountain.”Having a wall, fence or thick hedge behind where you are sitting will help you feel anchored and protected. Decks and patios are usually attached to a house, giving you protection from behind, but you need some sort of privacy screen or sense of enfoldment to feel at ease. This is important for creating a feng shui patio.

You can create a space that is partially enclosed and gives you the experience of sun, wind and the smells and sounds of nature.

5 Tips to Create a Feng Shui Patio: Make your patio or porch feel more private:

  • Nestle your social or private space into an outdoor corner of your home, the kind created by an addition or bump-out.
  • Add screens or trellis on one or two sides of your deck or patio, leaving one side open for fresh air and the best views.
  • Plant hedges that will grow 4 feet tall for privacy when you are seated for a full or partial length wall
  • Hang brightly colored sheets – like one client did while her hedges were growing tall enough.
  • Add a trellis roof, canvas shade or large adjustable umbrella for shade and a feeling of protection.

A porch can benefit from:

  • Hanging plants
  • Trellis with vines, or
  • Canvas shades on the exposed sides.

Give yourself the visual privacy and sense of protection you need.

  Balance this privacy with openness and a real connection to the restorative qualities of nature.

Tips on Patio or Porch Size (Yes, size does count)

Architect and author, Christopher Alexander states for a balcony or patio to be useful it must be at least 6 feet deep. This allows for chairs, a table and room to move around. If it is shallower than this it will just be a display space for garden furniture. If you have limited outdoor space, consider smaller scale patio furniture or chairs that have a smaller footprint.

Group chairs on patios and porches closer together for personal-conversational distance. Arrange chairs in a circle or semi-circle
for ease of eye contact.

To learn more read:

“Gardens That Grow Wonderful Memories”
Arrange Furniture for Personal Conversation and Personal Connection

Make the most of your outdoor space with a personal Feng Shui consultation. Contact me by clicking on the link. You are one step closer to a welcoming and refreshing outdoor space.

Originally published July 9, 2014; updated June 13, 2017

porch photo by Kendyl Young

Feng Shui Home Analysis: Recognizing the Good in Your Home and in Yourself

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A young family asked me to do a pre-purchase Feng Shui home analysis.. It was a beautiful Arts and Crafts home on a partially wooded lot. I noted some Feng Shui vulnerabilities. But what struck me most was how good the energy of the house was. Here was a house that had been truly loved.

arts and crafts house with blooming trees in front, feng shui home analysis
A Blooming Arts and Crafts House

Some Feng Shui books focus on what is wrong with a home rather that what is good about a home. This approach increases readers’ anxiety that if something isn’t perfect bad things will happen. I was fortunate that some of my early teachers showed me not only how to correct the vulnerabilities in a home, but strengthen what is good in a feng shui home analysis. In strengthening what is good in your home you support and strengthen what is good in you and your loved ones.

 “When you recognize the good in something it will blossom. This is especially true about your home.”  – Denise Linn

Denise also writes about the “Spirit of the House.” When a house is neglected or unloved its energy sags. When a house is well maintained and well-loved its energy lifts. House love makes a huge difference in the energy of a building – more than mere maintenance – and makes a house a home. No house is perfect. Most are a work-in-progress.

Feng Shui Home Analysis: What do you love about your home?

  • Is there a place where everyone hangs out and feels comfortable and connected?
  • Is there a space that catches the morning light?
  • Is there a quiet corner where you can relax alone, or snuggle with one of your kids…or your sweetie?
  • Do you have a space outside where you can bask in the sun or catch cooling breezes?
  • Do you have a place where you can display your personal treasures: the objects that remind you of the people, places and events you love most?

Take a look around and identify what you love about your house. If you don’t have one, then create it.

Metaphysical Bonus for You:

Feng Shui is about your house as a mirror of yourself. Most of this thinking is focused on decluttering and the Ba-Gua. If your house is a mirror of yourself and you have a hard time loving it, warts and all; then maybe you have difficulty loving yourself, warts and all. (Damn that inner critic). Working on something concrete outside of yourself paves the way for the work of inner growth. Ask your house what kind of love it needs. And then take care of your home’s need for nurturance. As you do so you will practice nurturing and loving yourself.

Happy Ending/New Beginning

: This family had already fallen in love with the house. The Feng Shui vulnerabilities where easy to remedy. Their offer on the house was accepted.

  • Fall in love with your house again.
  • Identifying the good in your house.
  • Create a home that you love,

Contact me for a consultation.

photo by rictor and david (Note: This is not my clients’ house. I protect the privacy of all my clients. The home in this photo is a Charles Greene-designed house in Pasadena.)

Light and Heat-Blocking Window Treatments Keep You Cooler: Save Money and Energy

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How to Keep Cool(er) During the Dog Days of Summer.

With almost universal air conditioning, we have become lulled into the habit of flicking a switch for instant cool. But this dependence on air conditioning is costly in both dollars ($$$) and natural resources. Use light and heat-blocking window treatments to keep your home cooler.

picure of sunlight and heat waves enter and are trapped within a glass house.
This is the Greenhouse Effect in your home. The windows trap radiant heat.

The Greenhouse Effect

You know about the Greenhouse Effect and its impact on Global Warming. Every time you get into a car on a sunny day and the interior of the car is hotter than the air outside, you are experiencing your own Greenhouse Effect. But do you know how the Greenhouse Effect works within your own home? Sunlight enters your home through your windows, bringing light energy and heat energy. The glass in your windows traps the heat energy, causing your home to become hotter and hotter. This can be perfect on a cold winter’s day, but during the hot days of summer, either your air conditioning goes into overdrive or your home stays hot. (Note: The all-glass modern houses of the 1950s and ’60s were designed when fuel was cheap.)

This is where smart window treatments come in.  Learn how your grandparents kept cool(er) and what Europeans in old houses still do today. For part of the day, you want to block out sunlight and radiant heat from your home. I have written about window treatments that open your views and connect you with nature.  You can have both, provided you use the right light and heat-blocking window treatments.

 

What are the four reasons for window treatments?

  1. Protection from the sun’s glare and heat.
  2. Protection from winter cold and drafts.
  3. Protection from unattractive views.
  4. Protection from nosy neighbors.
View of palm tree against blue sky, through partially opened plantation shutter
In hot climates, plantation shutters are used to filter out light, allow cooling breezes to enter, and provide people with privacy.

Learn how to use window treatments to keep your home cool.

Before the day heats up, in the early morning, close your windows and draw your drapes, blinds, and shutters, especially in bedrooms, sun-drenched rooms, and unused rooms. (Some of the older houses on Beacon Hill, Boston, have interior shutters for just this purpose.  (In the old days, shutters weren’t for decoration.) In modern Rome, there is a daily ritual of opening, closing, and adjusting windows and solid shutters as the sun moves across the sky. Are your drapes lined to keep out sunlight, heat, and cold? Are your shades room-darkening?  You may want to close out the heat in all the windows of your home, or maybe just the rooms facing the sun. If you have skylights, consider adding adjustable shades to them for the hot days. As the day gets cooler, you can open your window treatments.

Woman in darkened room opening heavy curtains to see the light outside.
Light-blocking curtains are helpful during both hot summer days and cold winter months.
Lighti blocking shades dim sun glare in bedroom
Partially lowered, these light-blocking shades soften the sunlight in this bedroom.

 

The trick is to have light-blocking or at least light-filtering window treatments.

This means curtains made from a heavy fabric, or a thinner fabric with light-blocking linings.  If your curtains don’t have light-blocking linings, you can improvise using an extra curtain rod, clip-on curtain rings, and light-blocking fabric. Measure, cut, and hang the lining fabric from the extra curtain rod tucked behind your decorative curtains. This way, the curtain is between the window and your decorative curtains.

Too often, we keep our window treatments open all the time. This is great for light and views, but we need to remember that our window treatments give us the option to close them.

If  you feel claustrophobic or cut off from nature when your window treatments are closed, then consider solar shades or variations on them.  They are mounted like window shades and are made of one of several densities of heavy plastic mesh that block out different degrees of light (and heat) while allowing a veiled view of the outdoors. You have probably seen them at your local Starbucks.

Living room with white solar shades.
These solar shades eliminate the sun-glare in this room while allowing views outside.

Open and Close: Take advantage of the cooler air outside

If it is a cool evening, open the windows to catch the cooling breezes. If the night is cool and humidity is not an issue, leave your windows open and sleep with the cool air from outdoors, moved by a fan placed in or by the window. If you need to keep your windows closed, then adjust your AC settings for a night without radiant heat from the sun. This won’t eliminate your need for air conditioning on blistering hot, humid days, but it will keep your home a bit cooler, so your HVAC system doesn’t have to use as much electricity. Your approach to using window treatments will vary as the warm months progress, and overcast days may not require any sun blocking. Experiment with this and see what works best for you.

Air conditioning makes life easier during the hot months, but we don’t have to rely on it exclusively to stay cool. Reclaim some of the wisdom of your ancestors. Use light and heat-blocking window treatments. Stay cool, save money, and conserve energy at the same time.

plantation shutter photo by simonsimages

Feng Shui, Light and Human Consciousness

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“The energy of human consciousness may share an affinity with light that we do not yet understand. Turning  toward that light, we might find it the source of all our inspiration and creativity.” – Tarthang Tulku, Knowledge of Freedom

I came upon this quote years ago. I confess I don’t completely understand it, but is has inspired some thoughts on how light applies to Feng Shui.  

sun rising behind clouds with rays of light shining outward
Light and human consciousness
  • The sun is the primal fire of our solar system.
  • Fire is the element of Fame and Reputation of the Feng Shui ba-gua – being in the spotlight.
  • Yin and Yang: dark and light. We would not know what light is if we did not have the dark.
  • In northern China the Feng Shui for entrances to ancient homes were oriented to face south. This provided heat and light to the interior of the house from the sun.
  • Navaho hogans (homes) are oriented with the door facing the east, so they can greet the morning sun with prayers.
  • Ancient Chinese sages and Feng Shui practitioners knew that sunlight was a form of energy.
  • Modern physicists have demonstrated that light is sub-atomic photonic energy.
  • Light is a metaphor for seeing reality clearly and moving beyond illusions and confusion.
  • Eco-psychologists note the importance of connection with nature, sunlight and fresh air by calling it “Vitamin G”.

How do you make the most of light and chi in your home and in your life?

  • Do you have a special outdoors place for relaxation and reflection?
  • Do you have beautiful window views of nature and make the most of them with an inviting chair nearby?
  • Do you bring nature indoors with plants in your home and/or workplace?
  • Do you have appropriate lighting for nighttime and overcast days?

There is something nourishing – just as chi energy is nourishing – about sunlight. Maybe someday science will identify it. In the meantime connect to the energy of sunlight and nature every day.

How do you experience the nourishing energy of light? Share in the comment box below.

Photo by Sean MacEntee

Feng Shui Your Window Treatments: Are Your Curtains Getting Between You and Nature?

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Feng Shui has known for centuries that contact with nature is essential for balance and health. Recently a growing number of Architectural Psychology studies have supported this wisdom – contact with nature decreases blood pressure and the incidence of chronic-stress related illness. The right – or wrong – window treatments make all the difference.

But many of my Feng Shui clients have unknowingly set up their homes to limit connection with nature. How? They use window treatments – curtains, blinds and shades – that block views of nature that nourish energy and spirit.

Window treatments with overwhelming valence, curtains and austrian shade
Light, view and Chi-blocking window treatment

Window Treatments

Curtains:

Too often I see curtains and valances covering a third or more of the window. This limits your access to light and nature. BIG curtains are meant for BIG windows in TALL rooms.

Solution #1: Hang valances and swags higher, so that the bottom edge of the valance is just below the top of the window. A recent Feng Shui client was excited with how much more light came into her kitchen with this simple change.

Solution #2: Mount your curtain rod closer to the ceiling. This will make your window look bigger when the curtains are closed.

Solution #3: Use longer curtain rods, 6-12 inches on each side, so when your curtains are open they gather and hang along the outer edge of the window – framing your view, not blocking it.

Shades:

Shades can be an all-or-nothing window treatment. If you need protection from sun glare, you draw the shade and close off all access to sunlight. And your room feels like a dark box.

Solution #1: Consider a pleated or honey comb shade for softly diffused light.

If you need protection from nosey neighbors, you do not need to shut out all access to nature along with curious eyes.

Solution #2: Bottom-up pleated shades give you visual privacy while allowing you to leave the top half of your window open to light and views of sky and trees.

Blinds:

If you use blinds for protection from sun glare or nearby neighbors:

Solution: Adjust your blinds so the blades are partially open and either tilted up or down to get the light and privacy you need, this will give you indirect light and avoid a totally dark room.

Simple changes in your curtains, blinds and shades will give you access to sunlight and connection with the natural world outside your window. Take a look around your home and see where some easy changes can make a big difference.

photo by author