The staircase plays a vital role in feng shui since it moves chi energy to different levels of the home. Inauspicious staircases disrupt the balance and harmony of chi energy and affect areas of your life. There are simple feng shui remedies that you can try today to bring positive chi energy to your staircase.
Basic Feng Shui Tips for Stairs
There are many feng shui tips for stairs, both for existing staircases and those being designed for a home to be built. The basic tips can help you avoid inauspicious chi, and others promote auspicious chi energy traveling from the front door up the stairs to the next floor level. The feng shui elements are an essential part of maximizing positive chi for your staircase. Elements can include colors, materials, and artwork that will help you balance negative chi energy and attract positive vibes into your home.
Avoid Red Carpeting on Stairs
If you're adding or replacing carpet on your stairs, avoid red carpeting as it attracts misfortune. The color red is associated with the fire element and can bring an unsettling, fiery energy rushing up the stairs and scorching everything in its path. This can bring negative energy to wealth, health, and relationships.
Choose Feng Shui Stair Lighting Carefully
Make sure the staircase is well lit to guide the chi energy to the upper level. Adding up-lighting along the landing is an excellent way to attract auspicious chi to continue to the next floor. A crystal chandelier can be used in the foyer as the preferred overhead lighting. The crystals and light will disperse chi energy up the stairs and throughout the rest of the house.
Secure Railings and Newel Post for Feng Shui and Safety
Feng shui rules and guidelines are practical in many ways. For staircases, the rules for railings, spindles, and newel posts are rooted in safety. If your staircase has shaky or missing balusters/spindles, repair them immediately.
For Feng Shui, Avoid a Mirror at Top of Stairs
It's a popular decorating choice to place a mirror, along with a console table, at the top of a staircase or landing. A mirror at the top of the staircase disrupts the flow of positive chi up the stairs. The mirror deflects the chi energy back down the stairs, leaving the rooms on the upper floor filled with stagnant energy.
Select Artwork for Good Stair Feng Shui
Enhance auspicious feng shui on the stair walls with art and photos that repeat the feng shui colors assigned to the sector where your staircase lies. Using a simple bagua map, you can determine the sector where your staircase is located. Also, displaying artwork that features upward movement or vertical subjects can draw positive chi upstairs.
Create Vertical Lines to Move Positive Energy Upstairs
You can incorporate vertical lines through the use of art, art objects, architectural features, and other designs to attract the chi energy up the stairs.
- Use paintings of trees, tall buildings or other subject matters with vertical lines.
- Oversized tall pottery creates vertical lines to assist the chi energy in its rise up the staircase and can be placed near the bottom, a safe distance from the stairs.
- Place a set of three varying sizes of ceramic vases in a staircase wall niche or along a landing.
- Tall plumes of feathers, tall floral arrangements, or plants, can create more vertical height to improve chi energy.
Problems and Feng Shui Cures for Stairs
Most homes are already designed or built when purchased. The staircase location and structure may be inauspicious, but there are remedies for existing staircases that can be easily applied.
Feng Shui of Stairs Facing Front Door
Issue: The most common feng shui problem is a staircase that is directly opposite the front door. Chi energy enters the home and rushes up the staircase, bypassing the rest of the house. Auspicious chi doesn't flow through the lower floor sectors, creating an imbalance. A front door that opens directly onto the stairs is considered bad feng shui, and can also be remedied with these cures.
Remedy: Hang a crystal chandelier or multi-faceted crystal between the door and staircase to slow and disperse the chi.
Stairs in Center of Home
Issue: A staircase in the center of the home will siphon all the chi out of the home. If you have an existing home with this staircase problem, you can lessen some of the negative effects.
Remedy: Managing the balance of elements in your staircase area can help.
- The center of the home is ruled by the earth element. Since chi energy is being depleted with this staircase placement, add earth elements, such as crystals, pottery, paintings, and ceramics to the sector.
- Add fire elements since, in the productive cycle, fire creates earth (ash).
- Reduce the wood and metal elements. In the destructive cycle, wood destroys earth, and in the exhaustive cycle, metal exhausts earth.
- Keep this area free of all clutter to encourage fresh chi to fill the area.
Spiral Staircases
Issue: The corkscrew shape of a spiral staircase creates a whirlpool effect that drains chi energy. The movement of the spiral staircase resembles that of water cascading in a waterfall. It is especially inauspicious when placed in the center of the home.
Remedy: If your home features a spiral staircase, feng shui remedies can calm the chaotic chi energy it generates.
- Add an earth element at the base of the stairs. In the destructive cycle, earth destroys water.
- Place plants under the stairs to counteract the chaotic energy of a spiral staircase.
- Use a ceramic container to for your plant to lessen the water element energy even more.
Open Risers
Issue: Open risers create a sieve effect, allowing chi to flow right through the staircase instead of flowing up into the next level. The chi energy can never make it to the other level and the family's wealth is quickly drained.
Remedy: The remedy for this type of stairs is to enclose the space between the risers. If it's not possible to enclose the risers, use wallpaper or large artwork depicting vertical subjects, like trees, to help the chi energy move upstairs.
Split Staircases
Issue: In feng shui, a split staircase featuring two flights of stairs, one up and one down, catches chi energy in a flux of chaotic movement, unsure if it should go up or down.
Remedy: Fortunately, you have some available options for split level staircases.
- Guide the chi to the main floor of your home by using color. You can paint the walls going upstairs a more prominent color. For example, if the walls are a neutral hue, choose a pale yellow on the walls going to the main floor.
- Use light to attract chi energy. Wall sconces and up-lighting are two excellent lighting choices.
- Place a potted plant at the base of the main stairs and another one at the top of the landing.
Bathrooms at the Top of Stairs
Issue: A bathroom at the top of the staircase can generate negative chi flow. The chi energy rushes right into the bathroom.
Remedy: The simplest remedy for all things bathroom related also works for a bathroom at the top of the stairs:
- Keep the bathroom door shut at all times.
- Place a plant at the top of the stairs.
- Suspend a multi-faceted crystal between the bathroom and the landing to disperse the chi energy.
Bathrooms Underneath Stairs
Issue: A half or full bath under a staircase is very inauspicious. In feng shui, water under the stairs negatively impacts the second generation's success.
Remedy: You can somewhat remedy this by keeping the bathroom clutter free and clean. Additionally:
- Add feng shui elements to counter the inauspicious energy generated in this room.
- Add elements of the sector where the staircase is located. For example, a southeast sector is governed by wood, so add wood elements and colors in your bathroom decor.
Building a New Home: Feng Shui Tips for Stairs
It's far easier to avoid creating inauspicious stairs than it is to attempt a remedy. When you follow a few feng shui tips for stairs for new home construction, you can ensure you preserve and enhance the chi energy in your home.
Best Place for Stains in the House for Feng Shui
The best location for a staircase is along an outer wall and not directly across from the front door.
Best Feng Shui Stairs Designs
There are simple staircase design rules to help you locate the best place for stairs for good feng shui in your home. These include:
- The best staircase design is wide enough for two people to pass each other going up and down.
- The staircase should have a gentle curve to the top floor. This allows the chi to slowly and naturally make its way to the upper level, maintaining balance and harmony.
- The space between risers should be solid to support chi energy.
- Don't place a half bath underneath a staircase. Instead, create a cleaning supply storage closet.
Stairs for Auspicious Feng Shui
Auspicious staircases assist the chi energy to flow through your home. Stairs built according to feng shui principles and rules ensure your home and family will live in harmony.
