Open Wide!

Whether you live in a house or an apartment, you are probably going to have to deal with some narrow spaces. In modern apartments and homes, entrances and hallways are often too constricted for ideal energy flow. A traditional approach to this challenge among Chinese Feng Shui consultants has been to put a mirror in a space to expand it.

However, mirrors can often create more challenges than they solve. For one thing, they are always reflecting something. You want to make sure that whatever it is duplicating is something you want more of in your life. The door to the bathroom or closet is not appropriate, while a beautiful photograph or a display of flowers is. And if it is always going to be reflecting your image, you might think twice before putting it up - how often to you want to catch glimpses of yourself walking by? The movement when you are not expecting it can be distracting, unnerving, or even startling.

All you need to expand a space is artwork with perspective. Landscapes offer ideal vistas into other worlds, opening up a window where there was once a wall. Lush foliage and floral scenes create a sense of communion with nature in a space where plants and flowers may not fit or thrive. The key to remember when choosing artwork for a hallway or entrance is not to have flowing water, or water without boundaries (an expansive ocean, for example). Water creates a build-up of energy that can make things flow too quickly in the hallway or lead to good opportunities going out the door near entrances. Water imagery is best kept for a living room - though not near its door.

The picture above shows an ideal way to open up a very narrow entrance and hallway. Note that as the lake in the painting at the back is far in the background, it does not adversely impact the energy flow in that space.