Seasonal Interior Decorating: East Meets West
by Wendy Croixwendy.croix@interiordesignschoolreview.com
Interior Design School Review Columnist
As I write this, it's May. If you're a believer in feng shui, you know that the monthly energies of your home have changed (if you're not, I hear you groaning), and the wealth star that visited your north sector in April has been replaced by the robbery star in May--understandably enough. Never fear. Add a water feature to your center north section ("north" being defined by your home's main entrance) and get on with your life.
Now that the wealth star has moved to the southwest, you might try decorating that area with something red or green or purple. After all, seasonal home decorating is all about changes, so in June augment the eastern sector of your home and in July move to the southeast.
Flying Stars Define Eastern Interior Decorating
In essence, the yearly and the monthly influences (both good and ill) define the interior decorating choices of feng shui. The point of creating a home with interior design flow is to ameliorate the negatives (sickness, accident, argument, robbery) and enhance the positives (wealth, future wealth, family good luck, and love).Holiday Home Decorating Defines Western Interiors
If you've laughed your way through home decorating Eastern-style, consider your own seasonal interior decorating choices. Western interior decorating tends to be holiday-driven, yet many Western holidays have ancient roots. When your home decorating turns to bunnies and eggs at Easter and a tree at Christmas, you are borrowing on deeply embedded symbolic traditions too. Bunnies invite fertility, trees symbolize a New Year's rebirth.Whether you use Eastern or Western interior home decorating style, there's something universal in the impulse to update our home decorating with the changing seasons. According to Bonnie Trust Dahan, author of Living With the Seasons, "we tend to see the changing of the seasons as a chore, as work, instead of playfulness." Her solution is to see the seasons as a chance to break your own rules of home decorating, and she advises home owners to move things, break the rules, and "have some fun."
Sources
- "As The Seasons Change, So Should Your Décor," USA Today (Oct. 10, 2003)
- Dragon-Gate.com
About the Author
Wendy Croix, Ph.D. is a freelance writer, cultural critic and university professor who has guided hundreds of students toward the careers of their dreams.
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