I was looking into ways to spruce up our home office recently and was looking at some art work online. One of the particular paintings mentioned that it provided ‘good feng shui’ for an office. It got me thinking, should I be specifically looking for Feng Shui home office wall art?
Yes, there is a way to use wall art to promote ‘good’ Feng Shui in your home office. Wall art can be considered to offer good Feng Shui to your room if it depicts certain objects or themes and/or if it is hung on the appropriate walls.
Let’s take a very quick look into Feng Shui and then we’ll delve into what you should look for to choose the best “Feng Shui” wall art for your home office.
What Is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui is an old Chinese philosophy that involves arranging the pieces and structures in living spaces in order to create balance with the natural world.
Enthusiasts believe that arranging furniture and objects according to the principles of Feng Shui effectively harnesses energy forces and creates harmony between an individual and their environment.
Simply by positioning or designing your surroundings in harmony with principles of natural energy flow, you can create an environment that has ‘good Feng Shui’ and one which should be conducive to good energy.
Feng Shui can be used in any and/or all areas of your house, but here at Essential Home Office Supplies, we’re just going to focus on the use of Feng Shui in your home office.
Tips For Home Office Feng Shui
The following are some general tips to create a home office with ‘good Feng Shui’:
- Aim for a clean, clear and uncluttered space – good storage is a must for this.
- Your desk should be in a ‘commanding position’ – this usually means you should aim to have a solid wall behind your desk and you should be able to see the doorway clearly with no obstruction.
- Ideally your office desk will be rectangular and wooden.
- Consider placing some plants on or up against the solid wall behind your desk – these are considered to be a ‘wood element’ and are good for support.
- Plants that work well in a home office for this purpose are: Rubber Trees, Bamboo, English Ivy or Boston Ferns.
- Natural light – large or generous windows are important for natural light. If your desk can be positioned in such a way as you have a solid wall behind you and you can see both the doorway and outside through a window, then you have hit the jackpot!
- Do not position your desk directly under a ceiling fan or any beams, and try to avoid protruding edges of walls as well.
- You’ll want your home office to have good air circulation – open your windows whenever possible and/or use an air purifier to keep the air clean and fresh.
- The color scheme of your home office will no doubt depend on the decor of the rest of your house but, from a Feng Shui perspective, if the work you do in your home office revolves around writing, math or science, the best colors for your room would be shades of blue, green or beige. If you’re into something a bit more creative, you can increase the energy of your home office space by incorporating red, yellow and orange to the area.
Where To Hang Wall Art In Your Home Office For Good Feng Shui
Now that we’ve got the basic principles of Feng Shui for your home office down pat, let’s look at where to hang wall art in your home office.
If your desk is facing a wall in your home office, you don’t want that wall to restrict the flow of positive energy. You can enhance the energy by hanging inspiring artwork on the wall in front of you.
Inspiring artwork can be just that – a particular piece that inspires you, but you could also use framed degrees or diplomas you have earned, pictures of people or places you admire or even quotes or sayings that inspire you – like these free home office printables!
Each wall in your home office (North, East, South and West) is said to be useful in supporting certain elements of your life. Not all home offices will have a wall in every direction – you might have one wall that is just a window or one that is mainly a doorway.
But don’t worry, a window is adding that much needed natural light, and, hopefully, it might also offer you an inspiring view.
If you don’t have a solid wall in one of these directions and it happens to be related to the area you’d like help with the most, maybe you can add a piece of the relevant type of art to a shelf or on your desk, in that direction.
Here are the themes that each wall is responsible for according to Feng Shui principles:
North Wall
The North wall of your home office is said to be responsible for career and success. If this is an area important to you, it’s advisable to add artwork that depicts water elements to harness positive energy.
Paintings or photographs of oceans, rivers or waterfalls suit this purpose well as well as images of goldfish – goldfish are linked to wealth, images of them swimming in water or a pond, add the water element to raise the energy and make your north wall a positive energy source.
East Wall
The East wall of your home office is related to health and family, so it’s important to make sure that your east wall is not empty.
The east wall is naturally a good place for family portraits and people who are important to you, but you can also use pictures of vitality to encourage positive energy. Pictures of vitality include paintings or photographs of nature, trees or forests.
South Wall
The South wall of your home office relates to your fame, rank and reputation. If this is something that is important to you, you’ll want to introduce a fire element to harness positive energy.
Hang your wall art on the south wall in wooden frames. Wood, which is essential for fire, is an element you should display on your southern wall, but avoid images with water in them – water extinguishes fire and brings a negative energy if placed on the south wall.
The images in your wooden frames could be of trees or forests in keeping with the wood theme, or you could use some other type of wooden artwork.
West Wall
The West wall of your home office is all about creativity. If you need to enhance your creativity, you’ll want to pay attention to the wall art you choose for your western wall.
Choose any artwork, pictures, prints or photographs that really resonate with ‘creativity’ for you. This is the place to show your bolder, more ‘out there’ tastes in art – abstract art in colors to complement your room is a good choice for the western wall of your home office.
Choosing Feng Shui Wall Art For Your Home Office
When choosing wall art for your home office there are a few things to consider. Firstly, you’ll want to try and meet the brief as written above depending on the wall you are buying your wall art for.
Secondly, it’s important that you actually like the artwork that you choose. Don’t hang a picture of a goldfish if you think it’s ugly! You don’t want to be looking at anything that doesn’t inspire and delight you.
Also, you’ll want to consider the color scheme and decor of your home office. Don’t buy some wall art that will clash with what you already have – unless, of course, you find the clashing of styles and colors inspiring, in which case, it might work for you, especially if it’s on your western, creativity, wall.
There are a few other images which are commonly used within Feng Shui that you might like to incorporate.
Just like goldfish, a golden ship is said to inspire wealth. You could display an actual gold ship like this one. Or you could find an image depicting a golden ship. According to the above principles, you’ll want to place your golden ship on your Northern, success, wall.
If you’re in need of some career support, images of mountains are said to be good for this, on the wall behind your desk, to offer you that support. Use any image of mountains that inspires you, even your own photograph from somewhere you’ve been would work well for this. Or you can buy something like this.
Also along the lines of career help (after all we are focusing on your home office here), images of hot air balloons rising, birds flying or anything else (airplane, rocket ship) taking off, is said to help your career to soar.
Again, photographs you’ve taken yourself work perfectly well for this purpose, or you can buy an image that inspires you like this one.
As mentioned in the North Wall description above, for a prosperous career and/or increasing your income, pictures of water are highly recommended.
Again, your favorite photo of your favorite place at the lake, or a picture of a river or waterfall will do the trick. If you don’t have something suitable, you might like to look at this one.
In my mind, the most humorous feng shui image I read about in my research was that you can use the image of a rooster! This is said to enhance your reputation and reduce office gossip!
As we’re talking about a home office here, it’s unlikely that there’ll be much office gossip, unless you happen to have a few staff who work onsite with you. Still, you might like to include an image of a rooster if your aim is to enhance your reputation.
If you’ve got a pet rooster, snap a picture of him and display it proudly on your wall. If not, you can get a statue of a golden rooster here, or a picture of a rooster here.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, when it comes to Feng Shui home office wall art, there’s a lot to consider and a lot to learn! We’ve barely touched the tip of the iceberg here.
If you want to learn more about Feng Shui, there are some really great books on the subject. I’d recommend this one and this one.
Otherwise, have a go! Choose some wall art – there are plenty of options on Etsy and Amazon.
Figure out which wall/s need enhancing in your home office and then find some wall art that you like, that inspires you, that fits with your color scheme and that meets the brief in terms of what it should depict for each wall. Simple!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just start small and simple, and pick out a couple of these free home office printables that we prepared for you. Print them out, frame them, hang them on the appropriate wall, or sit them on your desk, and get ready to be inspired!
