One of the most important rooms in the home, from a Feng Shui perspective, is the kitchen. The kitchen is where food is prepared providing the occupants of the home with the essential nourishment they need to live a healthy and balanced life. In this article I cover some general tips, what I call my ten kitchen commandments, to ensure the energy in your kitchen flows in a harmonious and positive way.
Commandment 1
Your Kitchen should be filled with light
A light and airy kitchen fills the occupants of the home with joy, ensuring that the kitchen is a place in which people want to linger. The longer we spend in the kitchen the more likely we are to take care and attention over the meals that we prepare and cook. If your kitchen is in a small room or is narrow and dark you can easily lighten the space by adding lights, mirrors or by painting the walls or cupboards in a light colour. Excellent colours for the walls in a kitchen are white, cream or pale green, the white and cream will automatically lighten the space whilst green brings in the wood element, an important element that helps bring balance to the kitchen.
Commandment 2
Your Kitchen should not be an obstacle course
For energy to flow in harmony around your kitchen it should not encounter obstacles. The square design of kitchen furniture and appliances often make the kitchen a sharp room filled with angles that may not necessarily promote positive chi. We should therefore not create more problems by placing tables, island units and butchers blocks slap bang in the middle of the kitchen floor. If we do have items blocking the centre of the kitchen we may find that positive energy is blocked from flowing around the kitchen and we may find that we ourselves have difficulty in digesting our food.
Commandment 3
Your Kitchen should not be filled with poison arrows
In tandem with the point above, the nature of much kitchen furniture means that we may find one or two poison arrows in place in the kitchen. Poison arrows are angles that point outwards at 90 degrees and can cause the energy to be disruptive in the area in which it is pointing. The best cure for a poison arrow is to disguise or hide it. Plants, tubs filled with herbs or baskets filled with fruit and vegetables are all excellent ways in which a poison arrow can be disguised.
Commandment 4
Your Kitchen should not be seen from the front door
If your kitchen can be seen from the front door you are more likely to walk in to the kitchen when you enter your home and, if you are like me, head straight for the fridge. Ideally your kitchen should be well away from your front door. This however is easier said, or in this case written, than done. Assuming your kitchen can be seen from your front door and you do not want to completely remodel your home there is a very simple cure which is to keep the kitchen door shut. Proving my point that Feng Shui really doesn't have to be complicated.
Commandment 5
Your Kitchen should be free of clutter
If truth be told, your whole house should be free of clutter. It is worth mentioning specifically with the kitchen in mind however as the kitchen, more than many other rooms, has a tendency to accumulate clutter. Many people make the mistake of thinking that clutter is rubbish, or stuff that you don't need, but it isn't. Clutter is anything that you don't need right now. In the kitchen that includes weighing scales, the toaster, the empty fruit bowl, the pots draining by the sink and old bills and bank statements that haven't been filed away. If you don't need it right now then put it away until you do need it. Who wants to work in a kitchen where you are continually having to fight for workspace with an assortment of unused kitchen utensils?
Commandment 6
Your Kitchen should not create a surprise for the cook
Not even a pleasant one! When the cook is spending time preparing a meal they do not want to feel insecure, or not know what is going on behind their back. Ideally then when the cook is at the hob they should have an uninterrupted view of the door in to the kitchen. If the placement of your hob means that the cook has their back to the door you will need to place a mirror, or reflective screen on the wall at the back of the hob so that the cook can see behind them at all times when they are cooking.
Commandment 7
Your Kitchen should promote positive energy
A great way of balancing the energy and promoting positive chi is to add the wood element in to your kitchen. Adding wood creates a positive and harmonious link between the destructive elements of water and fire which are heavily represented in your kitchen. You can easily achieve this balance and harmony by such simple actions as adding wood units, painting your kitchen walls green, adding green crockery or introducing broad leaved plants in to the kitchen.
Commandment 8
Your Kitchen's main purpose should be the preparing and cooking of food
In our modern day homes quite often rooms are used for a number of different purposes. In the UK and France it is very common for homes to have large kitchen cum dining areas. If this is the case in your home it is important that you create two very distinct areas. If you do not clearly define your kitchen space, which is after all one of the most important areas of your home, you are at risk of losing or diluting some of the benefits that this area brings. Meal preparation may end up being rushed or not taken care of, work surfaces may end up being used as storage areas and the cook's attention may not be focused solely on cooking. A barrier with plants or a decorative screen can work well as a room divider, if this is not practical using two different but complimentary colour schemes in the two areas of the room can create the effect of two different areas.
Commandment 9
Your Kitchen should ideally have the oven, fridge and sink at the three auspicious points
If you think of the points of a triangle, the oven, as the focal point of the kitchen should be at the top with the fridge and the sink at the other two points. This helps to create a harmonious flow of energy around your kitchen and ensures that natural barriers are in place between the fire and main water elements.
Commandment 10
Your Kitchen should always be kept clean and fresh
For positive energy to thrive it is important that your home is kept clean, fresh, well maintained and in good decorative order. In the kitchen this means that the floors, worktops and appliances should be kept free of crumbs and stains, the hob and appliances should be kept in good working order with any broken items quickly replaced, and old cooking smells should be got rid of as soon as possible. A good and completely natural way of getting rid of smells is to keep herbs and spices around the kitchen as they give out wonderful fresh kitcheny smells.
I hope that this article has given you a useful insight in to how you can ensure your kitchen promotes positive energy. If you would like more information on Feng Shui please check out my weekly blog which is published every Friday and is full of free Feng Shui tips
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