A good office layout uses feng shui principles to boost your career and aid you in achieving professional goals. The most important aspect of any feng shui office layout is the desk and the command position.
5 Feng Shui Office Examples
Everyone wants the ideal feng shui office layout. Achieving the command position in your desk placement will help you take advantage of feng shui principles. The office layouts can be printed using Adobe Reader. In the diagrams:
- Lamps/lighting are indicated by a circle with an x.
- A circle with wavy lines indicates a water feature.
- Plant positions are indicated as empty circles or scalloped shapes.
- The black items represent the personal working space.
- Blue items indicate client conference areas or two client chairs in front of the desk.
The first three feng shui office layout examples illustrate various scenarios for placing your desk in the command position along with other pieces of furniture. Not all offices will allow you to place your desk in the command position. The last two feng shui office layout examples demonstrate how you can manage a good feng shui office layout when working with difficult office spaces.
Feng Shui Office With Desk in Command Position
In a perfect world, you can have the ideal command position for your desk. In this diagram, the desk is diagonally across from the door. A plant in front of the window is a great way to disperse chi energy that is often powerful and rushes too quickly from a window. Behind the desk is a console table. Use the wall space to display various feng shui good luck items. Place two chairs in front of your desk to invite clients (business).
Install a wall sconce by the door on the inside of your office to attract chi energy inside. Lamps placed in corner will ensure chi energy moves and prevents stagnant chi buildup. Plants are great chi activators within your office. The best compass directions for plants include the east, southeast, and south. Set a plant on your desk in one of these directions.
Other feng shui items you can use for any office feng shui layout include:
- Hang a painting of an Arowana fish or a gold mountain directly behind your desk above a console table.
- Use the south wall of your office to hang/display your diploma(s), awards, licenses, and certifications.
- Place either an aquarium or water fountain on the north (career luck) wall or southeast (wealth luck) wall.
- Use only one water feature in your office or risk creating an imbalance in chi energies.
Office Layout With Two Windows
This diagram demonstrates how you can place your desk in the command position along with an attractive feng shui office furniture layout. The desk is centered between two windows to ensure there is a solid wall behind you while you work. Some of the furniture choices include:
- Use either a console table (most popular choice), bookcase, or cabinet behind the desk and chair.
- The two chairs placed in front of your desk are invitations for business (clients).
- Across from the desk grouping is a glass enclosed bookcase.
- Once more, plants are an important part of a good feng shui design. Place plants in the wood ruled sectors (east and southeast) or the fire ruled sector of the south (wood feds fire).
Special Office Layout to Attract a Mentor
Place a bookcase in the northwest (mentor luck) wall in your office. This is a great place for this piece of furniture when you fill it with books by industry professionals you admire. If you have a photo of the person you wish to be a mentor, set it in a metal frame and set on top of your bookcase. Install wall scones above the bookcase or if the bookcase isn't too tall, you may prefer to use a buffet lamp to attract a mentor.
Large Executive Office With Desk Command Position
A larger executive sized office offers you more furniture options for an office feng shui layout. The desk takes the command position in a diagonal placement to the door. The desk is securely located between two windows with a solid wall behind it.
- Use a console table or server style cabinet to feature various feng shui symbols.
- A bookcase allows a combination of books and art items. If placed on the south wall, use it to display awards and trophies.
- A cozy conversation area allows for more casual conversations or a place to take a break to recharge.
- Set either a water fountain or an aquarium by the desk. Make sure the water fountain flows toward the desk.
Solution for Office With a Window
Very few offices are conducive to good feng shui layout. In this feng shui office layout example, you can see how feng shui remedies can work to create good chi flow in your office. In this executive office layout, the desk is placed on the east wall, with a solid wall behind it to support your work and career. Unlike the preceding feng shui office layouts, this desk faces the door. You don't ordinarily want a desk directly across from a door due to the powerful chi energy entering the office. However, you should never place a desk in front of a window, since it can't provide your work or career the support you need. While this isn't the ideal feng shui desk placement, it serves to address a common problem many people face when attempting to satisfy the feng shui principle of command position.
Feng Shui Office Desk Placement Challenge
When working with your office feng shui layout, you may need to be creative and use feng shui cures to negate any harmful effects of a less than ideal desk placement. The diagonal desk placement for this feng shui office layout would be where the long bookcase is. However, the desk would jut out into the room, and the end of your desk would face the window. The chi energy moving through the window would constantly travel over the surface of your desk in a disruptive continuous wave of chi energy.
One solution for a diagonal desk placement is to install floor to ceiling draperies and keep them closed at all times. Another is to place a flat screen blocking the window. Both solutions aren't ideal since the blocked energy is partly responsible for keeping your office space energized. When you stifle chi energy, you risk creating negative chi that will work against your efforts to maintain a command positions.
The diagram of the office feng shui layout is a practical solution to the chi flowing between the door and the window. This placement provides you with the most valuable desk placement - a solid wall to give you the support you need in your work/career.
Curved Furniture Lines Move Chi
When furniture has curved lines or a round overall shape, the chi energy will move freely around them, traveling along the curved lines. The curved chairs in front of the desk help to disperse the chi energy entering through the door, as do the various lighting fixture placements. The round table and chairs allow the chi energy to flow around them. A desk with rounded corners would further serve to keep the chi energy moving, slowing it down in the process.
You can activate specific luck sectors when you select the best furnishings based on Classical feng shui principles. A few of these furnishings are positioned in the executive office layout to maximize these energies.
- A low credenza behind the desk with table lamps on each end and potted plants with round or oval leaves will activate the east sector wood element. The east sector governs all forms of health, such as physical, financial, career, and health of other sectors.
- Lights placed at entrance, desk, credenza, conference table, and bookcase will define space and activate auspicious elements. Use metal floor lamps at entrance to activate west sector element (metal).
- The conference table and chairs are placed to the left of the entrance in the northwest corner - the helpful people or mentor luck sector.
- A bookcase on the north wall provides an excellent place for an aquarium or desktop water fountain to activate your career sector. Make sure the water flows in the direction of the desk.
Small Office Feng Shui Dilemma
A feng shui layout for a small office is based on the same principle of command position for the desk. In this layout, the door is centered on the wall, making it difficult to place a desk diagonally to the door since the office space is so small.
The desk is placed on the south wall directly opposite the door. If you were to place your desk along the east wall to face the west wall while working, you would be vulnerable to the chi energy rushing at you sideways. With that scenario, you need to look sideways to see anyone entering your office. If you're working, you may not be aware anyone is standing in the doorway or has entered your office.
Difficult Command Position for Desk
In this small office, the desk is placed directly opposite a door and centered on the wall behind it. With the placement in the diagram, you have full view of anyone entering your office. However, this placement also has issues. When you're sitting behind the desk, you will receive the rush of chi energy entering through the office door.
You can slow down the chi energy and disperse it into the room by hanging a multi-faceted crystal ball between the desk and door. If this isn't possible, place one on your desk in front of you. Another way to deflect some of the rushing chi energy is with a plant on your desk. You may also add another chair in front of the desk, or move the one chair to block some of the chi energy. With this placement, make sure you don't hang a mirror on the wall behind you, since this will bounce all chi energy right out the door, and be harmful to your career.
Other key items include the following.
- A low credenza with a table lamp is placed behind the desk with plants on either side, which benefits the south fire sector.
- A chair is set across from the desk, carefully positioned so that the chi pathway to the desk isn't blocked.
- Lights are placed on either side of the door to define the entrance of the office.
- The south wall is the sector of fame and recognition where diplomas, licenses, awards and photos of career successes should be displayed. The north sector is governed by water, so this is an excellent place for either a small aquarium or water fountain.
Never Place Desk in Corner or Catty-Cornered
When faced with a challenging feng shui office layout, you may be temped to place your desk in a corner or catty-cornered in order to fulfill the feng shui rule of setting a desk diagonally across from the office door. Don't do it! Perhaps the most important feng shui rule about desk placement is to never place your desk in a corner or set it catty-cornered. Corners are inauspicious since they accumulate chi that becomes stagnant. Stagnant chi is considered clutter. From a visual point-of-view, this type of placement looks odd and out of balance.
Placing a desk in the corner compounds the negative effects of the corner. When you place a desk catty-cornered, this placement traps the chi energy. The chi energy has nowhere to go. In addition, this kind of desk placement creates poison arrows. All of these corner scenarios have a negative impact on your work and career. You need to find a different solution for your desk and if necessary use feng shui cures for a less than optimum feng shui desk placement.
Keep Your Feng Shui Office Layout Neat and Clutter Free
The proper layout of a feng shui office can activate your career luck, yet this won't matter if your office is cluttered. A clutter free work space allows chi energy to flow throughout your office and takes full advantage of your office feng shui layout.
