DIY Feng Shui, Part 4: How to Draw Your Bagua

You can absolutely draw your very own bagua – or feng shui map. That way, you’ll know the location of each power center of your home.

Believe me: it’s really not as hard as it may sound! It just entails a tape measure (just to get it as close to scale as possible), a piece of graph paper, and a tiny bit of patient determination. And keep it simple: all you need to draw are the walls, doors, and perimeter of the space. (No need to worry about things like windows, toilets, or drawing the burners on the stove!) Again, there’s no need to go crazy: just get it as close to scale as possible so that you have a good working idea of the layout of your home.

Here are a few additional tips:

• Include any attached garages or attached covered patios. (If they’re not attached or covered, leave them out. The one exception would be if it were a raised patio that is contained by railings; if it is attached to the home, even if it is not covered, include it.)
• If you live in an apartment, just include the boundaries of your personal space. Include attached balconies or attached covered patios.
• If you rent a room or live with parents or roommates, just include the room that is uniquely yours. (If you want to do the whole house later at some point, go ahead, but start with the space you call your very own.)

Now that you’ve gotten that out of the way, you’re going to draw the square of Saturn (see yesterday’s post) over your floor plan. To do this, follow these simple steps:

1. If the outside border of your floor plan is not already a perfect square or rectangle, make it into one by extending the sides in order to complete any “missing areas.” (See dotted lines below.)

2. Draw an arrow at the front door/main entrance (as intended by the architect, even if you use another one more often) that’s pointing in toward the home.

3. If necessary, rotate the paper so that the arrow is pointing up.

4. Draw a tick-tack-toe board over the square/rectangle, dividing the floor plan into nine equal parts.

4. Write the essential names of the bagua areas on each area as below.

More common names for these areas:

Gratitude and Prosperity: Wealth and Prosperity.
Radiance and Reputation: Fame and Reputation
Love and Marriage: same
Health and Family relationships: same
Synergy: Center
Creativity and Playfulness: Creativity and Children
Serenity and Self-Love: Knowledge and Self-Cultivation
Career and Life Path: Career
Synchronicity and Miracles: Helpful People and Travel

Please note: for additional floors, the floor plan extends straight up or down from the floor containing the front door. In other words, if it’s directly above (or below) the prosperity area, it’s also the prosperity area.

Please also note: if areas are “missing” from your floor plan (i.e. if they are outside of the house), don’t worry: this post has got you covered.

…And if you have any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.