Dining Room Table
Shape is one of the tools that feng shui practitioners use to shift the energy in a space. You can intentionally choose the shape of your dining room table to support a certain type of energy that you’d like to cultivate. A square or rectangular table is best if you’d like to invite in more stability and grounding, or if your goal is to have less drama in your family or friendships. An oval or round table is great for creating a smooth, gentle flow of qi (energy) around the room.
Dining Chairs
If you want your family and guests to relax and linger, make sure you have comfortable dining chairs. Look for chairs with supportive backs that are easy to get in and out of. There should also be enough room around each chair so that they can be pulled away from the table comfortably, and guests don’t feel like they have to squeeze in or out.
It’s also a good idea to consider the number of dining chairs. If you want to make more friends and have more houseguests, make sure you have more chairs than the number of people living in your home. For example, a couple who wants to have more dinner parties should aim for four or even six chairs around their dining table. Even if you don’t use these chairs every day, this extra seating creates space for friends and family to come into your home and your life.
Wall Color
If you’re deciding what color to paint the walls in your dining room, you can look to feng shui color theory for guidance. Choose a color that supports your intentions for how you’d like to use your dining room space, and make sure it’s a color that you like. Here are a few feng shui-inspired colors you might want to include in your dining room:
- Red stimulates appetite and adds warm, expressive fire energy to your celebrations.
- Brown and yellow are grounding and nourishing, and they’re connected to stable earth energy. Yellow also brings in more feelings of joy.
- Greens and mid-tone blues bring an uplifting, healing wood element to your space.
- White and gray are popular colors that can provide a versatile, neutral backdrop. They are more about completing projects, getting things done, and less about eating and entertaining. We would suggest adding some red accents to bring in a bit of fire and warm up the space.
Area Rugs
An area rug is a great addition to your dining room because it will help to settle the energy in the space. From a design perspective, it’s important to have a rug that is the appropriate size for the room. Make sure that the rug in your dining room is large enough that your dining chairs are still on the rug when they are pulled away from the table. You can also bring in another layer of feng shui meaning by choosing a rug in one of the colors mentioned above.
Artwork, Mirrors, and Decor
Lastly, don’t forget to bring in some decorative touches to make your space your own. The dining room is a great place to add imagery that evokes feelings of abundance because the ability to nourish yourself with good food is connected to abundance and prosperity in feng shui. Art is another great way to add an extra pop of color to boost the qi in your dining room.
Adding mirrors to your dining room will also increase abundance by doubling all of the fabulous food and elaborate meals that you present to your family and guests. Choose a mirror that you love, and hang it in a location where it can reflect the table as well as anything placed on it.
You can also add fresh flowers or a bowl of fruit to intentionally bring in specific types of energy. This is a great way to play with feng shui and color in your dining room without having to paint your walls or get new furniture. Try a vase of yellow flowers for overall well being and joy, red flowers for dynamic energy and prosperity, greenery for compassion and flexibility, or a bowl of oranges for auspicious yang energy.