Forget the kitchen being the hub of the home. Considering we spend a third of our lives sleeping, the bedroom is where your focus should be. And so today I’m covering off the best Feng Shui bedroom layout tips and design must-haves for this important space.
The hope is that you turn your bedroom into an oasis of good energy by following these Feng Shui principles, which are actually pretty easy to implement.
The ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui (pronounced fung-shway) dates back thousands of years, but the rules are just as relevant today. Scroll on as I show you how to achieve the perfect bedroom Feng Shui, and drop me a comment further down if you have any questions.
1. Centre Your Bed On the Wall in ‘Commanding Position’
When it comes to the best Feng Shui bedroom layout, the position of the bed is one of the most important things to get right.
One of the rules I like to live by when designing rooms for clients is to centre the bed in the middle of the wall. It really is the best place for it because it makes the room feel balanced. It also happens to echo what the Feng Shui experts advise, which is that the bed should be in Command Position.
What that means is that you want the bed on a solid wall, with an equal amount of space either side of the bed, facing the door. This allows easy access in and out of the bed, of course, but it also promotes good flow.
2. Don’t Place the Bed Against a Window
The Feng Shui masters advise that you want the head of your bed against a solid wall, so do avoid pushing it against a window.
Even with these Feng Shui rules aside, I don’t think many interior designers would advise you to place your bed against a window unless you have no other option. You want as much natural light coming into the room as possible so it feels like an airy, harmonious space.
From a Feng Shui bedroom layout perspective, you don’t want the bed against the window because you want a clear path from the door of your room to the window so that energy can easily pass between them.
3. Avoid the Bed Sitting In-Line with the Door
You’ve got the first step covered; the bed is on a solid wall. Now here’s the most important part: you don’t want the bed to sit directly in-front of the bedroom door, so your feet are in-line with it when you’re laying down.
This is considered the ‘Coffin Position’ (it does not sound cute), and blocks the flow of chi.
You want energy to be able to enter the room and move around it rather than going straight into the bed. The idea is that your restful sleep should not be interrupted by negative energy.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, it might be time to consider reorienting the bed frame in the room so it’s facing the best direction.
4. You Don’t Want the Bed Facing the Bathroom Door Either
The best Feng Shui bedroom layout also avoids your feet facing the bathroom door. That’s because energy leaves the home through the bathroom, so you want to avoid positive energy flow escaping this way.
If you’re stuck with a layout that has your feet facing the bathroom, there are some workarounds. Keep the bathroom door closed at all times, for starters, but also consider hanging a mirror on the bathroom door to bounce the energy back.
You could also purchase a bed with a taller bed end, which can help keep the energy from escaping, or place a sofa against the end of the bed (as seen above).
5. Ensure You Have a Solid Headboard
Are you coming to realise that the bed is the most important piece of furniture for eliminating bad Feng Shui? It really is the make or break component in the room. Now that you have a good Feng Shui bed placement, let’s talk the bed itself.
A good starting point is to ensure you have a solid headboard. Feng Shui practitioners ideally want you to have a headboard made of a natural material like timber, but metal or upholstered fabric are by no means deal breakers. You just want the bed to feel solid and grounding.
This means that platform beds without a headboard to lean against is a no-go. Personally I love an extra-wide headboard, if that’s something you’d like to explore.
6. You Want a Big, Comfortable Bed
I don’t know how romantic relationships survive double beds, I really don’t. I’m all about having the most space to sprawl out in when it comes to bed size. And thankfully it’s one of the basics of Feng Shui too.
The idea here is to promote relaxation after a long day. You want to escape the hustle and bustle. And you want chi moving around the room successfully. Small beds can prevent this from happening, so if your room can take it, bigger is always better when it comes to the bed.
Keep overall space in the room front-of-mind though. You want a large bed, but not if it greatly restricts the walkway around the sides of the bed.
Here are my tips for placing large beds in small rooms (it can be done beautifully).
7. Ensure the Bed is Raised Off the Ground
One of the principles of Feng Shui is good air flow. And that’s really important when it comes to the bedroom. With that in mind, you want your bed raised off the ground on legs, rather than a bed that runs all the way to the floor.
To be fair, even in my work as an interior designer I tend to recommend beds raised off the ground. I find they look less heavy, which is especially important in a small bedroom.
A scenario in which I would break this Feng Shui rule is if the client really needed storage and so I might recommend a storage bed like these ones.
8. Don’t Clutter Under the Bed
While you might be considering storing things under the bed, this is a no-no according to the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui.
And I hear you; perhaps you have a small bedroom and you’re stuck on how to store things well (small bedroom storage tips are in this post for you btw) but you really shouldn’t clog the space under your bed.
The reason is that it blocks the flow of energy. Leaving enough space under the bed means fresh air can move around the space uninterrupted.
9. Ensure Symmetry is at Play with Your Bedside Tables
Symmetry is another important aspect to lean into. When you’re working through the best layout for a Feng Shui bedroom, you gotta have the same side tables either side of the bed, sitting an equal space from the bed frame. Table lamps on top will complete the look.
You can’t go rogue and get creative here with a bedside table on one side of the bed and a chair on the other. Sure, Carrie Bradshaw may have made it look great in her apartment, but she was not trying to master the perfect Feng Shui bedroom layout.
She didn’t have her bed facing the closet door though, so she does earn some brownie points for that.
10. Don’t Install a Light or Ceiling Fan Over the Bed
Now, I’m not saying you can’t have feature lights or a ceiling fan in master bedrooms, kids rooms or guest bedrooms, but you don’t want them to sit directly over the bed.
At the end of the bed, yes. Hovering over your body though; not a good practice if you’re trying to achieve the best Feng Shui bedroom layout.
The reason having them sit over the bed is a no-deal is that they create oppression. It creates a dominance and unnecessary pressure in the room, weighing you down as you sleep.
11. Keep Your Home Office Out of the Bedroom
Remember that Feng Shui layout and design principles are all about promoting harmony in the home, creating good luck, and making your surrounding environment a positive one.
You know what gets in the way of that harmony? Having a home office in your bedroom that makes it hard to switch off and relax when you’re in bed.
If you can’t avoid this, zone the room so that the placement of furniture doesn’t see the bed and desk sitting side-by-side. A decorative screen between the two could help with this.
12. Keep Electronic Devices Out of the Room
We’re hearing this more and more, aren’t we, how harmful doom-scrolling on your phone is when you’re lying in bed? Feng Shui has been telling us for years though; these tech gadgets are terrible for the room’s energy.
Having all of those electromagnetic fields present in your bedroom is not the best way to evoke calm and relaxation. Ideally you want the phone, iPad, computer and TV to remain the your living spaces, not the bedroom.
Try an old-school alarm clock on your bedside table instead.
13. Use Earthy, Neutral Feng Shui Bedroom Colours
The first thing you want to do when it comes to your Feng Shui bedroom colours is to keep things neutral. That applies to the paint on the walls, the carpet or hard flooring underfoot, and the bedding you have on your bed.
Bed sheets, quilts, pillows and blankets should all be in soothing, earthy tones that are easy on the eye. Think white, beige, brown, soft grey, sage green, sky blue and so on.
This bed styling post of mine will help you if you want to take your bed making game in the right direction.
14. Choose Calming Artwork for the Wall
This is another approach I tend to run with when I design rooms for clients: placing a calming artwork across from the bed. It’s a layout win because it gives you something serene to look at when you lay in your bed at night.
It can be an abstract piece from a local artist, it can be a landscape artwork depicting something nature-inspired. The choice is yours really, but you just want to have it feel tranquil. And it doesn’t have to go across from the bed either, it can go above it too.
Avoid bold colours, avoid graphic or geometric shapes, and avoid large slogans. You want your subconscious mind to think positive thoughts as you sleep.
15. Avoid Family Photos in the Bedroom
How do I say this delicately? Nobody wants to be getting jiggy with it while Nanna watches over them from a photo frame on a nearby chest of drawers. That is the easiest way to kill the active energy in the room, if you catch my drift.
Family photos are best kept on walls in hallways (I do gallery walls like this for clients all the time), or on tabletops in living rooms and dining rooms.
A Feng Shui bedroom is all about supporting love and romance, after all.
16. Don’t Store Books in the Bedroom
As mentioned above, a Feng Shui bedroom is about supporting calm. One of the best practices to keep the good energy flowing is to keep large amounts of books out of the place you sleep.
That’s not to say you can’t take books into the bedroom to read at night, but you don’t want a bookshelf in the space. You don’t want to be lying down seeing crime books, work books or similar looking back at you. It’s too disturbing.
Store all your books in another room, in a shelf setup like this one, which taps into a chic library-at-home vibe.
17. A Few Plants Are Good, But Not too Many
Feng Shui recognises that stress can weaken the immune system. That’s why all of these Feng Shui layout and design rules exist – to combat the havoc stress can wreak on our bodies.
One of the best ways to support positive life force energy (outside of things like Yoga and Tai Chi) is to embrace nature, to bring natural elements into your bedroom. And nothing does it quite as well as a few indoor plants.
You don’t want a crazy amount, but rather a few considered plants (or flowers) here and there. One by the entry door to the room would be nice, and another on the bedside table. That’ll do.
The added benefit, visually, is that the organic nature of plants brings some fluidity to a space like a bedroom where there are often so many clean, sharp corners.
18. Don’t Place a Mirror Directly Opposite Your Bed
Mirrors not only bounce light around the room (great in a small bedroom, by the way), but they also bounce energy. From a Feng Shui perspective, the bouncing around of bad energy can be harmful.
It’s not that you can’t have a mirror in your bedroom at all. You can hang one on a wall, but it’s best you don’t install it directly across from your bed.
Hanging a mirror directly across from the end of your bed is said to cause sleep disruption, so this is a Feng Shui bedroom layout mistake to avoid.
19. Choose the Right Scent
Scent in a home is absolutely crucial. It sets the mood in a space the way lighting does. And it’s such a personal thing. One person’s omg-aroma is another persons wtf-scent-of-doom.
When it comes to scent in a Feng Shui bedroom, there are particular options the experts recommend. Rose, gardenia, ylang ylang, musk and jasmine all get the thumbs up.
You could introduce these scents through candles from one of our fave local makers, or have the real thing sitting in the room.
20. Natural Bedding Materials Are Your Friend
I mentioned earlier that bringing natural elements into your Feng Shui bedroom design is a good idea. You can most certainly extend that concept further when you’re choosing the type of bedding for the room.
Sheet sets and quilt cover sets made from bamboo like these ones or cotton are a good idea. And if you’re not sure where to start, here’s a list of the best places to buy bedding from online.
21. Lastly, Consider Bringing in an Expert on Feng Shui Bedroom Layout
This post on the best Feng Shui layout and design is pretty extensive, but your room is going to have its own individual challenges.
Your bed might have no choice but to face the door to the room, for example. You might have the wrong water features in the room.
Bringing in a Feng Shui consultant can help. They can work through the energy map of the room, they can talk to things like flow of life in the space, how to tweak your water element for maximum effect. They can discuss the best fire element, earth element and more.
Have all these tips on the best Feng Shui bedroom layout and design ideas helped you? Perhaps you have some of these tips implemented already. I’d love to hear from you below. Drop me a comment and let me know how you’re changing up your bedroom for the better.
All was going well with my bedroom Feng Shui until you mentioned a solid bedhead. I have had my brass bedhead for decades and I am not in a hurry to get rid of it.
I loved your detailed breakdown of the Feng Shui bedroom tips, especially the one about placing the bed in the commanding position—it makes such a difference in creating a sense of security and calm. I’ve always struggled with clutter under the bed, but your advice about keeping that space clear really hit home. Do you have any suggestions for small bedrooms where options for bed placement are limited? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to balance functionality with good Feng Shui in tight spaces.