my daughter sells real estate and says youre slightly mad if you dont get a feng shui consultant to rearrange your house before sale.

i note donald trump is a huge fan.

so superstiticious sorcery or a real phenomenom.

any thoughts?

It's superstitious sorcery based on a real phenomenon. Feng Shui is about good design, light, direction, air circulation, dampness, height of furnishings, etc, but there are also lucky numbers and directions involved.

Nine Star Ki is an offshoot of Feng Shui, involving travel directions and numerology. John Lennon and Yoko Ono followed it to a tee. Boy George is a big fan too. He never travels at the wrong time and takes jobs and chooses destinations based on their directions.

it doesnt do anything other than perhaps make your house look nicer. nothing wrong with that, but representing it as possessing mystical properties is a bit stupid.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on May 1^st, 2013 at 4:16pm:


Not so obvious for many. It is unbelievable the number of photos I've seen on websites showing properties, where the owners haven't even attempted to clean up, many even fail to pick up their dirty clothes off the floor .... Not a good impression when you are trying to attract buyers, especially given that most people will click onto the next one as soon as they see that.

In my opinion four main points are declutter declutter and declutter , then make sure that it is clean and tidy ,.... especially when the photographer turns up.

How well developed is what we call your 'aesthetic sense'? If you have a good aesthetic sense you don't need an interior decorator.

Feng shui is just what the chinese call aesthetics, though they throw in some mumbo jumbo, mind you so do some western decorators.

As a garden designer a lot of people used to tell me they didn't have a clue, but were perfectly capable inside. In actual fact the same basics apply.

What we call an aesthetic sense, I think is hard wired. It's what we are comfortable with and expect to see in the natural world. When things are 'out of kilter' it jars, disturbs, makes you nervous.

If you want to step outside the box with colour, look at what occurs naturally, the more unusual are to be found in rocks, leaves, shells and twilight.

In a forest you'll find one dominant tree, two or three understory trees, five or six bushes... when you get down to the floor you'll find that things get eclectic.  You'll find rooms, different things growing in different locations. And you'll find transition, some things common perhaps to all locations. And you will always find paths, some places are best for sleeping, some for eating and some for drinking, (we're talking kangaroos, deer etc.) Getting between them quickly is as important for a kangaroo as a human.

So in your home you have one dominant style of furniture, especially in each room. On the mantlepiece you can have a more eclectic collection. Themes and repetition and transition are always good.

Simple is the word. Designing a garden I draw up paths following function from A to B and draw in the plants I want to use. Then I simplify both, then I simplify again.

NB. Modern landscaping takes that to an extreme They may only use three different species and plant them in blocks, I hate that, it works, (aesthetically) but it's just lazy and boring.

A north facing wall gets hit by the sun in winter. A south facing wall casts a shadow in winter. One side can be warm and dry, the other cool, dark and wet - great for moss, not so great for anything else. This is more pronounced as you get further from the equator (towards Tasmania). Near the equator it doesn't make much difference. You get baked all year. The directions are opposite north of the equator.

In a valley with steep sides it can make a pronounced difference to temperature.

Grey wrote on May 2^nd, 2013 at 1:38am:






do you think the 'design'  gene is something you are born with.

i once had the entrance quiz for the minnesota school of arts come across my desk.
you were asked to pick the more aestheticly pleasing out of 2 very similar designs.  often just squiggles or bunches of random numbers on a page (sort of like a ink blot test).

i got 10 out of 20 right.  2 of the girls who were artists got 17 and 18 out of 20 right.

i'm told if you get less than 15 , you should not consider a career as an artist.

Yes goes right along with the Ooga Booga philosophy.