Decorating Tips for the Year of the Tiger
Chinese New Year starts on Sunday, February 14, and 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. I know — that didn’t mean much to me, either. Or it didn’t until I started reading up on the nexus between interior design and Chinese astrology.
Lori Dennis sets off a white-and-stainless kitchen with green bar stools.
There are traditional ways to decorate for Chinese New Year. Put out a vase of flowers; live, blooming plants are particularly auspicious, especially plum blossoms, bamboo and azaleas. You can also garner favor with the gods by displaying bowls of oranges and tangerines, which I love the bright look of, especially on cold winter days.
But if you want to take it further, decorate to enhance your luck all year. Since 2010 is the year of the White Metal Tiger, decorating with white, silver and metal are excellent ways to create good fortune. This doesn’t require a complete overhaul.
Incorporate a metal bed, like the one in this Ammie Kim bedroom.
Copy Barb Ince and balance metal appliances and countertops with wood cabinets.
Get a quick, eye-popping update with a mid-century-inspired silver chandelier. (Christopher Grubb)
Take a page from Eileen Gould’s book and give a bathroom a feminine touch with a fairy-tale mirror.
Steal any one Erinn Valencich’s ideas: a metal-edged coffee table and chair, a metal mirror, or a furry white pillow.
Learn more about decorating and Chinese astrology: feng shui basics and incorporating feng shui into modern design
Edited to add: After reading the comments, it sounds like I could have been clearer that this is merely meant to be a fun, New-Year’s inspired post, not an in-depth look at feng shui or even its basic principles. However, if you’re interested in diving deeper, try:
A basic description of the four main schools of feng shui: Compass, Form School, Black Hat and Intuitive. Black Hat feng shui is the most prevalently used version in America. You can find another description, here, which breaks the schools down into Classical, Compass, Black Hat and Form School.
Lillian Too is one of the most famous writers and practitioners of Compass and Form School. I haven’t studied with her, but I’ve spoken with a local feng shui consultant who has, and she holds Lillian’s expertise in the highest regard.
Karen Kingston uses Intuitive Feng Shui to help people clear clutter, energetic and physical. I’ve taken a class with her and found her techniques useful for clearing space, even though she’s more influenced by the Balinese path than by Taoism.
For easy-to-read introductions to feng shui, I also like William Spear’s Feng Shui Made Easy and Denise Linn’s Sacred Space and Feng Shui for the Soul.
If you’d like to find a Feng Shui consultant in your area, this site may be able to help: Feng Shui Directory of Consultants and Schools
Whoever wrote this article needs to do more research on Chinese astrology and feng shui before presenting these decor ideas as compatible with Chinese astrology or feng shui concepts. These are just random pictures pasted into an article about "feng shui." There is nothing inherently "feng shui" about the pictures used in this article; they could just as well have appeared in any number of articles. I have several books on feng shui interior design and one of the key points is the importance of geographic direction (north, south, east, west, etc) and the appropriate placement of design elements representing wood, metal, fire and water. Some feng shui schools of thought would go so far as determine the placement of objects according to an individual's natal chart. You don't simply decorate with metallic elements just because it's a "White Metal Tiger Year." Not even a novice feng shui consultant/interior designer would advocate something so simplistic as that.
I agree! The photos are pretty but feng shui is to balance and improve the energetic flow of the whole environment. Metaphysics does not prescribe a blanket fix-all anymore than a physician would give a patient medicine without examining the patient or finding out what other medications were already in use. It is good to honor the existence but also the depth and complexity of cultures not your own. I was somewhat affronted by the opening comment that all readers of this site would not know or care about the Lunar New Year. I found the narrative to be quite "dumbed down" unnecessarily.
"Decorating Tips for Creating Poison Arrows Aimed at Yourself and Dinner Guests" would be a more fitting title for this article. Poison arrows are one of the fundamental concepts in feng shui. The bed in the second picture is a feng shui no-no, as the overhead canopy with the sharp corners are perceived as creating "poison arrows" that penetrate or sever a person's "chi" or personal energy. Likewise, the light fixture in the fourth picture is another no-no as it resembles a cluster of poison arrows aimed at everyone congregated at the dining table.
If this article was simply about decorating with white, silver and metal, I would have read it with that in mind and would have no issues with it. The pictures are nice and I can certainly appreciate them. However, since the writer brought up feng shui, I'm viewing the pictures through that lens and I see nothing "feng shui" about them.
As for the writer's opening comment regarding the Lunar New Year: "…that doesn't mean much to me, either." I agree that it's somewhat offensive and a pretty dumb thing to say. Statistically speaking, with 6.7 billion people in the world, I'm sure the Lunar New Year is quite meaningful to quite a lot of people.
Hgtv does not know the first thing about Year of the Tiger or Feng Shui!
As a designer I agree with all of the above. Shame on you HGTV for allowing this to be printed. Do your homework.