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B R E A K I N G N E W S A T L E A D E R P O S T.C O M S EC T I O N F
S AT U R DAY, D EC E M B ER 28, 2013
Encouraging design to go with the flow Feng shui takes in the elements of nature MARTA GOLD POSTMEDIA NEWS It’s a common enough experience, but one that’s hard to articulate: You walk into a space and it feels welcoming, balanced, peaceful. It’s not the decor exactly, or the colour, or the style of furniture, but something more elusive — a sensation, an impression. Some would attribute it to feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of arranging a home or other space around particular colours, materials and thematic elements to balance the flow of energy, and with it, the experience of the people inside. “It’s always in a subtle way,” says feng shui master Kirsten Proulx, co-owner of Henry’s Purveyor of Fine Things, a home decor store in Edmonton that has been offering feng shui consult-
ing services for the past several years. “I feel it, and most people do. They don’t know what it is, but they think, ‘Gee, it feels good in here.’ We get that in the store all the time …. It’s just a good flow.” Proulx and her sister, Janice Funston, have set up their shop incorporating, as much as possible, principles of feng shui in its design, both to make it welcoming and to illustrate how it’s done for customers. Increasingly, people are turning to a more modern, westernized version of feng shui principles to create harmony in the design and esthetic of their own spaces, at home and at work. Consultants like Proulx and Funston help people incorporate feng shui into their lives. “Most often when people are looking at feng shui, they’re looking at improving something in their life …. Or something doesn’t feel right in the home, something’s not working for them,” says Proulx. Most of their clients want to make some simple chang-
es to their existing homes, although some do consult about plans for building a home that incorporates feng shui principles, she adds. In China, homes and public buildings are commonly built according to feng shui designs. Traditional feng shui is based on the compass and land forms, with each direction representing a different element. Proulx uses a ver sion based on a “bagua” or zone-energy map, in which a space is divided into eight zones, each corresponding to one component of a person’s life, such as relationships, creativity or spirituality. Stephanie Gruss, a feng shui practitioner, teacher and consultant in Edmonton through her company, Balancing Spaces, says feng shui, at its most basic, is about “the relationship between people and their space.” “A lot of people think it’s about religion, but it’s not. It has to do with the science of the elements of nature,” she adds. “It’s a holistic view on life.”
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SHAUGHN BUTTS/Postmedia News
Feng shui consultant Stephanie Gruss say wood items, like this table and chair, as well as natural items such as fruits and plants, are important feng shui elements in a kitchen.
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