Hooray! You understand what the Bagua is, you’ve drawn your home’s floor plan and are now ready to place the Bagua.
If you haven’t downloaded your Free Feng Shui Bagua Map, you can do that now, and you’ll have what you need to get started.
Here’s a step by step:
Step 1: Identify the architectural front door
Step 2: Align the bottom of the Bagua with the architectural front door
Step 3: When the shape of the structure is not a rectangle or square, square off the structure
Step 4: Within the squared off shape, divide the structure into nine equal sections and label each using The Feng Shui Bagua Map. You can get a Free Download of my Feng Shui Bagua Map here.
Sounds simple but unless your home is a perfect square or rectangle you’ll need a few more tips to place it properly.
Step 1: Identify the Architectural Front Door
That’s the door that your company uses. That’s the door that was designed to be the focal point of the facade. That is usually not the garage door or the back door or even the door you use most often.
I recently went house hunting with friends who looked at a townhouse. A large closed garage door greeted visitors who had to figure out how to go down a side path where a traditional front door with a fancy embellishment on top was the only way to get inside the home. That would be the door, and facade, that the Bagua would be placed on rather than using the garage door which was on the street side of the building. You might hear other Feng Shui approaches using a door other than the architectural front door, but that is not my recommendation.
If you live in an apartment, condo or other building with multiple units, use the main entrance to your individual unit and the shape of your own home for the Bagua.
Step 2: Align the bottom of the Bagua with the architectural front door
In all cases, the bottom row of guas will be lined up with the front door, therefore, the front door will always be in either the Knowledge and Self-Cultivation, Career or Helpful People and Travel gua.
When the side of the structure with the front door is relatively straight all the way across this step will be pretty clear-cut. If the facade of the home has multiple juts or areas that are recessed from the plane the front door is on, as is common in many newer homes, there are several additional factors that need to be considered when placing the Bagua. Each floor plan is unique, so if this is your situation feel free to share yours with me, and I can assist you to be sure it is placed properly.
Step 3: When the shape of the structure is not a rectangle or square, square off the structure
The Bagua is a square so we want to make the floor plan a square or rectangular shape. If yours is already one of those shapes move on to Step 4. If not, you’ll need to square it off.
To know exactly where to place the Bagua, first, identify any sides that do not have two walls that meet in a corner. Next, look at the area that protrudes. If that wall is longer than 40% of the length of the side, draw a line extending that side to meet the adjacent corner. As you see by the floor plan here, the distance of each exterior side is longer than 40% of the length of its particular side. Therefore, it is considered a full side of the structure and the building is squared off using those walls.
In the floor plan at right, the section that protrudes is not longer than 40% of that side, actually occupying less than one third of the distance of that side. Therefore, it is considered an “Extension” and will not fall within the Bagua but left outside to be analyzed differently.
Step 4: Within the squared off shape, divide the house into nine equal sections and label each using the Feng Shui Bagua Map
Now that the Bagua is placed, divide the square or rectangle into nine equal sections similar to a tic-tack-toe board. Once you label each section you can begin to identify the area, or gua (pronounced gwah), your different rooms occupy. Sometimes a room can have parts of two or more guas within it or be totally inside just one gua.
This procedure only applies to the main floor with the architectural front door. Place the Bagua on all other floors by superimposing it onto that floor as it lies over the main floor. For example, if the Master Bedroom is over the Living Room which is in the Career gua, the Master Bedroom will be in the Career gua.
The main floor Bagua will always include all nine guas. If other levels of the house do not have as much floor space, there may very well be only a few of the guas of the Bagua represented there. That is perfectly fine.
As you can now understand from all of the additional instructions, floor plans with multiple juts, additions and areas that are recessed might require a more experienced eye to double check the placement of the Bagua. The floor plan at the right is a perfect example. Contact me directly, and I’ll be happy to take a look at yours.
Isn’t it exciting to know where your home holds the energies for the Health, Wealth, Fame, Relationships, Children and Creativity and other parts of your life? Next we will begin the Bagua analysis by looking at your home’s overall shape and the meaning as it relates to the Bagua.
I’d love it if you’d share your experiences with us all here.
Have fun,
Carol
I thought I knew how to place the bagua, but your advice to use the appraisal of the house I just purchased was great. Using the appraisal drawing made placing the different sections easy and accurate.
Thanks
It does save a lot of time when you have that drawing. Did yours already have the rooms designated? Mine didn’t.
Hi, I live in a two apartment home. Should I position the baguá map to the overall house entrance or to my apartment entrance?
Thank you !
Hi Mihelle,
It’s great that you are applying the Feng Shui Bagua Map to your home. In this situation you would apply the Bagua by using the door to your individual front door over your apartment’s floor plan. If you’d like to send the floor plan I’d be happy to check it out for you. What great Feng Shui possibilities might you discover? Happy Feng Shui!
Hello
I live in a condo where the front door is down stairs. I take stairs to reach living area.
I don’t know how to place baugua.
Just getting started… my home is oriented sideways on its lot (usable portion of lot is narrow). I understand how to orient the Western bagua for the home to the front door, but would the bagua for the landscape also be oriented to the front door, or to the street? And would the landscape be considered the entire lot, or only the usable portion which can be maintained (the rest is steep drop to creek/woods)?
That’s great that you have applied the Feng Shui Bagua Map to your home and now want to apply it to your landscape. When I do a consultation for a free standing home, I ask for the plot plan – the entire plot of ground the home rests on. The Bagua is then oriented using the street side where the driveway enters the plot and heads toward the home as the bottom of the Bagua. Sounds like you may have some gully or steep incline as part of the plot’s Bagua. That will be an important piece of information as Ch’i rushes downhill and will either be siphoning energy away from something or possibly having too much energy directed toward something else.
I’d love to hear your findings and thanks for the question.
Hi Carol, thank you for taking the time to reply to the comments. I live in an rv. I have been looking for feng shui advice to apply to moving objects (an rv) and I haven’t found any blogs. Do I place the career side of the map on the side where the door is? Or how would I place the bagua map?
What an interesting Feng Shui question and one I too have not heard an answer to. A question – is your RV parked and you live in it like any other type of home, or do you travel about, staying in different places? If you stay parked, I would use the door that your enter into the actual living space section of the RV. If you are on the road often with no temporary “home base” I’d try placing it using the door where you enter to drive. One other point, I was taught when the Feng Shui Bagua Map can be placed two different ways with equal reasoning, apply it both ways. Then analyze the two Baguas and see which reflects more the status and events of your life at present. The most pertinent Bagua Map would become the one you would use to do your Feng Shui going forward.
I’d love to see what you are able to decipher once you determine your home’s Bagua. Good luck and have fun!
I live in a manufactured home – a perfect rectangle and easy to position a bagua. However the architectural door is covered over by a garage that is attached to the house at a right angle giving the shape of an L also making the front door hidden. A garage door has to be entered from the street in order to get to the door to enter the home. The garage is extending more than the width of the house. I am just not sure where to place my bagua. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated/
Dear Carol, I shall be possibly moving into a renovated third floor apartment. The floor plan looks more like a fan that opens more to the left compared to the flat front door. How do I place the Bagua?
Thank you for you kind advice
This sounds very unusual, and I’m not sure I have a clear enough idea of the floor plan to comment. You can schedule a consultation if you’d like and we can go over it in detail. Have you read my post on Use Feng Shui to Buy Real Estate? It gives an 11 tip checklist to use when looking for a home, whether buying or renting.
I was using this for my business as well and realized when I squared off the space full areas of the bagua are outside of my units space including the most important… my wealth. Would this be accurate for business?
Yes, the Bagua placement is the same whether it is a home, business, school, hospital or any other building. The Feng Shui Bagua is interpreted a bit differently for business. For example, Wealth and Prosperity would relate to the Wealth and Prosperity of the business rather than the individuals that work there.
Hi Carol, thanks for the bagua map, but I’m a bit confused as I had already applied a bagua map to my floorplan, which names each bagua with the 8 directions. Since my front door faces due west and they have the West bagua as Creativity and Children, this contradicts your bagua which suggests that the front door falls in the Career bagua? I see you don’t apply the directions to your bagua?
Janine, there are many practices of Feng Shui, much like there are many styles of cooking, architectural styles or ways to practice medicine. I practice primarily Form School Feng Shui which does not use the compass directions.
hi Carol,
I live in a 3 bedroom flat apartment at the top floor facing south east. while I’m pretty sure I mapped out the area correctly I’m wondering about the solid wall separating the kitchen and living areas which is my “relationship” and “creativity and children” sections. would this give off a negative effect.
thanks.
Hi Helen. I’d love a bit more detail or even a sketch. Why are you concerned about these sections being divided?
What is your advice for east-facing rectangle single-storey 3-bedroom house about to be built?
The longer side of rectangle shaped building plan would be facing east.
The plot of land is at the left corner and in middle section of a hill top with gradually sloping down towards the east.
How and where to position the entrance door (how wide should main entrance door be), bedroom 1,2,3, guest hall, dining hall, toilets, kitchen and back door?
Susan, it is very wise that you are considering Feng Shui at this early stage of your project. Feng Shui was developed over this very question, the best way to navigate the land for the highest benefit of the humans who would be there. My post Landscape Feng Shui Series #2: The Ideal Feng Shui Location will provide the basics of home placement. Tuck the dwelling into the hill with something taller in the back and position the front door to face the road (or driveway if you are on a long access road.) I would be happy to assist with a telephone consultation on the positioning of the rooms as this is a complex set of questions, or consider hiring a local Feng Shui consultant to visit the site and provide guidance on site and room placement.
Hi – I am in a townhouse and I am not quite clear on where to place the Bahia and how as clearly the townhouse is not square shaped.
Nicoletta, use the architectural front door of the townhouse to place your Bagua. Look to my post What Shape Are You In for information on how to make Feng Shui adjustments to modify the Ch’i flow for a structure that is not square shaped.
Hello Carol,
I live in an apartment that has a porch with a low gate and to your left is the main door, which of the doors I should consider as the “main door” for the bagua?
Guilherme, I suggest using the main door that is actually a part of the facade of the building as your Feng Shui Front Door.