Feng Shui in the Kitchen

The Ideal Cooking Environment

Jul 21, 2009

The location and shape of the kitchen, as well as the positioning of appliances within it, can create either good luck or bad luck in a home.

Nearly everyone is familiar with the saying: The kitchen is the heart of the home. This old adage contains much truth. After all, isn’t this the room wherein nourishing meals are prepared and where families sit together to enjoy those meals while communicating with one another, perhaps for the first time in an often busy and hectic day? With this in mind, one might argue that the kitchen fosters closeness and affection among family members.

The kitchen, however, is not used solely for meal preparation and dining. When neighbors and friends stop by to visit, don’t they often sit in the kitchen, perhaps enjoying coffee and Danish, as everyone catches up on the latest news? Consequently, one might also argue that the kitchen fosters good community relations.

What most people don’t know, though, is that the shape of a kitchen, its placement in a house, and the position of its major appliances can either encourage or discourage physical and mental well being, financial prosperity, and domestic harmony.

Placement and Shape

According to Man-Ho Kwok, foremost Feng Shui master in Europe, the ideal position for the kitchen is on either the southern or the eastern side of a house. Why? Well, it’s because the stove is representative of the elements of fire and wood, and whereas fire is connected to the south, wood is connected to the east.

With these principles in mind, regardless of the popularity of floor plans that blend the cooking area, dining area, and living area together into one open, free-flowing expanse, the teachings of feng shui dictate that the kitchen should not be a channel through which people can freely come and go as they wish. It should instead have some type of boundary between it and the other areas, for example, perhaps a counter or strategically placed table.

The kitchen, moreover, should not be triangular but instead square or rectangular. Neither should it face directly into an adjoining room, nor should the doorway to the kitchen face the front or back door to a house since such placement encourages bad health, arguments among family members, and overall bad luck. Finally, the kitchen should not face a bathroom, since this placement encourages the spread of germs and will result in a family’s experiencing frequent aches, pains, and illnesses.

Positioning of Appliances

Whereas the stove represents fire and wood, the refrigerator and sink represent water; and since fire and water are opposing forces, negative energy, called “Sha,” is generated when either the sink or the refrigerator is directly adjacent to the stove. This is why the positioning of these three items is an important consideration when someone is either designing a new kitchen or remodeling an existing one.

The stove should not be placed between the sink and refrigerator, directly opposite one or both, or in an island in the middle of the room, that is, if the island faces either the sink or the refrigerator. All three placements indicate a lack of contentment, obstacles to financial prosperity, and domestic quarrels. Nor should the stove be positioned so that a door is immediately behind someone standing at the stove because this position creates a sense of unease in the cook.

Lastly, for good feng shui, the stove should be positioned where there is adequate ventilation and lighting, but not directly beneath either a window or a skylight because this placement can lead to poor health.

Overcoming “Bad” Feng Shui

There are steps homeowners can take to remedy the bad feng shui generated by a poorly shaped kitchen, undesirable door placement, or appliances that are not ideally positioned.

According to Raphael T. Simons, author of Feng Shui Step by Step, homeowners can create harmony among the elements and counter any negative “Sha” by doing the following:

The important thing to remember is that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and since it is, it should be designed so that it fosters good feng shui. After all, if the heart of the home is healthy, it’s far more likely that the rest of the home will be healthy as well.

The copyright of the article Feng Shui in the Kitchen in Feng Shui Design is owned by Carol Rzadkiewicz. Permission to republish Feng Shui in the Kitchen in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.