Where To Put Your TV, According To Feng Shui Experts

You purchased a new flat screen but you have no idea where to hang it. Over the fireplace? Beside your family portraits? Maybe across from the couch? You could trust your instincts and hammer that first nail, forever damaging your expensive paint job ... or you could just leave the design intricacies to the experts.

The words "feng shui" technically translate to "wind water" (via The Spruce) but there's much more to this basic principle than flowing elements. In Chinese culture, feng shui is a belief that chi (or energy) is all around us and we can cultivate that energy by arranging our homes to create "balance." Harnessing energy to achieve harmony may sound like an undertaking reserved for the rich and famous. Luckily, we're here to walk you through it.

The first step to take when implementing feng shui to one's household is decluttering. We learned all about keeping items that "spark joy" from organizing legend Marie Kondo, and feng shui urges believers to follow her advice, expelling all items sitting unused in order to create a "path for light" (via Extra Space). The next step in letting your chi flow is consulting a Bagua, or energy map. You'll want each individual room in your home to correlate with one of the eight trigrams of the Bagua: Creativity, relationships, travel, family, career, prosperity, wisdom, and fame (via Bagua Center). Once you've assigned your rooms you can begin to implement the feng shui elements of design.

A living room is often used in a Bagua map to affect fame or career, which makes sense if you think about the celebrities constantly invading our televisions. Speaking of televisions, where you place your TV will have a big impact on your chi. If you want to focus on professional goals, hang your TV in the north side of the room to bring luck in a career. If you're more interested in gaining social media followers, a TV placed in the south of the living room ups your odds of reaching fame (via Extra Space).

Another television design element to consider is the TV stand. When deciding between a console or a covered media cabinet, we recommend the latter. Storing your TV in a cabinet when not in use is ideal for minimizing the negative mirror effect, which reflects clutter and bad energy. Another easy decorating tip is to use the elements wood, fire, metal, earth, and water (via Know Feng Shui). Each of these can be implemented differently, be it through furniture, plants, paint color, or even artwork (via Architectural Digest).

Once you've got your television hung and your walls a calming ocean blue, get read for the good vibes to start flowing!