The positioning of bathroom is one of the most difficult decisions in designing a house. Bathroom is a yin Qi area and it belongs to water element in Feng shui. It can be divided into two parts-the bathing area and the toilet or WC area. It has draining and flushing functions and handles human wastes. It washes and cleans us both physically and emotionally and eliminates waste products from us. In older times when modern day flushing and plumbing techniques were unavailable, the toilets were placed far away from the house and bathing areas also placed away from the house near some water source for the sake of cleanliness. But now a day with modern systems bathrooms are designed in the house itself.
Location of bathroom: All the eight direction/ sectors corresponds to specific human aspirations in feng shui as pointed out in the bagua map below and each sector is very important for a good life.. As the bathrooms are connected with flushing placing it anywhere shall affect one or the other part of life. It is a very difficult decision for any house maker. Generally in feng shui the bathrooms are avoided in South-West sector which is the sector of family, marriage and romance love life.
A happy married life and cordial family relations every family dream off. The other sector which is avoided is South-East being sector of wealth. Nobody wishes his money go in drain. There is also a big no to placement of bathroom in the Centre of the house which is also called yin-yang point as it destabilizes the energy in the whole house. The centre of the house should be as open as possible for good flow of chi in the house and all around luck and especially in this period of 8 in Feng shui which will end in Feb, 2024. Thus while deciding the location of bathroom the owner of the house has to take a very vital decision that which aspiration is more important to him and with which he can compromise.
Some important tips for location are:
- A bathroom should not be placed on the upper floor above kitchen. In feng shui the stove in the kitchen symbolizes health and family wealth and its element is fire.Water energy of the bathroom extinguishes the fire energy of the kitchen and thus endangers the wealth and health of the family. If this situation cannot be avoided move the stove at least 10 feet away from the waste pipe of the toilet.
- Avoid placing a bathroom above the bed room as the contaminated qui of the bathroom wrecks havoc on the relationships of the occupants.
- A bathroom should not be placed above the main door as the emanating energy from the toilets contaminates the benevolent qui that enters the house making it sick and devoid of good luck.
- Avoid bathroom in the front hall, facing / near the main door. As the house cannot reap the benefit of the chi entering the house. It will be flushed out of the house by the bathroom or the contaminated qui will circulate in the house.
- Avoid placing bed in the bedroom in such way that on the other side of wall which it shares with bathroom is having toilet flush tank. It brings many sleeping disorders to the occupant.
Note in Advance feng shui formulas like Flying star, generally the bathrooms are located in those sectors where stars are inauspicious to suppress bad stars. For calculating this very experienced Feng shui experts are required.
In Classical feng shui the toilet is regarded as bad Feng shui and the Geomancers regarded that it should NOT be placed in the following positions according to the Chinese horoscope symbols: Horoscopic sign of Position of toilet the head of the family to be Avoided Rat North Ox North Tiger North Rabbit East Dragon South-east Snake South-East Horse South Goat South Monkey South-West Rooster West Dog North-West Pig North-West Designing / Decorating /Maintenance of Bathroom After selection of location the next part of designing, decorating and maintenance of bathroom starts. The three basic principles for this are: Clean, Organised and Fresh Air.
A well organised bathroom design is shown in the picture below:
- The WC and the bathing area should be as far as possible and should be separated by some partition/ curtain.
- The WC should not be visible while entering the bathroom. If bathroom are attached with the room and the bed faces the bathroom door create some visible division between them.
- As far as possible keep water pipes and drains confined to one wall of the bathroom as depicted in the picture below.
- The doors of the bathroom should remain closed all the time and the toilet seat always down when not in use.Closing drains in your tub and sink help conserve the energy.
- The bathroom should have window/ ventilators to let fresh air in. Install a good fresh air exhaust fan and let it start all the time.
- Create aroma station in your bathroom. Choose candles, soaps, lotions from aroma. While rose and jasmine aroma attracts romance, the citrus aroma of lemon and orange stimulates imagination. The other wonderful aromas are sandalwood, lavender, yang yang.
- Introduce mirrors in your bathroom, it stimulates the good energy. It should not reflect your whole body while sitting on WC. The mirrors to be kept sparkling clean.
- Keep minimum cosmetics in the bathroom as it creates sense of insecurity. Further get rid of fashion magazines or tabloids from the bathroom as these make you feel that you will never be rich, thin or beautiful enough.
- Bathrooms should be hidden as far as possible in the house. Placing full length mirror on the outside door makes it symbolically disappear. A very effective tip for wrongly placed bathrooms.
- Everything in bathroom should be in good working condition. The leaks must be mixed immediately as these denote money loss. No garbage or broken item in the bathroom.
- Tie red tape or red ribbon on the outgoing pipe of the bathroom to keep the energy from flowing out.
- Introduce lively wood element in the bathroom like bamboo plant. Rotate plant every week in sunlight to let it stay healthy. Some sea salt may be put in bowl as it absorbes negative energy. Do not forget to change it periodically.
- A small light should be lit 24 hours in the bathroom. Vaastu Fusion in bathroom § The ideal location of bathroom as per Vaastu Shastra is West and North-West.
The second good location is South-east. If these are attached to a room then these should be located in the above mentioned directions of the room. § The under ground septic tanks are preferred in North-West. § Location of bathroom in North-East and Centre is prohibited. § Large window may be in North while small ventilators are good in East or West. § Mirror may be put on the North or east wall of the bathroom. § WC should be in West, South or South west of the bathroom and it should be oriented North or South. It should be placed away from the bathing area. § Wash basins, bath tubs, shower should be placed in North, East or North-East direction.
The head of the bath tub should be in South. § Avoid marble flooring in the bathroom. § Door of the bathroom should be in East or North-east away from commode. § Light colours should be used in bathrooms. § The slope of the water should be in North-east. These Feng shui and vaastu guidelines goes a long way in creating the most difficult place of the house. A fusion of two can give wonderful results.