Combine Hardwood Floors and Radiant Heat for Greater Feng Shui

Radiant heating for hardwood floors can add to the feng shui of your home by combining fire and wood, two elements in feng shui--the ancient Chinese art of determining the optimum design and placement of a building or room to achieve maximum harmony--to improve the look, feel and energy flow throughout your home.

The five natural elements of feng shui are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. When these elements are balanced, they can bring harmonious energy to a room. If you find yourself using a specific room less than others, or avoiding it altogether, the elemental balance may need some adjusting, advises Stephanie McWilliams in “The Elements of Feng Shui.” “Be on the lookout for rooms made up of only one or two elements. By adding in objects that represent those missing elements, you'll be well on your way to creating a balanced and inviting room,” she says.

According to feng shui, a home or room that is well balanced has at least one of each of the five elements within it. There is additional harmony by combining elements appropriately as each element feeds and sustains the other in perfect harmony in what is known as a “Nourishing Cycle.” . Water sustains wood; wood feeds fire; fire makes earth; earth creates metal; and metal holds water.

Because wood feeds fire in the Nourishing Cycle, the two can be strategically combined in the home, by including radiant floor heating. “When you combine them together, you can create a particularly welcoming wintertime environment,” says Amy Chini of The Western School of Feng Shui.

Each element is designed to bring specific traits into the space. "Each element invokes a different mood, creating a customized space that's beneficial for your personality and goals,” says McWilliams. What do wood and fire bring to your home? She shares that wood “harnesses the power of creativity and expansion while representing traits such as growth, birth, strength, flexibility, and intuition.” The amount of wood should be balanced, she adds. Too much can be seen as overwhelming, rigid, stubborn and inflexible, while too little can show up as a lack of creativity or depression, ambivalence and stagnancy.

Wood floors also provide a balance of yin and yang energy. While some surfaces (tile and granite) are considered to be yang in nature, others (carpet and rugs) are more yin. Yang energy is more active, moving, and modern; yin emphasizes quiet and coziness. Hardwood floors provide a pleasant balance between the two, according to author and feng shui consultant Tisha Morris.

Including fire in a room increases enthusiasm and leadership skills and encourages expressiveness, inspiration, and boldness. “When there's an overabundance of fire, it can show itself as anger, aggression, irritability, and impulsive behavior, whereas too little can show up as emotional coldness, lack of vision, inexpressiveness, and a lack of self-esteem,” explains McWilliams.

The right amount of fire, such as the soothing and welcoming warmth of hardwood floors with radiant heat, will draw your family or guests to those rooms.

When determining if your hardwood floor will have the best feng shui, Rodika Tchi advises the following:

1) The direction of the floor boards conducts energy coming into the home, known as Chi, either out of your house or keeps it in the house. “Be wise and do not let the energy escape, help it stay in to explore and nourish your house!” Tchi says. For example, when installing hardwood floors, you can lay the boards the width of the room, the length of the room, or go for something non-traditional like diagonal installation or unique patterns. In feng shui the boards are placed to direct the energy. The main “bad” feng shui flooring layout to keep in mind? Installing wood boards down the length of a narrow hallway that ends in a window, or another door so that Chi moves straight out of the window, “which will make your house starve for good feng shui energy,” Tchi describes. “Good feng shui is all about inviting, channeling and keeping this energy inside the house — happy and strong,” he says.

Flooring represents your foundation, so make it strong and sturdy. WarmlyYours Radiant Heating creates radiant floor heating systems specifically designed for hardwood floors. We recommend working with manufacturers who create high quality products that will be most conducive to hardwood floor heating. This will add to the harmony and balance you’ll experience from installing a system. Just contact us to learn more.

2) Choose the color of your floor with intention. “Colors and shapes [of the wood] are expressions of the five feng shui elements, so be sure to choose the quality of energy that works best for you and your family, as well as for the feng shui area you are considering,” Tchi says.

There are a lot of nuances to combining elements, which are represented by the natural elements, shapes and colors (fire is represented in bright orange, red, and yellow colors, and sharp angled points, while wood is represented by using actual wood, plants, and the colors brown and green). It is best to do research or consult a feng shui expert to achieve the desired results. Use a consultant who has gone through a comprehensive training program and displays skill, understanding, and professionalism in the practice of feng shui. The Feng Shui Society provides a list of helpful questions to ask when choosing a consultant. While feng shui can be a detailed, intricate art to master, the simple combination of fire and wood can start you on your way toward balancing all the feng shui elements in your home and creating a warm, inviting environment that attracts friends and loved ones.

Have you designed a radiant heated floor around feng shui principles? Share your story, send us photos on the WarmlyYours Facebook page, or tweet us at @WarmlyYours. We’d love to hear from you!