By Katy Koontz,
  HGTV Ideas magazine

"The cat litter," Lillian Threlkeld says, "has got to go." The Atlanta-based feng shui practitioner is standing in my garage, eyeing a bag of Johnny Cat that we have stashed against the wall to use when our walkways get icy.

"Your husband sees this every time he gets out of his car," she says. "Yecht! And this ladder. It symbolizes having to climb. Depressing. This wall needs something that will lift Steven's spirits instead of dragging him down."

Threlkeld is helping me balance the energy in our home - garage and closets included - through the principles of feng shui (pronounced fung shway), the ancient Chinese art of placement. Since it predates Confucius, it's hardly New Age, but over the last five years it's become a hot trend in architectural and interior design for both homes and businesses from coast to coast. Everyone from Donald Trump to the Rolling Stones is jumping on the feng shui rickshaw.

This holistic technique, which originated in China more than 3,000 years ago as a means of determining the most auspicious sites for graves, calls on ancient Chinese tools and ideas as well as a little timeless psychology.

"Feng shui considers the conscious and unconscious associations you may have with a space and the objects, and their placement, within it," explains R.D. Chin, a New York City practitioner and the author of Feng Shui Revealed (Clarkson Potter, 1998 ). For example, sharp corners and edges (termed knife edges and poison arrows) can make you feel unconsciously threatened. When they're eliminated or softened (perhaps with a plant cascading over the side of a ledge), you feel more at ease.

"It's not a magic pill. It's more a process of thinking consciously. It helps you change your space to reflect how you want to make changes in your life," Chin explains . "Feng shui doesn't change the actual situation, but it can change our minds about the situation." Intention is everything.

Chin says many celebrated designers and architects, Frank Lloyd Wright included , have shown an intuitive, if unintentional, knowledge of feng shui. "Wright's work follows feng shui principles more closely than that of any other major contemporary architect," notes Chin, "although Wright probably didn't realize it."

Channeling the Ch'i

"Feng shui is getting hotter and hotter all the time," asserts Terah Kathryn Collins , author of Home Design With Feng Shui (Hay House, 1999) and founder of the Western School of Feng Shui outside San Diego, California. "People are searching many avenues for attaining balance in their lives, and feng shui is, of course, all about balance ."

Collins explains that the basic life-force energy that the Chinese call ch'i (pronounced chee) exists in everything - people, plants, your cat, the refrigerator and even your garbage can. That energy interconnects everyone and everything in our world , and it's always changing. The premise of feng shui is that if you can channel the ch'i in a harmonious way, so it moves not too quickly nor too slowly, you'll promote good health, prosperity and happiness.

The first considerations are, not surprisingly, comfort and safety - good design elements in any tradition. "If you sit in an uncomfortable chair every day for a year," Collins says, "your entire life can be affected because the chair is connected to your health, prosperity, relationships and literally every facet of your life ."

Feng shui is also anti-clutter (bad news for my husband Steven's office), a concept Collins takes a little further. "Live with what you love," she counsels. "In feng shui, everything is alive and 'talks' to you constantly, so make sure your surroundings are giving you the right message. It is so empowering to wake up in linens you love , to put on a robe you love, to make coffee in a mug you love and to sit down at a desk you love."

Because intention is a key factor, she adds, anything with personal or cultural significance has power. For example, though an eight-sided mirror near the door signifies protection to the Chinese, an angel might have more meaning in our culture. "It's essential to honor your preferences, style and opinions," Collins says.

As for our house, the ch'i is flowing much more smoothly these days. In fact, a colorful tracing of our 5-year-old daughter, Samantha-her long hair flying and her knees bent as if in a jubilant jump-now brightens the garage wall by Steven's car .

Anyone need a half-used bag of cat litter?

Feng Shui Cures: Used to alter the negative energy of a space or to inspire positive thinking, a "cure" can stop the flow of ch'i like the circular rice-paper doors.

Ch'i: The basic life-force energy that flows around you and your living spaces.

Poison Arrows: Threatening sharp edges or points--on a coffee table, between backyards, in the placement of your living room rug--that may unconsciously make you feel ill at ease.

Practitioners of feng shui use the bagua map, pictured above, to help analyze your home. The map , which divides your life and space into eight equal areas, is superimposed upon the layout of a room, house, apartment or yard. Many practitioners orient the map with the career part of the map on the entryway into the house or room. Entrances are considered the "mouth of ch'i," where energy flows in or out.

Eager to learn how I could incorporate this philosophy of balance into our chaotic abode, I had called Threlkeld. She explained that feng shui's basic tool, the bagua map (pictured, above), divides any space (our yard, the house, a room or even my desktop) into eight equal areas , each corresponding to a different aspect of life: love/marriage/relationships, fame/reputation, wealth/prosperity, health/family, children/creativity, knowledge/self-cultivation , career and helpful people/travel.

Balancing the wealth corner, for example, can enable my bank balance (or my date book-wealth refers to more than just money) to swell. A tabletop fountain representing continual flow now bubbles in the wealth corner of my home office (Ed McMahon and the Prize Patrol, please take note), which is located in the career area of our house .

Likewise, tweaking the relationship area (the master bathroom in our house) can lead to a more harmonious marriage or to improved communication with business associates . Steven and I had already hung a print we bought on our honeymoon, and Threlkeld further suggested a pair of candles in the master bath to emphasize the "couple" concept .

This article is from the May/June 1999 issue of HGTV Ideas magazine.