Week 4: Bedroom Construction

This week I focused my effort on the construction of my miniature bedroom. I spent a good bit of time collecting my supplies at the beginning of the week, choosing fabrics and materials for the floor, walls, windows and door. I settled on foam board for my walls and floor because it would be easy to cut to appropriate dimensions. I decided on basswood for my door, window and picture frames because its a natural material that i can cut and sand to the shape desired. I read in my feng shui book that surrounding yourself with natural materials can help with the flow of the chi of a room. I had already chosen my color pallet so I selected a few selections for wall paper using scrapbook paper.

Once I had all my supplies ready to go I began the construction process, I referred to my previously drawn plan for the room and layed out all the furniture to make sure my measurements would work and I had everything done to scale… I then began by first measuring out the floor, and cutting my materials…

The next step was to lay the floor. I had purchased a bit of contact paper (usually used in your cabinets and drawers) making sure my proportions were correct I cut and then carefully laid the floor of my bedroom.

As I said earlier, my book recommends for optimum flow that it is important to surround yourself with natural materials. I decided it was most cost effective to choose a material that represent a natural material giving the appearance of wood in my model. Once I had my floor down, I measured and cut my window’s, making sure they were directly centered in the wall and would be the same size on both walls. I then began creating the frames for the windows. Using basswood, I measured, cut, glued and painted the frames. Choosing a calming yellow color to accent the walls and furniture. I made sure to paint the inside of the window wells giving them a professional look. The next step was for me to create the drapes for my frames, since I chose yellow because of it’s calming properties so I decided to stick with that color for the drapes. I believed this would help tie the comforter and painted furniture together.  It was finally time to attach the curtains to the window frames. I had also been working on some of my art work while I was waiting for the window frames to dry. I decided to make one large piece of artwork accompanied by some smaller pieces to even out the room.

Once I was finished with the windows, I moved on to the door. I read in my book that for proper feng shui it is important that all your door ways are equal size. This improves the flow of the room in turn helping with health and wellness. The author understands that not all of us will be able to design our house and offers options to help someone in an apartment or who moved into an already developed house, I decided to make some problems in my model that I could then fix using the author’s suggestions. I deliberately made my closet door a quarter of an inch larger than the width of my door way. I also decided that it should protrude out into the room creating a structural corner. This corner was going to be placed in what is known as the wealth corner of the room. I read that this could be fixed by placing a 40mm crystal on a nine inch red string from the ceiling. Once I had crated the closet using basswood, measuring and sanding it down, I then painted it white. I also created a door, made from blue fabric to compliment the walls, furniture and artwork.

It was now time to cover the walls with wall paper, I had to measure and cut the paper to fit the walls. Since my room is in more of a rectangle shape I had to cut numerous pieces to cover the longer walls. Once I had the paper in place and glued down securely, I worked on my door. I wanted the door to be wood but to match the floor so I covered the piece I had cut out of the foam bored and covered it with the contact paper I had used for the floor. I then glued the door on to the structure making sure to leave it open inward to the left because this was recommended for good feng shui. I finished my bedroom model by putting the finishing touches on by placing my artwork on the walls and putting my furniture in the finished structure.

I learned a lot about feng shui by creating this model. I not only learned how important the material’s are that you use but how the position of furniture and designed structures can negativity affect the flow of a room. I was surprised to learn that not only can the energy of your possessions but the energy of your neighborhood can affect the flow of your house. Everything from what you see out of your window to the people who live around you effect how you feel in your space. I found this book helpful not only in my model’s construction but also in my day to day life. I realized that everything I do on a day to day basis effect my flow just as much as the way I decorate my personal space. This book has given me great examples of positive feng shui as well as provided me with information that I was not aware of. I highly recommend reading this book, even if you don’t believe everything discussed I am positive that you will walk away with some knowledge that will improve your life.