Placing Contemporary Dining Room Furniture
Contemporary dining room furniture is an important part of every home today, whether or not Feng Shui principles are applied. It is important that care is taken in choosing your contemporary dining room furniture, not only so that it matches the remainder of your decor, but so that it promotes harmony and stability in your household. In Feng Shui, we seek to promote balance in all rooms of the house, and the dining room, containing contemporary dining room furniture, is no exception.
There are a number of Feng Shui specific considerations you should be aware of when purchasing or arranging contemporary dining room furniture. The first is the purpose of the dining room – the main focus of the dining room is to dine as a family, and therefore the centerpiece of the room is always the dining table. Any other contemporary dining room furniture should be considered secondary when it comes to Feng Shui placement. The dining room table should ideally be round (symbolizing earth and stability), or octagonal. Failing this, pick a piece of contemporary dining room furniture that at least has rounded corners, and compensate by utilizing an octagonal centerpiece on the table, or octagonal placemats.
Dining tables such as this one here are ideal for Feng Shui purposes.
The table itself should be placed in the center of the room, with an even number of chairs around the table. No chairs should restrict doorways, and there should be ample space around the dining table and chairs (don’t clutter up with contemporary dining room furniture!). In ancient China, some observations were made around seating arrangements which can still be practiced in the modern day. In the family of the day, the father and mother would sit at opposite ends of the table, with the youngest son on the mother’s right, eldest on the mother’s left. Similarly, the youngest daughter on the father’s right, eldest on the father’s left. Of course, in today’s society, this arrangement has changed somewhat and should be appropriately modified to suit the peculiarities of contemporary dining room furniture.
If you prefer a more modern-looking dining piece, consider this table here, or this one here.
Any contemporary dining room furniture you purchase should not be dark, heavy or old. This type of furniture typically blocks the flow of qi, and is not really contemporary dining room furniture. The same goes for time pieces and the sort – they have no place in the dining room amongst the contemporary dining room furniture. The dining table itself should be wooden – a light wood such as elm or pine if a casual feeling is required, or a dark wood such as teak or mahogany if a more formal setting is required. Any overhead lighting (chandelier, fan or light) should be centered over the dining table, not any other piece of contemporary dining room furniture.