Interview with Katherine H.

Q: What made you decide to work with a Feng Shui Consultant?

K.H.: My husband and I moved into our house nearly two years ago.  It’s definitely a work in progress, and while we had already made a number of improvements, it felt like something was just off about the energy of the home.  We had our realtor and a contractor come and give some feedback, but I got the idea to look for a Feng Shui Consultant almost on a whim.  While I know a number of real estate agents work with Feng Shui Consultants, as a homeowner I found the experience extremely valuable, and actually fun!  I plan on using Francoise again when it comes time to sell our home and purchase another property. I also recommended her to a family member who is planning an addition, since Feng Shui can also be used to consult on building plans.

Q: What is it like working with Francoise?

K.H.: Francoise is very charming and fun to work with. She is extremely thorough in the visit, and attentive.  The process is pretty straight forward. Before the visit she requests a floor plan, birth dates of those living in the home, and the address. I also prepared a list of issues my husband and I wanted to address in the house, both overall and room by room, as well as some career challenges. I initially thought that the onsite visit would be the most interesting part of the process, but it was actually the phone call where we went over the results of her analysis that was my favorite part of the consultation.

Q: Do you have to believe in Feng Shui?

K.H.: I asked Francoise if she thought we could work well together if I was interested in Feng Shui, but my husband was skeptical of it.  She assured me that she works with a number of clients just like us.  For me, it was helpful to think of Francoise like an interior decorator who also addresses energy flow. She has a fantastic eye, and really helped me narrow down on what improvements would make the most impact. It is so easy to get overwhelmed by all the things that can be changed and done to a house.

Q: What did you most like about the process?

K.H.: No one has the budget to do everything. Having Francoise helped me focus and simplify my approach, and actually saved me money by helping to prioritize improvements, work first with what could be rearranged, and when a purchase was necessary (and there were fewer than I thought!), help select the right one rather than wasting money on something I later decided didn’t work.

Q: What types of changes did you implement?

K.H.: One thing I really liked was that the improvements Francoise recommended did not require a big budget.  None of them involved renovations, though she did offer some guidance for when we were ready to redo the kitchen or the bathroom.  She recommended adding a water feature, which I had wanted to do anyway, but by focusing me on where it should go and what features it should have she helped me avoid over thinking which one to buy and where it should go.

To balance the fountain, she showed me where we should place some landscaping boulders.  This is an improvement that I really like, but without the encouragement from Francoise I would likely not have gotten around to finding them, picking them out and having them delivered.  I need to get an electrician to install a plug outside for the fountain, but most of the improvements were relatively inexpensive and easy to implement. For example, she encouraged us to get a headboard, and I ordered one online and assembled it myself.  She also recommended I hang a curtain to block the view of the washer dryer that is in the hallway. That project involved ordering some inexpensive neutral curtains from Ikea and installing a closet rod to hang them on.  We added some colored glass to the fireplace we don’t use, and some candle holders. It looks really nice and we had several comments when friends came over.

Francoise also provided alternative furniture arrangements, options to switch the uses of rooms, and recommended that we move a few small tables out, which actually helped the place feel most open and cost us nothing. We actually made a lot of changes when you include things like using the front door more, keeping the toilet lid down, and moving the bathroom trash can to a less visible location. Yet I would say there was only a handful of what could be considered major changes. I made most of them in a week, but it’s been about a month and I still have a few to go.

Q: Did you need to change your wall colors and paint?

K.H.: No, we actually didn’t need to do any painting, except in a hallway where we had a color that we weren’t wild about and had already painted over in another room.  I was glad that paint color wasn’t the focus because the prospect of repainting several rooms and moving furniture would be daunting.  Her recommendations were much easier, less labor intensive, and frankly more fun to implement.  You can do Feng Shui on a budget, even with a consultant. Don’t let that scare you off.

Q: Who do you think should use a Feng Shui Consultant?

K.H.: I think anyone would benefit, but the consultation is really helpful if you have reached a point where you need some additional motivation and guidance to make improvements in your home, or you are feeling overwhelmed by what to do next. I had just completed a huge decluttering of the house (and actually still had some work to do in our office), and this process gave me renewed energy to help me focus and power through that.

Q: What benefits have you realized as a result of using Feng Shui?

K.H.: First, our house just feels more peaceful–my husband especially likes the new energy. I really enjoy my fountain, and the house looks much nicer thanks to the minor improvements

we made.  Skeptics may say it is just coincidence, but we also quickly saw some financial benefits.  My husband suddenly started getting more work–both his regular business and the writing jobs he does on the side. They both picked up pretty quickly after we installed the fountain, the boulders, and the headboard.

I also managed to sell my old car in two days for close to the asking price without even having to list it!  Most importantly, we finally got renters for our back unit.

We had two applicants qualify, then drop out at the last minute in the weeks before the consultation, but we now have a signed lease and our tenants moved in today!  The consultation has more than paid for itself, both as a result of the increased business, and the fact that the consultation made me more selective about what we needed to buy for the house.