Why aesthetic homes don't necessarily equal good Feng Shui

News flash - a house can be drop-dead gorgeous and still feel oddly hard to live in. 

I've been working on some truly stunning homes recently, and noticing a pattern: the photos look perfect, but the Feng Shui often isn’t. 

When the floor plan is designed to be “unique” or when everything is open plan with very little structure, the energy can feel turbulent and unsettled even if the décor is immaculate. 

I talk about the concept of a spotless show home, and how that pushes so many of us into comparison on social media, straight into overwhelm and ultimately into taking zero action. 

You’ll hear practical Feng Shui tips you can use right away, plus an honest example from my own “wealth corner” where a few small repairs would lift the whole feel of the area. 

If you want a home that feels calmer, clearer, and easier to live in, subscribe, share this with a friend who’s stuck in comparison, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Lots of love,

Speak soon,

Rachael xx

Join my new programme, Feng Shui Foundations for just £27 - click here to learn more

Did you know that the energy in your home shifts each year? You can find my 2026 Home Energy & Crystal Guide here

Download my free guide to your home's energy map here: The 9 Energy Areas

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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Myth

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Everyday Feng Shui podcast. I'm Rachel and I'm a modern day Feng Shui consultant, and I'm here to show you how to use the energy of your home and your own personal energy to create a life that you absolutely love. So let's jump right in.

Why Pretty Homes Can Feel Wrong

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hello and welcome back to the Everyday Feng Shui podcast. So today I want to talk about why aesthetic homes don't always equal good Feng Shui. Because I think there is a misunderstanding that in order to have good feng shui, you have to have a show home. And I can assure you, I can assure you that that is not the case. So I have been working recently on some absolutely, I mean, beyond beautiful homes, homes of dreams. But what I would tell you, so if I put a picture of these homes on my Instagram stories, I am quite confident that many, many people would look at them and think, oh my goodness, that must just be amazing to live in a house like that. Now, don't get me wrong, these homes are stunning. However, when you actually get into the nitty-gritty of them, a lot of them don't have very good feng shui. And that is from a design perspective. So from a floor plan layout, trying to make you know the floor plan unique and interesting, which obviously adds to its beauty, but from a feng shui perspective, it doesn't add much at all and sometimes makes things a little trickier. And then from a kind of decorative and layout perspective, sometimes they're not great either.

Open Plan And Turbulent Energy

SPEAKER_00 2:07

A lot of these absolutely gorgeous homes are very open plan, which basically means that in each of the spaces that you spend your time, you have got lots of kind of the energy is kind of all interacting together because it's not it's not separated, it's not compartmentalized. So that can make things feel very turbulent in these houses. Also, it can add to the feelings of, you know, like there's space rattling around and that that everybody's just a bit kind of unsure of what to do because there's no structure. Now, beyond that, there is obviously the layers of the energy from when the house is built and all of those sorts of things. And again, quite often that's that's not great, and that's not specific to it being an aesthetic house or a house that's been built in order to kind of try and create certain feeling, that's just because all of our homes are built and all of our homes hold this different energy.

Comparison Spirals And Perfection

SPEAKER_00 3:12

So, sort of my point today from having worked on these homes this week and also having had conversations with people who live in very different homes, who have said to me, There's just no point in me leaning into Feng Shui because my kids are young, or I don't know where to start because there's just so much stuff, and you know, that's what I suppose my message is today is that if you are looking on Instagram, which is what so many of us do, and being dragged into that kind of place of comparison, which then leads to quite often the feeling of, well, there's no point, there's no point. I can't, it all feels too overwhelming, and so I'm gonna do nothing. And that's a really normal feeling when we've got such you know, or when we feel like we've got such a mountain to climb, actually, it often feels like there is just no point.

Surface Fixes With Biggest Shifts

SPEAKER_00 4:14

What I'm wanting to kind of get across today is that very, very often the very surface layers the the you know, the very surface changes that we can make with Feng Shui. So I'm not even talking about energy as in remedies or elements. I mean those very surface layers of the onion, those quite often are the ones that give the biggest shifts for people. Because very often it is the mental load of our home that's adding to the energetic weight of it. So if you have got a home that just doesn't have great energy, and you wouldn't know that, like you wouldn't, when you go and look around a home to either buy it or rent it or whatever, you know, you probably aren't aware of the energetic load of it, whether it is good or bad. And you know, every home has tricky combinations. I am yet to work on a single home that I've looked at the floor plan and gone, oh my goodness, this is just phenomenal. There is nothing wrong anywhere. And, you know, I think we need to bear that in mind is that we're we're never punting for perfect because you can't make perfect. Perfect doesn't exist. It's not possible, but we can always make improvements, and that's what we're looking to do. So when you walk into these homes or your home that you own now, and you you know, you you might not have, you might not know, and you might still not know whether that underlying energy is mostly positive or mostly negative, or if it's you know, potentially contributing to the things that you're experiencing in your life. But if you have got a home that's got tricky energy, it is so much harder for you to live in that home in a really positive way. Like that, it make your home energy makes it harder. So if you leave the home energy as it is, and we don't make any tweaks to it, it's going to be harder for you to kind of keep things clear and flowing and feel good in your home. In saying that, if you are aware that it potentially is impacting you, you can then have a very different outlook upon yourself. And this is leaning into this sort of mindset work that I'm really kind of like buzzed about at the minute, is you know, if we have that awareness that actually, hey, maybe my home isn't helping me, that gives you a very different outlook on the way that you are managing the home that you live in and your existence within that. Because not that it gives you a free pass, it I don't mean that at all, because obviously I very much believe in taking action, aligned action, and maintained action and it all being manageable, not overwhelming ourselves, all of those sorts of things. So I'm not saying it gives you a free pass and say, well, it's the house, I can't, I can't take any responsibility. I'm saying the exact opposite. What I'm saying is if you then think, okay, well, maybe, maybe, maybe my home is having an impact on how easy it is to feel good here, what else can I do? If I'm not in a position yet to be able to change and shift and tweak that energy on an energetic deep level, what can I do to improve things? And there are always things that you can do to improve things, and actually, I'm thinking of creating a new kind of um free, I don't know, what I might call it, seven days of Fenjui, possibly something, I don't know, something that can take people from that feeling of I don't really know what this thing is that I've heard of, and I don't really know where to start, and sort of walking people through that over a seven-day period. I'm not sure. It's just sort of, you know, one of those things that's floating around in my mind at the minute. But I think it can be very easy to look at these homes that are absolutely stunning, you know, these beautiful, glorious designs, and think, well, just you know, no wonder their life is wonderful because their home is wonderful. Actually, a lot of the time, energetically underneath, it's not the case. Now, what usually is different about those homes, though, is that on a surface level, they tend to be in better flow. So if I was to say to you, or if you're listening to this and you're thinking, you're describing me, so I live in a very normal house and things just feel really hard, and I'm not in a position yet to maybe not in a position yet, but also maybe you're not deep and deep enough into Feng Shui to feel that it's aligned with you yet to have the sort of deeper energy of your home looked at. There are always things that you can do to improve how the energy that is already there flows, and regardless of what energy is already there, if you can make it flow better, everything will start to shift and move more easily in your life.

Broken Items And The Mental Load

SPEAKER_00 9:26

So, for example, if you have a look around your home, how many things do you have that are broken or cracked? So, I will give you examples from my own home, which is I mean, I laugh, but this is why I just I could not be anything other than completely honest and authentic because you know it makes I want everybody who listens to this not ever to to be in the position that I have been in so many times where I'm listening to people talking about changes that they've made in their lives or amazing things that they do, and sitting there thinking, well, it's alright for you. It's alright for you because XYZ, you know, I want to be, I want to be real, like I want to be real, and I do live in a fairly normal home. We are very lucky, but you know, ultimately I don't live in a mansion and it's got children and dogs and fingerprints, and I have to mop the floor every single day because of the amount of mud and dirt that's bought in, and you know, it's a normal, normal house. And in our kitchen, our the as suck the edge of our kitchen is our southeast area, so our money, our money zone, our wealth zone, and in that space alone, I have got let me think, I'll go through it as as I'm talking. So I've got a tea caddy that has got a crack and a chip in it, and I could very easily replace that, couldn't I? I should probably go and replace that, but I never remember. So that's there. I have got a windowsill that is after where are we? What year are we in? 2026. So three and a half years is still unpainted. I've got skirting boards that after three and a half years are still unpainted. I've got chips out of sections of the wall where the Hoover's gone into it and all those sorts of things. So this is all in my southeast area. Now, even if I didn't know energetically and you know what what was going on underneath in that space, I could look at that and say, do you know what? Those are some fairly simple, fairly simple and fairly accessible tweaks and changes that I could make to lift that area and improve the general energy flow. So I don't know why I've not done it. I'm gonna add that to my list for the weekend. So I suppose my point is we can all sit here and we can all look at these incredible houses and we can all spend time on right move or whatever the estate agent or real estate is where you are in the world, and we can look at these dreamy homes, and we can think when I, when I, you know, if I could live there, things would be better. When I live somewhere like this, if I had a house like this, everything would feel better, everything would be better. And what I am so passionate about, and I am trying to invite as many people to do as possible, is to make the best of the home and the situation that you are in now.

Small Actions That Change Everything

SPEAKER_00 12:32

And that doesn't mean spending loads of money on on DIY, it doesn't mean repainting, and it doesn't mean getting a man in to, you know, to put your skirting ports back on or fill the holes. It means doing what you can within the resources that you have to make improvements to the space and within the time that you have, okay? Because, you know, I'm sitting here as a mum of three with two dogs and a business, and one of my children has got extra needs. I don't have a huge amount of time to be making those changes, which is probably why I haven't replaced my tea caddy and I haven't painted my skirting boards and I haven't painted my windowsill. But you have to compartmentalize it into what is achievable for you because I guess for me, the danger of doing nothing, you know, at some point the reality of sitting and dreaming of things to change becomes more uncomfortable than actually taking a small bit of action to try and make the changes and try and move forward towards what it is that you want. And that doesn't always have to be massive grand gestures, it doesn't have to be huge every single time, it can be as simple as getting some white paint and painting a windowsill or getting some filler and filling that hole in the wall that's been annoying you for however long. So it's about the awareness of your home. So before you sit again, whenever you might do and think, or you know, you scroll Instagram and you look at these amazing homes, or you go on to write move or your real estate, and you you know you start looking at these dreamy, dreamy houses. Have a look at what is surrounding you and what you could change.

Feng Shui Foundations And How It Works

SPEAKER_00 14:21

So I've just launched, I've just finished the first cycle of a new service that I was launching a few months ago, which is called Feng Shui Foundations, and I love it. I've act I really, really love it, and I might make some tweaks as the as the rounds go on until I'm a hundred percent where I want to be with it. But it's essentially a an introductory kind of six-week program delivered via email and via video that takes people through the whys and the hows of Feng Shui. So it goes through the history of Feng Shui, it talks about the theory of Feng Shui, how we've come to work with the bagwa map, it talks about the science of energy, I talk you how through how to map your own floor plan, and I talk you through things like energy in your home, how we can improve the flow in your home, how we can improve energy of each room, so specific room layouts, and then I talk about the elements themselves and how they interact with each other so that you can walk around your own home and just get a feel for whether you think there's very anything very obviously out of balance. So, within that program, I'm gonna try something new, and I don't know whether it's going to stick for future rounds, but I'm going to try running it alongside a Telegram group or a Telegram channel possibly to start with, where I am going to just put some downloads of things to be aware of in your home over the six-week program so that by the end of that, not only will you have the knowledge that you then can understand why certain things in Feng Shui are the way they are, why we do things a certain way, and you can kind of lean into the science and the neuroscience of it a little bit more. You also hopefully will actually have some big shifts in in your like reality, in your real in what you can see in your home from this this telegram channel. So I'm going to be launching that. So if you're listening to this before the 10th of May 2026, then there will be a link to this program in the show notes below. It's £27 for a six-week delivery. And then I don't know whether the Telegram group will make it into future rounds or not. But my plan at the moment is to run the program every other month at the beginning of the month. So we'll see how that runs. But my aim with Feng Shui Foundations is everything that I've spoken about in this podcast today is to try and help you improve the energy that already exists. You know, not everybody is ready to, or ever will want to, you know, a lot of people don't even want to go there, they don't want to go into that deeper level, and that is absolutely fine. There is, you know, there is there is a version of Feng Shui for everybody ultimately. And that is the point of Feng Shui Foundations is that we we look at the energy that is in existence, we don't we don't learn it, we don't tweak it, we don't touch it, but what we do is we make it flow better. So we make what is there already there work as well as it can work. So if you're interested in that, then the link is going to be in the show notes below. And I'm yeah, I'm just really excited about it because I think it's a really lovely way of being able to get as many people as possible, as close as possible, to a home that feels like it's in really good flow. And you know, I genuinely believe that if you find yourself in a tricky time or you know, or or life just generally feels overwhelming, I think making those surface shifts actually can have a really, really big impact. So if you feel like joining me on that one, then do click on the link below if you are here before the 10th of May. If you are listening after the 10th of May 2026, then it may take you to the wait list, which if you want to add yourself to the wait list for the future rounds, then that's absolutely fine. I can't guarantee if there will be a telegram group for future rounds, it's just this one for now, so I can run it as a test

The Grass Is Not Greener

SPEAKER_00 18:52

run. But yes, I just wanted to leave you really with you know, we can all get dragged into this comparison and looking at these gorgeous, gorgeous homes and thinking that the energy must be absolutely fantastic and the feng shui must be phenomenal. And I just wanted to say, from experience of working on these homes, these gorgeous, gorgeous homes, that that's not always the case. And I often think that a lot of the people that I work with who have these amazing homes come and have they want to understand why things don't feel great when they live in such a beautiful aesthetic home. And so that's what I want to leave you with, really, is don't think that the grass is greener on the other side at all. If you want to join me on Fain Shui Foundations, then the link will be below. I'd love to see you in there, it would be amazing. And I hope wherever you are that you are happy and that you are healthy and that you are well, and I will speak to you really, really soon.