One way to go about making sure your front door helps your house to feel more like a home — and maybe even bring a little more positive energy and luck inside — is to follow some basic feng shui principles.

What is Feng Shui?

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese philosophy or doctrine that focuses on balancing dualities such as light and dark. Adherents believe good feng shui leads to a more harmonious, pleasant home and that it can also lead to a more personal success and well-being.

One of the principles of feng shui is the concept of yin and yang. In Chinese philosophy, yin represents the feminine, intuitive energy and yang represents a masculine, logical energy.

A Few Basic Principles of Feng Shui

Feng shui practitioners use a compass or bagua to help design an interior space or element, such as a front door. The bagua helps with the proper placement of items relating to the five various “elements” of feng shui: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth.

Each of these elements can be represented in a constructive or destructive mode. For example, in its destructive form, water extinguishes fire but in its constructive mode, it helps wood (plants) grow. Neither mode is good or bad, according to feng shui principles. They’re both required for a balanced world, home, and life.

Your front door is literally the entrance into your living space and the first impression visitors get of your home. In a sense, it sets your home’s “intention” and gives you an opportunity to express what your home life is all about. It’s also the source of your home’s “chi,” or life energy.

That makes the front door an important focal point in feng shui, and worth a little attention.

Simple Tips to Feng Shui Your Front Door

Start by taking a stranger’s view of your home’s entrance. Stand outside and walk up to your front door, then through it while maintaining as objective a perspective as possible. What feeling does this walk-through leave you with?

Next, clear the clutter. “A place for everything and everything in its place” could very well be a feng shui guideline! If there are any elements there that don’t bring you joy or add to the beauty of your entranceway, either remove them altogether or consider replacing them with more attractive and functional options. Decluttering the area of dead plants, empty containers, and anything unnecessary will help open up the flow of positive energy into your home.

Consider giving your front door a fresh coat of paint, preferably a bright, cheerful color. You might even want to explore the associations specific colors have with feng shui concepts, such as love, money, luck, and more.

By the same token, make any small repairs or cleanup jobs necessary to spruce the door up. Cracked glass, dulled hardware in need of a polish, accumulated dirt and grime can all dam up the flow of good energy, according to feng shui.

Add a tall, healthy plant to your entrance area. Healthy growing plants in general are seen as luck-enhancing in feng shui. Just make sure the plant doesn’t block the entranceway or the path through the door, as anything that hampers energy flow isn’t a good choice!

Finally, add some charm and color to your front door and entrance area with a cheerful new welcome mat and a small statue of a meaningful figure — a guardian angel, perhaps, or a laughing Buddha. Figures such as these bring protection to your home, feng shui experts believe.

Help the good energy continue flowing into your home by cleaning and sprucing up the items and furnishings in your entryway, according to feng shui principles. For example, you can add a small water fountain to the right side of your door if you want to bring in good luck every time the door is opened.

And if you’re looking to incorporate more feng shui into your home, check out our Easy Feng Shui Tips for Your Kitchen.

The right containers can help you maximize use of tightly configured spaces, and depending on the container you choose, might even make a more portable choice than the traditional flower bed approach.

IDEAS for gardening with Containers

What you grow in your new container garden will be determined by other factors, such as available soil, shaded versus light, moisture levels, and of course your own personal preferences.

Start by evaluating the need for additional drainage in your container. You might need to enlarge existing holes or add new ones. For larger containers, consider simply adding a layer of rocks and placing small containers on top, which you can hide with artful arrangement, some potting soil, and the right plants.

You’ll also want to evaluate your available sunlight and choose plants that will thrive in that amount of light. Then plan to group plants with similar light, nutrient, and moisture needs together in the same container.

Finally add the right nutrients to your potting soil mix. Don’t forget the fertilizer!

You can always buy expensive pots and containers from your local garden or home store, but you can also exercise a little creativity and choose found items to express your individuality and personal taste.

And as for those containers, allow yourself to get inspired by these creative suggestions …

Galvanized Steel Wash Tubs

There’s something simultaneously sophisticated and rustic about using galvanized steel wash tubs as plant containers.

You can find tubs and buckets of galvanized steel in lots of places, including hardware stores and home repair stores.

Another creative container choice: old file cabinets or chests with two to three drawers.

Whether you go with a slightly rusted-out version, or take some spray paint to a newer model, you can find a drawer-based option that appeals to your aesthetic. You can see other variations here at The Micro Gardener.

Bird Cages

Bird cages make great containers, whether for trailing vines or succulents, such as in this example from Empress of Dirt.

Kid’s Wagons

Fix your kid’s old little red wagon, either as the container itself or a container for other pots. In fact, any kid’s wagon will work.