happy new year! and this week's designer's pick

A great way to welcome the New Year is by clearing out the clutter and revitalizing your home with symbols of new life and growth. This week's designer's pick is our beautiful earthenware buddha mural, shown here installed in my entryway niche. The entryway is where I started my New Year decluttering. In Feng Shui, the entryway is considered the "mouth of Chi," or the place where all energy and nourishment enters the home. Here are a few common-sense ways to create a more harmonious and beautiful entryway, whether to "enhance the Chi," or simply to create a feeling of welcoming and serenity for all who enter your home:

• keep clutter out! even a small entryway can feel spacious when it is clean and clear.
• keep a vase of fresh, seasonal flowers on a table. I change my flowers weekly, and keep them in a Terra Home Plum Blossom vase; the plum blossom is a symbol of new life and hope.
• add a tabletop fountain, to enhance the flow of energy and create a soothing sound. I made a very simple and inexpensive fountain for our entrance from a big ceramic bowl filled with beach stones, into which I put a small submersible pump.
• keep a candle burning in your entryway while you are home. I use a tealight in a decorative bowl (show below).
• images and symbols of helpful beings, from human role models to deities, protect your home with their positive energy.
• use your imagination and enhance this important space with anything you feel brings more light, life, harmony, abundance, and spaciousness into your life!