Feng Shui and Back Doors
If your front door is not your main (most used) entry door, be sure to make it STUNNING. (Side note: This home is on the right track, but a half-circle doormat is never to be used outside of a home—it symbolizes your money flowing away.)
Back doors are rather essential in feng shui—they let energy circulate. Houses or apartments without a back door run the risk of having energy stagnate in the home. They benefit from a yang decorating style—sparse, yet good, design. Windows that can open make a huge difference in circulating energy in homes that don’t have a back door (or side door).
The most essential point to remember about back entrances is: Don’t use your back door as your front door—your main entrance door. When you arrive home, come in through your official front door. For many people, that’s not a choice at all—there’s one, and only one, entrance door. But in free-standing homes, there’s usually a back door. And in many of those homes, the back door (or side door) is designed to be the entrance door of those who live there. Pity that! If that’s your situation, try to use your official front door more than 50% of the time. If no can do, at least make your main entrance door charming—and at the same time keep the official front door area stunning.
If you use another (non-front door) as your primary door, make it CHARMING. (That’s different from stunning.)
There’s a big difference between those two words: stunning and charming. The more charming your side door becomes, the more stunning your official front must become. A side door (or back door) must never compete (in visual appeal) with the front door.
It’s not so bad a situation when the official front door and the main entrance door are in the same orientation. (And it’s good if the main entrance door is in the garage or carport and is not very visible when approaching the home.) Then you still have one powerful bagua map that can be applied to the home. But if the main entrance door is on a side wall or (heaven forbid) the back wall of the house, you are likely to have bit of a tough time applying the bagua map correctly. You might consider only applying the bagua map to individual rooms of the home—rooms that have only one entrance door (such as most bedrooms).
This is a big feng shui no-no. Hang a crystal somewhere between these two doors to prevent the energy coming in through the front door from shooting straight out the back door.
Back doors that are in a direct line with the front door (and are in your direct view when you enter the home) let energy out too quickly. The easiest fix for most people is to hang a crystal from the ceiling, between the two doors, and say out loud, “The purpose of this crystal is to keep energy in the home.” (Crystals always represent dispersing energy in feng shui, so the energy from the front door is being symbolically dispersed into the home, rather than zipping right out the back door.)
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Kim
April 3, 2018 5:38 amHi
I just recently came across your site as I was looking for info on water fountains and using a mirror to reflect the flow back in the home and voila there it was so thanks for that. So my question has to do with when I open my front door there is a hall closet on the left hand side basically filling in almost half the view. The only Feng shui cure I can come up with is maybe putting a poster with a faraway perspective to open it up?? What is your thought on it?!?
Thanks for your wonderful articles!
clearenglebert
April 3, 2018 7:20 amIt seems to me that you’ve got a “split view” caused by a “brick wall”. And, yes, the picture with perspective is a good cure. For good measure, I’d recommend that a coin-size mirror be put on the wall behind the picture. The shiny part of the mirror should shine toward the door (but it won’t be seen because it’s behind the picture). Say out loud (when placing the mirror), “The wall is gone—the mirror has erased it.” or words to that effect.
jessica
January 18, 2019 6:38 pmHi,
I was doing research about the feng shui situation of my house but couldnt find specific information about my feng shui problem. On the 2nd storey of my house, I have a bedroom door that directly faces (but around 7m apart) a side/back door that leads to an outdoor laundry area. My question is, does this create bad feng shui for the bedroom occupant? I know two bedroom doors should not be directly facing each other and the main door should not be facing a back door, but i couldnt find anything about a bedroom door facing a back door. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
clearenglebert
January 18, 2019 7:55 pmHi Jessica,
Yes, it does create a problematic situation for the occupant of the room, and the same thing can happen (and often does) when the door to the bedroom faces a window. The energy coming into the room can leave too quickly, without enriching the room. Hang a crystal between the two doors (or door and window). Please see page 43 through page 45 of “Feng Shui for Hawaii” for some excellent photographs and drawings showing exactly how to deal with this situation. The book is also available in digital format, and it most definitely applies EVERYWHERE. The photos were (mostly) taken in Hawaii, but the advice is good for anyone anywhere.
Tish
January 28, 2020 12:53 pmHi, I’ve been trying to find Feng Shui information about back doors online for a long time, and even in my books the information that I’m after is missing. We have a back door that opens out onto the garden from the kitchen, as many houses often do, but what is the guidance on the opening direction? Inwards, or outwards onto the garden? We are having our doors replaced and so can make the changes… If you can advise? Sadly, the current back door is bigger than the front door and almost lined up with each other, so trying different remedies to manage this situation also.
clearenglebert
January 28, 2020 3:56 pmGenerally speaking, outside doors should open inward to the house. The obvious exception is screen doors. You’re right, it is unfortunate that the back door is bigger than the front door. The opposite should be true. Page 43 through page 46 of “Feng Shui for Hawaii” (published by Watermark) go into great detail about what to do when front & back doors (or windows) are in line. I offer lots of remedies because it’s a common problem in Hawaii. The teachings in that book apply to homes anywhere—the pictures are from Hawaii.
Monette
October 13, 2020 3:03 pmHi…I am thinking of painting my front door and my back door….Front door facing North…I checked the feng shui and I painted it black (outside where you can see from street) and Red oak stain for inside since when you come in the house you will be facing South….Now I am having a struggle on how to paint my back door….The inside (back door ) will be facing north and the outside (back door still ) will be facing South…don’t worry my door are not direct line from each other. Any suggestion on what color I should paint my back door? I was thinking of painting the inside back door black or maybe stain it but not sure what color….Please advice…thanks in advance..
clearenglebert
October 13, 2020 5:06 pmI’m not a Compass School practitioner, so I never base my recommendations on compass directions. I practice Form School—there’s a BIG DIFFERENCE! (If Compass School were the only school of feng shui, I wouldn’t practice it at all.) In Form School, the outside of the front door is always painted red (if possible). The outside of the back door is painted some dull color, such as black.
snowmoonelk
April 10, 2021 10:12 amI’ve got a front door, but not a real back door, I use my side door as the back door, does that still count as a back door?
clearenglebert
April 10, 2021 1:20 pmNo, a side door is a side door and a back door is a back door. Side doors are almost never a problem in feng shui
snowmoonelk
April 11, 2021 1:36 amThank you! So, is it good feng shui that I don’t have a back door?
clearenglebert
April 11, 2021 7:07 amIt’s best that a home have more than one door so that energy can circulate—and that the second door be impossible to confuse with the main door. Other than that, it doesn’t matter if the other door is a side door or a back door. In fact, back doors can be problematic (as the article notes) but side doors rarely (if ever) are problematic.
snowmoonelk
April 11, 2021 11:54 amOh good, thank you!
Marc ayala
March 27, 2023 1:49 pmHi… my main door is not directly aligned with the back door but when i enter the main door, i see the back door.. is there any problem in that situation?
clearenglebert
March 27, 2023 4:40 pmProbably not, but there could be if the back door is partly in line with the back door. That’s a ‘split view’ and portends arguments. Or, if the back door is solid glass then energy may leave the home quickly. In either case hang a crystal over the back door (about a foot or so inside the home) and say out loud, “The purpose of this crystal is to disperse any problematic energy caused by the relationship of the front & back doors.”
mythapplied
January 11, 2022 5:13 pmI have an all glass side door (8’ highx3’wide). Unfortunately it is directly in line with the stove so when I’m cooking, it’s at my back. I’d like to embeds something as a cure in the ceiling (9’) between the stove and door, or could I paint a dragon around the door to guard my back? Should I hang a brass bell on the door? What cure would you recommend?
clearenglebert
January 11, 2022 6:20 pmHang a clear disco-ball-shaped crystal from the ceiling and say out loud that the purpose is to disperse the energy from the front door before it reaches the stove.
Laura whitney
September 16, 2022 1:15 amI have a question I have a manufactured home that has a back and front door with covered porches on each and they are across from each other. We have a carport and a walkway with a ramp that leads to our back door that we use as primary entry. We don’t use the front door for ourselves or our guests. And I’m wondering two things first; which direction of my home would I use to locate my money corner location? And also could I use 1 room of home and base money corner off that entry door?
clearenglebert
September 16, 2022 6:16 amYou have two baguas for the home—one based on the real front door and one based on the back door which is used a lot. So you have two Wealth Corners in the home. And, yes, I do recommend finding the Wealth Corner of an important room (such as your bedroom) and enhancing the Wealth Corner in that room as well.