Feng Shui & McMansions

Photo via Houzz by Paula Grace Designs, Inc.

I was recently skimming through The Long Emergency by James Kunstler and I see this term: “lawyer foyer.” I’d never heard of that, but I wondered if it might mean what I thought it meant—and sure enough, it does. It refers to a two-story foyer, often with a staircase, and sometimes with a double staircase. (I’ll say right here that double staircases are horrible feng shui—a person is given a meaningless choice. “Should I go up these stairs or those stairs?” They both go to the same place. The symbolism is that meaninglessness will play a part in your life.)

McMansions almost always have “lawyer foyers,” and McMansions, in general, usually have horrible feng shui. I’ve never been to a McMansion that didn’t have an interior bathroom—and that is the absolutely worst thing I know of in feng shui. (A “center bathroom” is any bathroom that doesn’t touch an outside wall, and they portend disease, divorce, bankruptcy and even death.)  McMansions are also famous for more square footage than the residents need—and that symbolizes emptiness, possibly an empty life—a life wasted. McMansions are rife with fake architectural details—things that meant to suggest something grand, but are actually less than grand.

Fake anything in a home to starts to say artificial relationships and wealth. The more fake things in a home, the more it says artificial relationships and wealth. Several years ago, I consulted for a couple with an impressive stone balustrade around their back patio. I thought it was stone, until I tapped it with my fingernail and was shocked to realize it was foam plastic.

I have a feeling that the proliferation of overly large homes with center bathrooms was a factor in the 2008 real-estate crash. When you get a bunch of people living in homes (built with fake objects) with center bathrooms, it does not bode well for the fate of the nation. You could not pay me to live in a McMansion!