When you want to apply a feng shui bagua map to your home, you’ll need to know what to include and not to include in your map. There are a lot of rules about your home in feng shui and about what to include when you diagram your home to determine where the corners fall in your bagua map. This can often be confusing because you may not be sure what and what not to include, especially when it comes to your garage, deck, patio or porch.
Some feng shui experts say to always include the garage and others say not to.
Then there’s the case of the patio or a deck. Should they go on your home’s diagram or not?
If you’ve been confused about whether to include these features in your home’s feng shui, this article should answer some of those questions.
BUMP-OUTS
One of the concepts that I have taught in feng shui is regarding a bump-out. When you have a small feature, whether it’s a porch, deck, or patio that’s small and juts or “bumps out” from the house or is a small add-on type feature, this is something I would call a bump-out.
Bump outs are, in general, not included in your diagram.
The easiest bump-out to recognize is the small covered porch. Another source of bump-outs is often what we call a builder deck in the US, which are typically small decks only slightly larger than a patio door that provide a transition from the interior to the exterior.
The image below shows a home with a three-car garage and a front porch. The front porch is a bump-out, so it’s not included in the diagram of the home. You can see this home has been diagrammed using both a lo shu square (pink) and a bagua (purple) so that you can see the difference.
The lo shu square is my preferred method because you see when a corner is missing more easily.
GARAGE
The garage of a home can pose a variety of questions when trying to understand it in relation to your home’s feng shui footprint and whether to include it in the bagua or lo shu square. Let’s go over some of the keys to help you assess this.
Attached garage – this garage is the most common in the US, and is the type that is included as part of the house. It’s usually under the same roof and is part of the home’s foundation. This garage has a door that opens into the house, and should be included in your home’s feng shui diagram.
Semi-attached garage – this type of garage may have a small piece of roof that continues from the house to the garage, but the garage is separate and doesn’t have a door directly from the garage into the house. These would generally be considered separate and not included in your home’s feng shui footprint.
Detached garage – this is a separate building that is used for car parking or storage. These are not part of your home’s feng shui footprint.
PATIOS AND DECKS
Like a garage, patios and decks come in a variety of styles. The type we’ll be covering here are either covered or uncovered, and may or may not be included in your home’s feng shui diagram.
Uncovered patios – because these patios are often added after the home is built, they’re usually not included in your home’s feng shui footprint. However, patios are a great way to symbolically ‘complete’ a missing corner.
In an apartment or condo, uncovered patios are often a small piece of concrete slab that extends out from the building. These should not be considered part of your feng shui floor plan.
Covered patio – These patios are often part of the home’s foundation and the roof extends over them. If you have a patio that’s covered with the roof of your home, then this would be included in your home’s feng shui footprint.
Decks – in general, decks aren’t considered part of your home’s feng shui footprint and not included in the bagua or lo shu square.
PORCHES
Many homes feature beautiful porches as part of their design. In some homes, a patio will wrap all the way around a home. The defining feature, like patios, is also whether the porch is covered by the roof of the house. If it is, then the porch is considered part of the home and should be included in your home’s diagram.
However, if your porch is just a small feature that appears stuck onto the front of the house, then this won’t be considered part of your home and it shouldn’t be included in the feng shui diagram.
Of course, these are very general descriptions and your house may differ from those pictured here. For questions and further clarity, it might be helpful to have a feng shui consultation to help you to understand your home and its specifications.
