Feng Shui & The Redesigned Oval Office

September 2, 2010

Today’s news includes an entertaining article about President Obama’s redesign of the Oval Office, in which designers and celebrities weigh in on the new design.

Feng Shui in the President's Office?

Wow -- that's a lot of brown.

How is the new Oval Office from a Feng Shui perspective?

Very brown. Very heavy. Very Earth.

Everything in the center of this office looks heavy.

In Feng Shui it can be a good thing to anchor the energy, but here it looks like it would be very tough to get new ideas off the ground: there’s no lightness to it at all.

So much Earth energy throws it out of balance in terms of the Five Elements. The dark blue lamps (Water energy) can hardly compete with all that Earth, and the apples on the table don’t provide the uplifting Wood energy that might lighten things up.

To me it now feels like the energy is stuck (and of course I have a few ideas for what Obama and his designer could do about that ;) )

What do you think?

photo courtesy of the New York Times.

Filed Under: History, Culture and the Arts|8 comments
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  • Mark Sofman

    Your post is remarkably diagnostic on a number of levels, if you ask me.

    • http://openspacesfengshui.com Ann

      Thanks, Mark! Glad you think so. Can you tell me more… which levels you mean, exactly?

  • Mark Sofman

    The levels I mean are POTUS’s political standing vis-a-vis Congress, his poll numbers, his administration’s policies, etc. Just my semi-snide way of saying art (interior design) imitates life. ;-)

    • http://openspacesfengshui.com Ann

      Yes, well — unfortunately, there it is.

      The whole thing needs a bit shake-up in Feng Shui terms, and perhaps….

  • http://igniteyour.com Tanya

    I couldn’t agree more with what you said about it feeling heavy. Who the heck designed that space and what did it cost the rest of us? Umm and ugly furniture!

    • http://openspacesfengshui.com Ann

      Thanks for your comment, Tanya.

      Apparently it didn’t cost the taxpayers anything; there is a foundation of some kind that pays for these makeovers. But still, there seems to have been a conscious effort to keep costs very low, and as a result in some ways it’s come out looking like someone’s basement den (in my mind, at least). Too casual for such an important and visible room.

  • http://catherinehilker.com Catherine

    I see a fair amount of metal with the white trim, oval shape of room, rug & “logo.” I also see a fair amount of wood in the striped wallpaper which circles around the room.

    • http://openspacesfengshui.com Ann

      Hi Catherine, thanks for commenting.

      Yes, you’re right, the elements of Wood and Metal are present in the room. But to my mind the uplifting effect they need to have is weighed down by all the Earth elements: squares, browns, yellows, vast expanses of flat surfaces….

      All the Metal elements you mention have probably helped with decision-making in this room over the past century or so. Metal is the one element we can count on here :)