A few weeks ago, the Baru team received an order for our extra tall fire-engine red dresser. Due to the covid-19 shutdowns, our bestsellers for the last six months have been mainly WFH office desks. Eager to expand our offerings beyond just office desks, we sent Baru’s art director--Hannah Jurist-Schoen--along with our delivery crew to uncover the reasoning behind this rare purchase.

What we discovered: feng shui.

Amy Skudlarczyk is the VP of Bazaarvoice, a shopper engagement platform that specializes in user-generated content to drive revenue. In highschool, her mom bought a few design books and became an avid feng shui-er. She was used to rearranging items based on energy levels, but when it came time to furnish her new West Village home, Skudlarczyk hired an expert to help.

What is feng shui?

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, feng shui is a practice derived from Taoist philosophy. It’s inspired by the cycles of nature and assumes that everything needs to exist in balance. There must be balance between yin and yang, good and evil, light and dark, day and night, nature and technology, and comfort and function. Feng shui uses a five element system, focusing on the energies of earth, metal, water, wood, and fire. And each element is associated with different qualities, colors and shapes.

According to this beginner’s guide, one of the fundamental principles of feng shui is the placement of major furniture items. These are the staple pieces that your life revolves around. A frequent cook might place more emphasis on the stove and dining table. Large families might spend most of their time gathered in the living room on sofas. And busy execs might’ve spent their 2020 at WFH office desks.

Additionally, feng shui relies on clear, open spaces. This means incorporating plenty of storage to declutter both your living space and your chi. This was doubly true for Skudlarczyk, who was coming from a spacious Texas house to metropolitan New York.

Needing to make the most out of her small West Village bedroom, she and her feng shui advisor selected pieces that would maximize utility and storage without compromising the aesthetic. And an Italian-luxury-grade gloss red dresser was just the thing.

How to feng shui your bedroom

In feng shui philosophy, your bedroom represents you and is an extremely important element of your home. So for the newbie feng shui-er, the bedroom could be a great (and easy) place to start.

There are three main aspects to bedroom feng shui are bed placement, storage, and color.

1. Bed Placement: Your bed should be in a “commanding position,” facing the door without being directly in line with it. And ideally, there is no bathroom or storage closet on the other side where your head rests. For bonus points, add a headboard for mental stability and support.

1. Storage: Plenty of storage helps to keep your bedroom clean and organized. Too many items left on the floor or under your bed may affect your sleep. You might opt for a bed with built-in storage or add a couple nightstands. And try to keep electronics and screens stowed away during the night. Aside from negative spiritual levels, electronics have been scientifically linked to sleep difficulties.

1. Color: The best colors for your bedroom furniture pieces depend on what you’re looking for in your life. People tend to lean toward the traditional earthy and grey tones of relaxation and comfort. But there exists a myriad of feng shui color options. Green is used for professional and personal growth, blue for reflection and introspection, purple for spirituality, black for mystery, and red for luck, energy, and celebration.

It’s never too late to jump on the feng shui bandwagon. But practically speaking, creating your perfect feng shui bedroom could be limited by room size and furniture availability. That’s where we come in.

Baru’s shopping platform allows you to customize every piece of furniture to fit your space, whether that’s a suburban house in Austin, or an urban flat in the West Village. You choose the dimensions, finishes and color. (We might even start a new line of feng shui-inspired decor.)

Invest in furniture that works for your home, your lifestyle and your chi, because, as Amy Skudlarczyk phrased it, “Making sure that your space is usable and feels good is more important now than ever.”