by Elinor Gale

Photo courtesy of Ann Bingley Gallops. openspacesfengshui.com.

Are you or a family member struggling to fall asleep, or stay asleep? Are you fighting to stay awake during the day? Your bedroom may be the culprit, according to three coastal feng shui designers, practitioners of the Western Form School of feng shui.

Don’t despair! These experts offer many practical, inexpensive ideas for creating a serene bedroom that invites restful sleep.

Erica Sofrina of Half Moon Bay is an international feng shui lecturer, consultant, author and founder of the West Coast Academy of Feng Shui, where she offers intensive certificate programs and day-long seminars.

Sofrina explains that Feng Shui is “an art and a science meant to connect your inner and outer worlds. Using shapes and forms to determine energy flow, Western feng shui incorporates simple, practical concepts to create peaceful environments where every possession either brings joy or is useful in moving life forward.“

For the adult bedroom, she suggests:

• Clear away clutter!

• Use earth tones or soft pastel colors.

• Place the bed facing the door but not in direct alignment.

• Keep any workspace separate from the bedroom.

• Avoid sharp edges.

• Don’t keep exercise equipment, sprawling plants or cactus in the room.

• Drape the TV or large mirrors, if they must be there.

• Avoid beamed ceilings or use a canopy; avoid sharp-edged ceiling fans overhead.

For a child’s bedroom:

• Clear the clutter; update or eliminate toys.

• Create covered storage areas.

• Use calming colors.

• Avoid sheets with action figures or monsters.

• Place the bed in the same position as an adult’s bed.

A child’s bedroom should be “calm and serene, like a big stuffed animal caressing the child.” Save the bright colors and action motifs for the playroom.

Feng shui designer Diana Zamudio, of eco6design in Half Moon Bay, combines a feng shui perspective with environment–friendly materials to create balance and harmony in a client’s surroundings. Zamudio also teaches green design programs for her former feng shui teacher, Sofrina.

Zamudio says: “Feng shui is the flow of energy. It’s about balancing our environment to bring balance into our lives. We want to be surrounded by good energy and positive affirmations, starting with things in our home. Balancing the feng shui elements — earth, fire, wood, metal and water — will create amazing results in your environment.”

For the bedroom walls, Zamudio recommends using non-toxic paint in soft, restful colors. “Paint can off-gas for more than two years. Mythic paint is the only truly non-toxic paint sold,” she says. It has a lifetime guarantee and covers in one coat.

She also suggests combining green design and feng shui by using cotton or bamboo bedding from plants grown without pesticides. Bamboo is spun into thread and made into “stunning sheets, pillowcases and comforters, softer than cotton but just as beautiful.”

Shannon Del Vecchio, of Pacifica, is an interior designer who discovered feng shui principles while living in Japan in the early 1990s. She says: “Most of my clients are looking for more balance in their lives. They appreciate sophisticated design but are also craving spaces that resonate for them on a deeper emotional level. Feng shui is the art of creating spaces that support people’s life intentions, on both a practical and energetic level.”

In her blog, Del Vecchio offers these suggestions:

• “Ensure that the room is very dark. The best window coverings for bedrooms are Roman shades or curtains, lined with blackout fabric. Despite its name, blackout fabric is usually white or ivory.”

• Use “softer, more yielding shapes. Remove heavy, dark or ominous objects from above the bed and from underneath the bed. … Make sure artwork directly opposite the bed is simple and restful.”

• If white noise lulls you to sleep, “consider getting an air purifier and running it in the evening. Two benefits at once!”

• “Diffuse a calming essential oil in the bedroom. … Better yet, take a bath in these oils to relax your body, mind and spirit.”