Harold's Renovation Blog: #55: What’s Feng Shui? And Are We Screwing It Up?

This week we talk about a fun new design assignment we’ve taken on (our first commercial space!) and we finally have some good news in the beach house department! We also get a crash course in Feng Shui by an expert, and learn the places in our home where we’re intuitively following their guidelines… and the spots where we’re not doing so hot: like the wrong message our bedroom decor might be sending, and how our office floor plan might be thwarting one person’s productivity. Plus we share how you can hang out with us this summer thanks to HGTV Magazine, and we both reveal an item of clothing that we’re oddly particular about getting right.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s Not

Above is a “before” of the loft office space we’re working on for the ad agency I used to work for full-time. The canine model is the office dog, Atlas.
And even though we weren’t able to make it out to Cape Charles last week to see progress in person, our contractor texted us this pic of drywall progress!!! That’s standing near the back door and looking towards the curved wall in the foyer. SOOO EXCITING!!

Updates

Above are some photos from last year’s HGTV Magazine Block Party, and we’re excited to be going again this summer. It’s August 21st in New York City and you can RSVP here (it’s free!)
We’ll be there, Joy Cho from Oh Joy will be there, Sam Ushiro from Aww.Sam will be there, Sara Peterson (editor in chief of HGTV Magazine) will be there, plus some other bloggers that have yet to be announced!
You can hear more about last year (and our first in-person meeting with Emily Henderson) in Episode #15
And here’s that statement from Ikea clarifying that the products listed on Amazon are not officially from them.

As mentioned, here’s Escape to the Country on Netflix (the “British answer to House Hunters”) as well as We Bought A Farm on HGTV, for more rural house hunting goodness.

Feng Shui

That’s Tenaya Kolar, the Feng Shui Expert and Design Consultant we spoke to on this episode
Here’s where you can sign up for her free 3-day email crash course in Feng Shui
Below is a pic an (old) picture of our office, where you can see how Sherry’s is more “in command” of the space

And in this more recent photo, you can see how we’ve added a mirror above my desk to reflect the area behind me (since we stole the painting that was there for the bedroom).

And in this pic of our bedroom, you can see one of the “single ladies” hanging above the plant (from here).

The other one (this one) is on the opposite side of the room.

We’re Digging

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

As promised, here are just some of the black one piece bathing suits Sherry tried on during her hunt. #1 and #6 are the ones she ended up keeping, and she shared a few notes for other small-headed short gals in the graphic above.
And if that weren’t enough fashion advice for one episode, here’s the plain, close-fitting baseball cap that I’m sporting these days. I got it in navy (it doesn’t look as “distressed” as it does in the sales pic) but will probably go snag either the black or the green one too.

Also, if you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to DAP for sponsoring this episode. Hit upDAP.com/YHL to learn more about DAP Products and you can find more tips & tricks by following them on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest (they’re @DAPproducts in all those places).