Designing Your Kitchen the Feng Shui Way

"You usually don't want a kitchen in the center of the house, which might happen when people in an existing house with the kitchen at the back add a family room behind it," Kartar says.

When Kartar analyzed the layout of Lanette's existing house, she concluded that it increased the risk of kitchen accidents. She recommended changing the location of the kitchen in the new home, replacing it from the risky location of the house to a less-used closet and washroom.

"We repositioned the kitchen," Lanette says, "and put the sink by a window, which, within our compass reading, is good."

She reports that the new arrangement works wonders: "The window over the sink is open to the sky, and the blue of the wall matches the blue of the sky. There's a high feeling to it, an open feeling, and I love it. It's such a difference."