Office Feng Shui by Deb Eve

brownwaite_smallAh, yes. The office. That’s long been a touchy issue for me – literally, because I’m so sensitive to my environment. Anyone out there like that? You actually have to “feel” a room before you can enter it? This makes short vacations rather difficult because it invariably takes me 48 hours before I can get comfortable in most places. On the other hand, I knew that I’d found my house as soon as I felt it. I hadn’t been in more than two rooms of the place; hadn’t even set foot upstairs when I said to my real estate agent, “Call my husband. This is our house!”

Unfortunately, our charming, if drafty, old farmhouse doesn’t exactly have room for the elegant office of my dreams. In fact, my office is the little landing at the top of the stairs. It’s not even a room really, but it has great light and an amazing view of the farms, fields and mountains that surround us.

For the longest time, I pounded out FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA on a narrow old desk we picked up for next to nothing at an auction. Then my friend Tanya came to visit from Uzbekistan and told me I had the Feng Shui all wrong. Apparently, I had been facing the wrong direction. No wonder it took me so long to finish my book! I also needed a picture of a flowering tree, something that represents fire and some money over my right shoulder. I needed photos of people who supported me over my left shoulder. And for goodness sake, I needed to keep the bathroom door (at the other end of the landing) closed whenever I was writing!*

Since we didn’t have much maneuverability in my tiny space, St. John hauled out the tiny, computer cart that we’d dragged around since grad school, so that at least I could be facing in the right direction when I wrote. We got the photos, the candle, the Chinese money all in their right ba-guas. Tanya tied some red ribbons in several auspicious places. And laugh if you must – but it was shortly after that, that I sold my book.

I guess with my first book about to hit the shelves, my family thought it was time for me to have something a bit nicer to work on than the flimsy old computer cart. For Christmas I got a lovely bamboo desk of my very own. It took some looking to find one that fits the tiny space and keeps me sitting at just the right angle. But we were certainly NOT going to mess with good Feng Shui!

eves-officeSo now I am contentedly (if just a bit coldly) sitting at my beautiful new desk, nested perfectly into the corner with a gorgeous – at the moment, snowy – view out my window. Perhaps when I sell my next book, I’ll buy that matching bookshelf I’ve had my eye on. And who knows? Maybe when FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA hits the New York Times Bestseller list, I’ll finally get a real office. It’d have to be facing in the right direction though. I am NOT about to go messing with good Feng Shui!

~Deb Eve

*Note: The Feng Shui advice given here was carefully discerned in consultation with a compass, my date of birth and possibly an intermediary who talks to the dead (hey, it was in Russian, so I can’t be exactly sure). For the Feng Shui advice that will move your life along, consult your own funky friends!

P.S. Rhonda Lane and Helen K – you two are the lucky winners of last week’s contest in celebration of POSED FOR MURDER! Send your mailing addresses to Eve@thedebutanteball.com so we can get your prizes to you.

8 Replies to “Office Feng Shui by Deb Eve”

  1. I like your little nook of an office! Nice view. I think that’s one reason I flee my own office so often is there’s so little natural light. It’s on the back of the house and because we have a walk-out basement level, it happens to be right under the garage with one tiny window, which itself is underneath our deck. Maybe I need a nice lamp instead of the anemic overhead light!

    I’ve thought about splurging on a new desk, too. The one I have now I was using as a high school student in my bedroom and has been missing pieces for years.

  2. I love your view, Eve! I’m afraid what a feng shui consultant would say about my space… I did get a space clearing once, and I loved how he rang bells and sprinkled flower petals everywhere.

  3. I think it’s hilarious that we all freeze for our art!

    I’m afraid to check out the feng shui of my office. I’ve rearranged the furniture about a billion times, and it finally feels right. Then again, maybe I nailed the feng shui without knowing it. I did remove the dead plant, which is definitely a step in the right direction.

  4. I think my office needs a full-on exorcist at the moment. But your office is perfectly lovely. I think the best writing spaces are the little, tucked-away corners. And I like your desk!

  5. Ohhh, the new desk et al…looks really nice…and the view Eve, that is why your house felt right, you walk in the door and see right out the other side to the fab view. Just feels right.

    Ummm… Tanya and Feng Shui…this is cracking me up. I think you need to consult our Chinese expert, Josh.
    Love you.

  6. Thanks all. I actually think a lot of Feng Shui is making the space feel good – so Katie, you may finally have the Feng Shui just right. Marsha, keep the bathroom door closed AND the toilet seat lid down. Really, that’s a Feng Shui basic rule. I’ve been known to walk around friends’ houses putting down the toilet seat lids!

    Larramie – you might be surprised to learn that it’s not the windows that let the cold air in – it’s the walls! The windows are nicely insulated new windows. It’s the leaky old – non-insulated walls that are the problem. But like I said, it’s a drafty old house. We’re warming it up … bit by bit.

    But yes, ladies, we freeze for our art! And we all hope that someday our art takes off so that we won’t have to freeze anymore!

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