Stairway to Failure: Use Feng Shui to Fix Front Doors that Open to Stairs
This is a common issue I see in many homes.
Forces at Work
Front doors should never immediately open to a stairway. It’s a common reason for financial failure. I always advise my home builder clients against them and my homeowner clients to remedy them.
Here is the problem as it relates to Feng Shui: the gravity force of Qi (pronounced “chi”) energy coming down the stairs is greater than the incoming Qi from the door.
This symbolizes the loss of income and wealth, but also impacts all aspects of Feng Shui. Whether you are the home builder or the homeowner, this is bad news.
Remember that the front door is always the Career & Life Path area of your home.
Feng Shui Cures
Now, I have solutions for home builders when I work with their designers.
But, what if you already own a home with such stairways or are seriously considering buying such a property where this is the only flaw? Certainly remodeling to move the stairs isn’t practical.
The cure is to hang a crystal or a wind chime from the ceiling halfway between the base of the stairs and the front door. The effect of this is to diffuse and spread the Qi as it comes down the stairs. You need to prevent it from rushing out the front door with the incoming energy along with it.
By the way, if there’s more than about twelve feet of distance between the door and stairs, the issue isn’t as severe. It doesn’t hurt to still remedy it, though.
Next Steps
Find out more about the Feng Shui consulting I provide for home builders and homeowners.
Have you noticed income problems in homes with a front door opening to the stairs? Leave your comments below.
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I built a new house in that stair case is facing front door, my front door is big with double door;in btw the stair and door long living room, above the stair facing the main door window also present did there is any problem for my house plz reply
Try adding some window treatments (blinds and curtains). Also, try adding some crystals between the bottom of the stairs and your door. Up-lights will help push energy up your stairs.
What should b done which door should b used as entrance to home or can v have a big rectangular mirror on the door which is facing the stairs going down. pls guide.
If you live in a townhome or a condo, you should focus on the unit’s front door as much as you can. If the main front door to the building is not welcoming, then maybe it’s time to join the HOA and suggest some changes.
How do you define front door? I live in a townhouse and honestly the “front door” is hardly if ever used. Mostly we (and guests) enter/leave through the garage door or the sliding glass door on the side of the house. The sliding glass door faces east, going clockwise from there is the “front door,” the garage door entrance–in direct alignment with the glass door, and the stairway which is slightly off center but across from the “front door”
The front door is where the builder put it as an intended front door.
Hi Jessie,
I came across your website when I was searching for Feng Shui tips regarding a staircase positioned directly in front of the main door with only few steps of distance to it. On top of that our main door is facing another main door of an opposite house but I feel like its not directly aligned.
We are just about to finalize the purchase of this house and then I realized this feng shui ordeal.
Should i put mirrors on both side of the door.. Front and back? Then your advice to everybody a red rug just at the bottom of the stairs. Can i hang a wind chime right at our main door or it should be in between the main door and the stairs. Then on the wall leading up to the staircase we should hang some.pictures or paintings?
I would really appreciate your feedback. Im getting bothered with this now. I dont all the chi going out of our new house.
Thanks so much..
Without seeing the space… if the doors line up, the staircase faces the door, and if the space allows it, a red rug or a wind chime between the door and stairs will do the trick. With the mirrors, you have to be careful with what is reflected. With wind chimes, make sure they are 6 metal rods.
Hello , I am happy to find your website I will move to one bedroom apartment and the main Intrench is in the back and there is wall facing the main door between them maybe 3 or 4 feet so the door just open ,, is that bad in fung shui and if so how can I solve that or better to find different apartment ,, thank you
If that is the only option you have, then you can try to draw the energy or people to your front door by putting up Welcome signs from the front of the house to lead to the back, to where the front door is. Make sure to make the front door area bright and welcoming as much as possible such that when they do try to find it, it is easy for your guests and mailman to find your door. Remember, if the mailman can’t find your front door easily, then energy can’t find your door easily either.
Hello
If the stair go straight to the toilet, any thing to fix the problem
Make sure to keep the bathroom door closed, keep the toilet lid down when not in use, and you can put a crystal in the bathroom above the toilet and/or put one on top of the stairs to deflect the energy from going straight into the bathroom.
Hello Jesse 🙂
We are renting a home that has a staircase aligned with the front door. The bottom stair is only 40 inches away from the threshold. When opened, the door barely misses the bottom baluster. The stairs are steep, they go straight up, without a landing, to the 2nd floor. After reading this post, I’m going to get a red rug and would like to hang a crystal – or multiple crystals. I was even thinking of hanging a curtain of beads at the 3rd or 4th stair. Would this be overkill? Thank you!
Depending on the space you have, if it’s too tight and the ceiling is too low, then it might be overkill to hang that many crystals. If it looks tacky, then it’s not good Feng Shui. If you want, you can also hang lights on the stairs to lead the energy up the stairs.
Hello Jesse,
We are moving in new house on February. Can you help me what should I do if I open the front door, 4 meters away there is a wall already and that is washroom. They are not facing each other but my worries is the wall. Do you have any suggestion
Hello Leslie,
If it’s the wall you are worried about facing as soon as you open your front door, I would place a nice calming picture or painting of wide open space that you would like to go visit on that wall, so blank wall is not the very first thing you see when you walk through the front door.
Our stairs is in the middle of our house and I read it’s bad feng shui. Please tell me what to do.
Just having a staircase in your house doesn’t mean that your home has bad Feng Shui. We live in a world there are multi-level homes. It’s all about being able to push the energy up to the upper floors. Depending on how much space you have, you can hang a nice attractive light fixture in the staircase to draw the energy up. Keep the staircase well light. Also you can place a red mat or mat with red in it at the bottom of the stairs so it keeps up energy up and not draining down.
My neighbors stairs to their front door is right above my front door. I plan to hang a wind chime to the side of my front door. Is that enough and is that the correct placement? Thank you for your help.
I don’t know how much space you have but aside from the wind chime, I would also place some tall plants or sansevieria (Mother In Laws Tongue) around your front door area to help “push” the energy back up.
Our front door is facing the stairway going upstairs. However the front door is 17 feet away from the first step. The stairway to go to the basement is right behind the stair way going upstairs and that faces the backdoor. So we have front door, stairway going up, stairway going downstairs and then a back door all in a straight line. Since there is quite a bit of room from the front door to the upstairs stairs, we put a cubby shelf to block the path. The cubby shelf does not have a back to it so you can see through it. In the cubby holes, we put vases, crystal bottles, etc. I also put a plant on top of the shelf and next to the shelf. Is this good enough? I’m concerned since there is still plenty of space from the top of the shelf to the ceiling and also the shelf has no back to it so the chi can still go through it?
Also regarding the downstairs stairs facing the backdoor. We have two back doors. We do not use the one that is facing the downstairs stairs because we though it was bad feng shui. It is a glass door but we have blinds covering it. I also put a plant in front of the door. Is this ok or do you think we need to totally remove the door and dry wall it?
It sounds like you have some space to work with, maybe a nice light fixture to lift the energy up as well as night pictures or paintings along the walls to create a slower flow into the living space. If the back door being covered up doesn’t look good in your living space you might need to change it to a wall but you don’t have to. You can keep the door closed and covered night nice window treatment so it doesn’t look like you are trying to hide anything but you are decorating it, this might work better. I’m sorry, without actually having seen your whole space, I can’t give detailed remedy, I hope it makes sense. Thank you.
I have recently moved into a basement apartment and the front door opens into a decending flight of stairs. Ever since I moved here, terrible things have been happening. Is it bad for the front door to open directly into decending stairs? How do I fix this? Thank you!
You have to create something that attracts your attention down the stairs to slow down. You may need to hang a mirror at the bottom of the stairs to push the overwhelming energy that is rushing down into your space as well as slow down that down energy with some artwork or pictures of places or people you love and enjoy so you have something to enjoy looking at going up and down the stairs.
I have a front door that when you open goes into a hallway to our kitchen and dining room in the back of the home. However to the right of the entrance we have a stairway down to the basement. The basement stairs are not in the direct line of the front door but only if you walk in and go toward your right.
I would make sure to direct the energy or view of the person walking into your home to follow the path to your living space. It can be done with your family pictures long the wall, light fixtures down the hallway, plants along the hallway, rugs, if your space allows it. Think of using your items like a street sign, directing your guests and family members to the space you want them to go to.
What can I do to help or correct the feng shui with a stair case that is In the middle of the home ?
If it’s not lining up with anything auspicious you can attract the energy up with hanging a nice, pretty light fixture to attract your attention up and/or if you have wall space for pictures I would put up pictures along the walls to attract the energy up as well.
You can contact me at [email protected] if you need more personalized consultation to see what we can do to help.
Are the 3 6 9 measurements for Crystal size or length apart or length from the ceiling?
Thank you!
The measurements are the length from the ceiling.
Hello. What kind of crystal should be used at the bottom of the stairs?
Thank you
If you are trying to remedy a doorway that opens to your stairs, I would suggest a crystal like this (https://amzn.to/3BwvsgX).
Hello. Our house has stairs outside leading up to the main door that opens to the second floor, directly facing the stairs going down and stairs going up the the third floor beside it on the right. Both stairs are in the middle of the house. Can I use crystals?
Yes, if you have the space for a red mat at the top and bottom of the stairs, you can use that as well as crystals.
Thank you very much. Do I need to put anything on the side of the door facing the stairs outside? And can I just put chandelier with crystals instead of hanging a crystal ball? Thank you.
Greetings again, Richard! Unless there are other issues outside of your house that I’m unaware of (T-intersection, cul-de-sac, etc.), there should be no need to do anything special outside of the door for your stairway issue.
The crystal chandelier is a fantastic, although more costly, alternative to a crystal ball. Good thinking!
Hello, our front opens to the south, when you open the door the first thing you see is a wall with stairs leading down to the basement which is open concept and right behind the front door is the stairs leading up to the main floor we have a sloped mini wall that’s about 3-4 feet between the stairs. We also have a high ceiling & the space between door and stairs is 4 feet, we also have storage underneath the stairs is there any remedies we can do for this ? We Would greatly appreciate the help 🙂
Hi, Tanya! There are a lot of specifics in your comment. Better and more specific recommendations can be provided with a virtual consultation so I can see your space. In general, you could line the walls of the stairs leading up to the main floor with family pictures, as long as they do not directly face the front door. You can also use a red rug to slow the energy that leads to the basement. Best of luck!
Thank you and more power to you!