Corrections without demolition

Most homes are not built to Vastu, and almost none can be rebuilt for it. What practitioners do instead is balance: bring the use, weight, light and colour of each zone closer to what the tradition asks, in a sequence from the easiest change to the hardest. This lesson gives that sequence and the honest limits of each step.

First, measure

Before any correction, draw the zones over the plan with the floor-plan tool and check with the compass. A large share of Vastu worries are about rooms that turn out to be in a neighbouring, acceptable zone. A kitchen "in the north-east" is often in the east; a bedroom "in the north-east" is often in the north. Measure, then decide.

The six corrections, in order

1. Swap. Change which room is used for what. The master bedroom and a child's room trade places; the study and the store trade places. This is the most powerful correction and costs nothing. Most flats have one swap available.

2. Shift. Move the activity within the room. The stove to the east wall, the bed to the south wall, the desk to face north, the safe to the south-west corner. Lessons 8 to 11 are mostly shifts.

3. Lighten. Clear the north-east and the centre of weight, clutter and waste: boxes out of the north-east store, the dustbin out of the corner, the centre of the living room left open. Light, air and cleanliness in the north and east are the tradition's practical core.

4. Weight. Add weight to the south and south-west where it is missing: a heavy wardrobe, the bookshelves, the overhead tank, a raised floor or a thicker wall if you are renovating anyway.

5. Colour. Paint or furnish each zone toward its element: earth tones in the south-west, warm reds and oranges in the south-east, blues and whites in the north-east, greys and whites in the north-west, yellows and greens in the centre. Colour is the lightest correction and is applied last because it changes least.

6. Close. Keep the doors of toilets closed, cover mirrors facing the bed at night, screen a toilet or kitchen wall that faces the pooja with a curtain or a partition. Closing is for placements that nothing else reaches.

The common cases

Placement	Correction, in order
Kitchen in the north-east	Shift the stove east; face east; lighten the corner; blue or white in the corner
Toilet in the north-east	Keep closed, clean and dry; ventilate; lighten the rest of the zone
Master bedroom in the north-east	Swap with a south or west bedroom; else shift the bed to the room's south-west
Staircase or toilet in the centre	Lighten everything around it; keep under-stair space clear; it is otherwise structural
Door in an unfavourable pada	Threshold, light, nameplate, maintenance; shift the door within the wall if renovating
Overhead tank in the north-east	Move it when the tank is next replaced; meanwhile lighten the zone below

What corrections do not do

They do not change the plan. A north-east kitchen balanced by every item above is still a north-east kitchen, and the tradition reads it as balanced, not as corrected. They do not guarantee outcomes; no placement does, and this course makes no such claim. And they do not require buying anything. The objects sold as remedies, pyramids, yantras, crystals, salt bowls, are a modern market around the tradition; the texts ask for direction, element, weight, light and cleanliness.

Where Vastu meets your Kua number

The Kua number from the numerology tools gives you personal favourable directions from Feng Shui. Where a Kua direction agrees with a Vastu zone, choosing that spot for your desk or bed satisfies both. Where they disagree, the Vastu reading is the home's and the Kua reading is yours; practitioners who use both let the home's fixed rules win for fixed things (kitchen, toilet, entrance) and the personal direction win for movable ones (where you sit, which way you sleep).

The course in one paragraph

Find north and the centre. Name the zone of each room by its bearing. Put fire in the south-east, weight in the south-west, water and prayer in the north-east, movement in the north-west, and keep the centre open. Judge the door by its pada, not its side. When a room is in the wrong place, swap, shift, lighten, weight, colour and close, in that order. Measure before you worry, and buy nothing.

Calculate yours

Try the calculator this lesson explains.

Floor plan image

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Choose a photo or image of your floor plan to begin. A phone photo of a printed plan works.