Is it good to have a mirror facing your front door?
No, in feng shui’s reading: a mirror straight across from the front door turns chi back out the moment it arrives, before it has settled anywhere. Hang it on a side wall of the entry instead, where you pass it rather than meet it; until it can move, cover it with a plain cloth.
Does a mirror face your front door?
Send one photograph from just inside the front door, looking in. LuckMove answers this question first, with the line from the door to the mirror drawn on your photograph, then reads the rest of the entry.
The door takes chi in; the mirror sends it back
Feng shui calls the front door the mouth of the house. Whatever the home takes in arrives there first, and the entry just inside is where that chi is meant to slow down, turn a little and gather before it moves on through the rooms. A bright, clear entry that turns before it opens does exactly that: it takes chi in and keeps it.
A mirror is the one thing in a house that sends back whatever stands before it. Hung straight across from the door, it meets arriving chi head-on and returns it the way it came, before it has rested anywhere. Feng shui calls this turning chi back. The tradition reads it as money turned away on the threshold, and many people feel the small start of walking into their own reflection every time they come home.
Feng shui keeps an old rule of thumb for mirrors: to the side, never face-on; tucked away, never on show. On a side wall the same glass takes in the light and the room without once looking back at the door, and you pass it at an angle instead of walking into yourself. Feng shui holds that a household whose entry gathers chi this way feels at ease the moment it steps inside. Where mirrors go, room by room →
What to look for at your front door
Come home the way you always do: open the front door and look straight in. If a large mirror hangs on the wall across from you, or at the far end of a hall in line with the door, you meet yourself as you step in, and so does the chi; that is the layout feng shui warns against. A mirror you only catch from the side as you walk past is not.
Does a mirror face your front door?
Send one photograph from just inside the front door, looking in. LuckMove answers this question first, with the line from the door to the mirror drawn on your photograph, then reads the rest of the entry.
That file doesn’t look like a photo. Choose a JPG or PNG of your entryway.
This iPhone photo (HEIC) won’t open in this browser. Send it from your phone, or save it as JPG first.
How to fix it, in order
Take the mirror off the wall across from the door and hang it on a wall to one side, where you see it at an angle on the way in. The wall beside the door frame works as well: a mirror there looks into the home, never back at the door. Adhesive strips rated for its weight spare the wall a new hole.
Some entry mirrors are fixed to the wall, or too heavy to move this week. Until then, drape a plain cotton or linen cloth over the glass, in a quiet color that suits the wall. Under cloth, a mirror sends nothing back, and the door is left to do its work.
With the mirror out of the door’s line, give the entry the look feng shui likes best: bright, uncluttered, and green in its brightest spot. A pet-safe evergreen in a heavy pot that cannot tip puts something living right where chi first arrives. A bright, open entry →
If you have cats or dogs
The entry is where the dog waits for you and the cat comes to inspect your shoes, so its plant has to be safe for both. Parlor palm (Chamaedorea elegans) and money tree (Pachira aquatica) are on the ASPCA list of plants non-toxic to cats and dogs. Snake plant, pothos and jade plant are on the same list as toxic, so leave them out.
ASPCA, Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants
Questions people ask
That is exactly where feng shui would hang it. On the wall beside the door frame, or on a side wall you pass at an angle, a mirror looks into the home and never back at the doorway, so chi comes in past it instead of into it.
Something that welcomes chi instead of returning it: a bright entry with shoes and boxes put away, and a screen or a turn in the path so the whole home does not show from the doorway. A pet-safe evergreen in the brightest spot finishes it. A bright, open entry →
If the hall runs straight in from the front door and the mirror closes its far end, you still walk into your own reflection, and so does the chi: the rule applies. If the hall turns first, or the mirror hangs on one of its side walls, it does not.
Feng shui keeps the same habit through the whole house: a mirror goes beside a door, never across from it. Facing a bathroom door it sends that room’s stale air back into the home; facing a bedroom door it turns the room’s chi back out, as it does at the front door. Where mirrors go, room by room →