How to Bring Happiness To Your Home?

Happiness and prosperity were on Tamara Meadow’s mind even before ground was broken on her custom home in Connecticut. So she brought in consultant Alex Stark, a feng shui expert based in Beverly Hills, California, who also provided advice to Ms. Meadow for two New York City apartments.

“We’re all masters of our own destiny, but there are things you can do such as feng shui that can help you on a level we’re not all aware of,” said Ms. Meadow, 54, principal of Tamara Meadow Interiors in New York City. “Besides, it can’t hurt.”

Feng shui, a traditional Chinese practice, is meant to bring positive energy into a space and remove negative energy, said Bree Long, senior vice president of sales and marketing for etco HOMES, developers of One Coast, a luxury townhouse community in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Etco HOMES worked with Feng Shui Master Zhi Wang, a global consultant with practices in Hong Kong, Macau and the U.S., to review the setting and architecture of the homes at One Coast to ensure they have good energy and will bring prosperity to the residents.

“Feng shui is about the flow within a space, which doesn’t necessarily mean an open floor plan,” Ms. Long said. “You want to have a seamless flow of energy from the public living areas to the private spaces. If there’s negative energy, you can create neutrality through the placement of furniture and by augmenting or editing items in the home.”

Incorporating elements such as earth, fire, water, wood and metal can create positive energy and harmony in the home, according to feng shui principles.

“When you optimize a home with feng shui, you want to focus on the individuals in the home and their priorities,” Mr. Stark said. “For some people we focus on wealth, careers and leadership. Other clients are more concerned with optimizing their health, family, relationships and community.”

In her New York apartment, Mr. Stark recommended that Ms. Meadow include lucky bamboo trees to help her husband’s business thrive.

“The building orientation wasn’t ideal, so Alex had me create a little altar in a niche to restore the balance of energy,” Ms. Meadow said. “It’s a way to connect with spiritual forces and to avoid stress. I have some family photos there plus incense to represent fire, a seashell to represent water and a rock to represent earth.”

Sadie Lake, owner of Sadie Lake Interior Design Studio in Spokane, Washington, uses feng shui as a way to understand the energy in a home.

“Feng shui can be used to enrich our ability to transform a space beyond looking beautiful,” Ms. Lake said. “Think of your house as holding a body of water and visualize where the water would flow and where it would stagnate. Think about how you want your space to flow and then use furniture, plants, mirrors and objects to transform it so your home feels like a respite from the world, a place where you feel protected and nurtured.”

Using the Natural Landscape for Good Energy

At One Coast, Mr. Wang found that the setting with the Santa Monica Mountain Range behind the homes and the Pacific Ocean in the front provides positive energy for residents.

“The mountains envelop and hug the community, which provides a sense of security,” Ms. Long said. “The shape of the mountains is like someone reclining, so that adds relaxation and serenity. The natural element of the ocean water is also positive feng shui.”

Individual buyers at One Coast can hire Mr. Wang for a private consultation if they wish. He also evaluated a model townhouse in the community which is now sold.

“Mr. Wang aligned the artwork along the hallway to the guest bedroom to provide good energy for guests,” Ms. Long said. “The back patio is oriented toward the mountains, which provides a fortress-like feeling of protection and privacy. This townhouse also has a roof deck which Mr. Wang said is oriented for positive energy with a view of the mountains on the left and the ocean on the right.”

Adapting to Individual Needs

While Mr. Stark provides feng shui consultations for developers, offices, schools and healthcare facilities, individual consultations for residences from city condos to custom estates offer the opportunity to provide an optimal living environment for the clients’ specific needs. He charges approximately $10,000 to $15,000 for a simple feng shui analysis on a home. Occasionally, Mr. Stark works on the same property several times for the same client and sometimes for different owners.

“There’s no such thing as generic feng shui,” he said. “I consulted on a home 15 years ago for an entrepreneur with a young family. The entrepreneur had a small workspace in the basement, so we moved his office to the ‘wealth corner’ of the house by replacing a guest suite with an office, a library and a separate entrance. We brought in a brassier feel with stone and metal and glass to give it a more powerful presence.”

Years later, the new owners of that house hired Mr. Stark.

“They are retired, so we converted the office suite back to a guest room and brought in wood and natural fibers and created a softer, plush area with several sitting areas,” Mr. Stark said. “Their priorities were relationships, health and serenity.”

Mr. Stark analyzes the orientations of a residence and the optimal compass directions for individual members of the household based on feng shui principles.

“The first couple needed southeastern energy, so we wanted the space to be as bright as possible, especially in the morning,” Mr. Stark said. “The second couple needed southwestern energy, so we closed off the space with trees and drapes.”

The traditional belief is that eastern energy is good for growth such as in business or for conception, while western energy is good for consolidation of the marriage and family, said Mr. Stark. Northern energy provides tranquility, while southern energy provides clarity, he said.

“About 60% of the time the home is already built, so we analyze the floor plan and the site plan to see where the energy comes from and manipulate it to match our clients’ priorities,” Mr. Stark said. “When we work with an architect at the schematic stage, we can do more to hold onto the positive energy and get rid of the negative energy.”

At Ms. Meadow’s Connecticut home, which is still under construction, Mr. Stark found that while most of the site and design were positive for feng shui, a U-shaped entry courtyard created diminished potential for partnerships that could have a negative impact on the family’s relationships.

“We buried quartz crystals along the perimeter of the site and hung wind chimes inside the walls to offset the negative energy,” said Ms. Meadow. “Alex was concerned that the direct alignment of the front door with these massive tall windows at the back of the house would accelerate the passage of energy through the space, which would lead to stress, constant activity and struggle.”

The solution is to place an oval table with flowers or a plant with round leaves to disperse the energy before it reaches the back of the house.

Correcting Dysfunction

Ms. Lake has redesigned kitchens that feel cold and lack the right energy to encourage family and friends to gather.

“An all-white kitchen can feel austere, so we bring in plants, colors and texture or change the stone from one that feels cold to one that adds warmth,” said Ms. Lake. “In one home, the range was placed in the natural pathway people would use to move around the kitchen. Once it was moved, the energy and flow in the kitchen changed completely.”

The stove, primary bed and desk are important power centers for every household, which makes positioning those items important.

“You don’t want the desk to be placed so that your back is to the entrance to the room because that sets you up for lies and deceit,” Ms. Meadow said.

Placing the bed, desk and stove in the “command position” can bring greater success and strength to the heads of the household, according to feng shui principles.

Traditional feng shui also relies on numerology, color schemes and cleansing rituals to create a positive environment for every member of the family.

PARIS —Paris has long been a byword for luxurious living. The traditional components of the upscale home, from parquet floors to elaborate moldings, have their origins here. Yet settling down in just the right address in this low-rise, high-density city may be the greatest luxury of all.

Tradition reigns supreme in Paris real estate, where certain conditions seem set in stone—the western half of the city, on either side of the Seine, has long been more expensive than the east. But in the fashion world’s capital, parts of the housing market are also subject to shifting fads. In the trendy, hilly northeast, a roving cool factor can send prices in this year’s hip neighborhood rising, while last year’s might seem like a sudden bargain.

This week, with the opening of the Olympic Games and the eyes of the world turned toward Paris, The Wall Street Journal looks at the most expensive and desirable areas in the City of Light.

The Most Expensive Arrondissement: the 6th

Known for historic architecture, elegant apartment houses and bohemian street cred, the 6th Arrondissement is Paris’s answer to Manhattan’s West Village. Like its New York counterpart, the 6th’s starving-artist days are long behind it. But the charm that first wooed notable residents like Gertrude Stein and Jean-Paul Sartre is still largely intact, attracting high-minded tourists and deep-pocketed homeowners who can afford its once-edgy, now serene atmosphere.

Le Breton George V Notaires, a Paris notary with an international clientele, says the 6th consistently holds the title of most expensive arrondissement among Paris’s 20 administrative districts, and 2023 was no exception. Last year, average home prices reached $1,428 a square foot—almost 30% higher than the Paris average of $1,100 a square foot.

According to Meilleurs Agents, the Paris real estate appraisal company, the 6th is also home to three of the city’s five most expensive streets. Rue de Furstemberg, a secluded loop between Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Seine, comes in on top, with average prices of $2,454 a square foot as of March 2024.

For more than two decades, Kyle Branum, a 51-year-old attorney, and Kimberly Branum, a 60-year-old retired CEO, have been regular visitors to Paris, opting for apartment rentals and ultimately an ownership interest in an apartment in the city’s 7th Arrondissement, a sedate Left Bank district known for its discreet atmosphere and plutocratic residents.

“The 7th was the only place we stayed,” says Kimberly, “but we spent most of our time in the 6th.”

In 2022, inspired by the strength of the dollar, the Branums decided to fulfil a longstanding dream of buying in Paris. Working with Paris Property Group, they opted for a 1,465-square-foot, three-bedroom in a building dating to the 17th century on a side street in the 6th Arrondissement. They paid $2.7 million for the unit and then spent just over $1 million on the renovation, working with Franco-American visual artist Monte Laster, who also does interiors.

The couple, who live in Santa Barbara, Calif., plan to spend about three months a year in Paris, hosting children and grandchildren, and cooking after forays to local food markets. Their new kitchen, which includes a French stove from luxury appliance brand Lacanche, is Kimberly’s favourite room, she says.

Another American, investor Ashley Maddox, 49, is also considering relocating.

In 2012, the longtime Paris resident bought a dingy, overstuffed 1,765-square-foot apartment in the 6th and started from scratch. She paid $2.5 million and undertook a gut renovation and building improvements for about $800,000. A centrepiece of the home now is the one-time salon, which was turned into an open-plan kitchen and dining area where Maddox and her three children tend to hang out, American-style. Just outside her door are some of the city’s best-known bakeries and cheesemongers, and she is a short walk from the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Left Bank’s premier green space.

“A lot of the majesty of the city is accessible from here,” she says. “It’s so central, it’s bananas.” Now that two of her children are going away to school, she has listed the four-bedroom apartment with Varenne for $5 million.

The Most Expensive Neighbourhoods: Notre-Dame and Invalides

Garrow Kedigian is moving up in the world of Parisian real estate by heading south of the Seine.

During the pandemic, the Canada-born, New York-based interior designer reassessed his life, he says, and decided “I’m not going to wait any longer to have a pied-à-terre in Paris.”

He originally selected a 1,130-square-foot one-bedroom in the trendy 9th Arrondissement, an up-and-coming Right Bank district just below Montmartre. But he soon realised it was too small for his extended stays, not to mention hosting guests from out of town.

After paying about $1.6 million in 2022 and then investing about $55,000 in new decor, he put the unit up for sale in early 2024 and went house-shopping a second time. He ended up in the Invalides quarter of the 7th Arrondissement in the shadow of one Paris’s signature monuments, the golden-domed Hôtel des Invalides, which dates to the 17th century and is fronted by a grand esplanade.

His new neighbourhood vies for Paris’s most expensive with the Notre-Dame quarter in the 4th Arrondissement, centred on a few islands in the Seine behind its namesake cathedral. According to Le Breton, home prices in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood were $1,818 a square foot in 2023, followed by $1,568 a square foot in Invalides.

After breaking even on his Right Bank one-bedroom, Kedigian paid $2.4 million for his new 1,450-square-foot two-bedroom in a late 19th-century building. It has southern exposures, rounded living-room windows and “gorgeous floors,” he says. Kedigian, who bought the new flat through Junot Fine Properties/Knight Frank, plans to spend up to $435,000 on a renovation that will involve restoring the original 12-foot ceiling height in many of the rooms, as well as rescuing the ceilings’ elaborate stucco detailing. He expects to finish in 2025.

Over in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood, Belles demeures de France/Christie’s recently sold a 2,370-square-foot, four-bedroom home for close to the asking price of about $8.6 million, or about $3,630 a square foot. Listing agent Marie-Hélène Lundgreen says this places the unit near the very top of Paris luxury real estate, where prime homes typically sell between $2,530 and $4,040 a square foot.

The Most Expensive Suburb: Neuilly-sur-Seine

The Boulevard Périphérique, the 22-mile ring road that surrounds Paris and its 20 arrondissements, was once a line in the sand for Parisians, who regarded the French capital’s numerous suburbs as something to drive through on their way to and from vacation. The past few decades have seen waves of gentrification beyond the city’s borders, upgrading humble or industrial districts to the north and east into prime residential areas. And it has turned Neuilly-sur-Seine, just northwest of the city, into a luxury compound of first resort.

In 2023, Neuilly’s average home price of $1,092 a square foot made the leafy, stately community Paris’s most expensive suburb.

Longtime residents, Alain and Michèle Bigio, decided this year is the right time to list their 7,730-square-foot, four-bedroom townhouse on a gated Neuilly street.

The couple, now in their mid 70s, completed the home in 1990, two years after they purchased a small parcel of garden from the owners next door for an undisclosed amount. Having relocated from a white-marble château outside Paris, the couple echoed their previous home by using white- and cream-coloured stone in the new four-story build. The Bigios, who will relocate just back over the border in the 16th Arrondissement, have listed the property with Emile Garcin Propriétés for $14.7 million.

The couple raised two adult children here and undertook upgrades in their empty-nester years—most recently, an indoor pool in the basement and a new elevator.

The cool, pale interiors give way to dark and sardonic images in the former staff’s quarters in the basement where Alain works on his hobby—surreal and satirical paintings, whose risqué content means that his wife prefers they stay downstairs. “I’m not a painter,” he says. “But I paint.”

The Trendiest Arrondissement: the 9th

French interior designer Julie Hamon is theatre royalty. Her grandfather was playwright Jean Anouilh, a giant of 20th-century French literature, and her sister is actress Gwendoline Hamon. The 52-year-old, who divides her time between Paris and the U.K., still remembers when the city’s 9th Arrondissement, where she and her husband bought their 1,885-square-foot duplex in 2017, was a place to have fun rather than put down roots. Now, the 9th is the place to do both.

The 9th, a largely 19th-century district, is Paris at its most urban. But what it lacks in parks and other green spaces, it makes up with nightlife and a bustling street life. Among Paris’s gentrifying districts, which have been transformed since 2000 from near-slums to the brink of luxury, the 9th has emerged as the clear winner. According to Le Breton, average 2023 home prices here were $1,062 a square foot, while its nearest competitors for the cool crown, the 10th and the 11th, have yet to break $1,011 a square foot.

A co-principal in the Bobo Design Studio, Hamon—whose gut renovation includes a dramatic skylight, a home cinema and air conditioning—still seems surprised at how far her arrondissement has come. “The 9th used to be well known for all the theatres, nightclubs and strip clubs,” she says. “But it was never a place where you wanted to live—now it’s the place to be.”

With their youngest child about to go to college, she and her husband, 52-year-old entrepreneur Guillaume Clignet, decided to list their Paris home for $3.45 million and live in London full-time. Propriétés Parisiennes/Sotheby’s is handling the listing, which has just gone into contract after about six months on the market.

The 9th’s music venues were a draw for 44-year-old American musician and piano dealer, Ronen Segev, who divides his time between Miami and a 1,725-square-foot, two-bedroom in the lower reaches of the arrondissement. Aided by Paris Property Group, Segev purchased the apartment at auction during the pandemic, sight unseen, for $1.69 million. He spent $270,000 on a renovation, knocking down a wall to make a larger salon suitable for home concerts.

During the Olympics, Segev is renting out the space for about $22,850 a week to attendees of the Games. Otherwise, he prefers longer-term sublets to visiting musicians for $32,700 a month.

Most Exclusive Address: Avenue Junot

Hidden in the hilly expanses of the 18th Arrondissement lies a legendary street that, for those in the know, is the city’s most exclusive address. Avenue Junot, a bucolic tree-lined lane, is a fairy-tale version of the city, separate from the gritty bustle that surrounds it.

Homes here rarely come up for sale, and, when they do, they tend to be off-market, or sold before they can be listed. Martine Kuperfis—whose Paris-based Junot Group real-estate company is named for the street—says the most expensive units here are penthouses with views over the whole of the city.

In 2021, her agency sold a 3,230-square-foot triplex apartment, with a 1,400-square-foot terrace, for $8.5 million. At about $2,630 a square foot, that is three times the current average price in the whole of the 18th.

Among its current Junot listings is a 1930s 1,220-square-foot townhouse on the avenue’s cobblestone extension, with an asking price of $2.8 million.