Feng Shui has its proponents. I'm not one of them and doesn't sound like you are either. If your friends won't visit because of the stairs doesn't say much about the friendship if you ask me.

Oh, I completely agree about flake girl. As I told her, she's welcome not to visit, or, if she wants to visit, to spend her money on a hotel room.

But it just worries me at how many people have said "Well, it really doesn't matter, but yeah, it's bad luck.." And suggested to remodel the stairs. I mean, hang a crystal, while silly, is a cheap solution. But to suggest a stair remodel seems a bit drastic for something I'd never heard of before. Lots of people have stairs at the entry way, most of the houses of friends of mine growing up were that way.

I'd get new friends.

Frankly, I've never heard of that and I'd just be excited over the new house you are moving in.

Uh oh. What you should REALLY worry about is all the other superstitions you don't know about! Just thinking about all the possible violations you might unknowingly commit gives me the shivers! BEEEEE WARE!!

Please don't worry about nonsense. Enjoy your new home.

We had a tiny bathroom in our old house. White fixtures, white tile half way up all four walls, white tile floor, white shower curtain, white woodwork....and gorgeous navy blue walpaper with pink, red, yellow flowers and green leaves above the tile. No window, either, and it was beautiful. It's not like you spend enough time in there to develop claustrophobia! Be brave!

I believe the two feng shui things about the front stairs and the door are 1) the Chi will flow up the steps and leave the lower lever of your house with less energy or (2) stairs can cause the flow of money out the front door. Not that there is bad luck associated with it for guests.

One sure way to have money flow out is to rebuild the steps.

Actually, it has more to do with introducing guests to a private area of your home immediately and the potential for the house to feel less "secure" since someone knows how to get upstairs immediately (thus they could take something and money could flow out?)

Anyway I think most feng shui practitioners could come up with an easy solution--keeping the door closed would be one. If you need the light you could put a frosted glass door there someday

Congratulations on your new home. I hope you enjoy every single minute you live there. Your friend is silly; ignore her! My sympathy to you upon the loss of your father but please don't think his death was caused by of the location of his stairs.

When you were describing your bathroom, I was envisioning a crisp look with maybe light to medium blue paint and lots of white with maybe a little yellow thrown in. Have you seen the beadboard wallpaper? I ordered a roll from Home Depot and love it. I put it in our tiny powder room about 1/3 of the way up from the floor, topped it with chair rail and painted a very light greenish/gray above. It looks like real beadboard and everyone who's seen it loves it.

Have fun decorating!

The bad luck is already happening. Your friends have all gone mad.

I think good luck is already happening, you just filtered out one quirky house guest! I have a stairway to the left of my door and have had lots of good luck during my time in this house:) If you are concerned do as Pal suggests and counter the stairs with positive energy else where.
I have a 5'6''by 5'7'' bathe and I do not think you can fit a smaller 3 piece bathroom than mine. I have all white tile and fixtures and a dark grey paint on top and I like it so much more now than when it was a light colour paint.
congrats on your new home!

When we went to sell our first house, we had an asian couple come who loved everything about it, except that directly ahead of the front door (by approx 15 feet) was the start of the stairs to the upper level. They explained that with feng shui, it is a real no no. They were agonized over it and came back 3 times. Ultimately, they did not buy it, but it was the first time I had heard that (6+ years ago). I am a real estate agent who has shown and sold many houses with stairs that face the front door, such as in the majority of capes, front to back splits and hi ranches and spent the first 15+ years of my career not knowing it was considered "bad luck".

Well, we lived in our first house for over 7 years and had much good and bad luck, just as in any other house. The staircase's relation to the front door had no bearing. We had rented a co-op prior to that that was on the second floor and the stairs started immediately after one came in the door to come up to our apartment. I imagine the feng shui was off in that place too, lol....

I think your friend is not only a flake, but she is a lousy "friend" to rain on your parade like that. Pal said it best, in that the surest way for money to find its way out the front door would be by changing the perfectly good stairs! To equate your father's death in any way to this stupid theory is beyond cruel. What kind of idiot is she? Mean, gullible or both?

As for the bathroom question, we painted the wainscotting white in our bsmt, added a dark floor and used a bright blue on the upper part of the wall (think of the colors of Greece or Israel). I was worried it might look dark, but it looked so much more cheerful than the brown wood wainscotting and pale beige paint and floors that had been there. I'd do what you like and repaint if you don't like it after all. The beauty of a small space is it is easier and cheaper to repaint than a large room would be.

As for the different blues, I say go for it! In my home office, I have six different blues. I have Benjamin Moore Northern Air on the walls, a shade lighter blue on the ceiling, and a gray blue (matched from a neighbor's doors) on the door. In a little niche area in the office, I have BM Paddington Blue on the walls,and BM Starry Night Blue streaked with BM Dark Royal Blue on the ceiling. Then I stenciled gold stars on the niche ceiling. The trim is all BM Simply White, with white shutters. The room has a red Oriental rug--so it's not all blue and white.

To everyone's taste? No--but I like it!

"they have suggested that it might be worth it to take everything in our decorating/furnishing budget and use it to have the stairs rebuilt. "

Sorry to be blunt, but it's a stupid suggestion. What a waste of money.

On a happier note...

...the bathroom -- is it the main bath or more like a guest bath? If the latter, then I think you should have a some fun with it, going bright or bold.

Below is a link to pictures of attic rooms. Most of them use the same color on the walls & ceiling, but the ones that have different colors look fine too. I love attic rooms! Such interesting angles -- instant coziness :)

Here is a link that might be useful: attic room decorating

My best friend has a Cape exactly like yours...that's the way a lot of Capes are designed and she's had hers for over 40yrs and nothing bad has happened to her.
As for your bathroom, we had one so small the standing joke was you should pull down your pants and back in...I went with wallpaper that looked like library books on shelves and the bottom 3 1/2 of the wall was done in mahogany flooring, nothing was going to make it look bigger so I just made it look like a cozy little library.
Best wishes on your new home and your new friends...LOL

I just don't understand people sometimes. Why couldn't your friend just congratulate you on your new home and be done with it? As a Realtor, I'm and out of houses all the time and the set up you describe is not uncommon in bungalows or capes where we live.

I would NOT spend one dime to remedy a situation you personally have no issues with. Use the money instead for the fun stuff that will make that house a home for you and yours. Then enjoy enjoy and enjoy some more!

Feng Shui is a very complex, quasi-religious belief system that bears no relation to the pop version some people like to play with here, including silly "rules" that can be expressed in one sentence. Smile and forget about it.

Let's see, the house I grew up in was a Cape, stairs in front of the door. I now live in a 2 story colonial, stairway in front of door. Bad luck, well maybe, the previous owners died in the house (or was it the radon in the basement?). I guess it makes no difference that they were 93 and 94 years old and had spent 55 years here and their children are now well into their 80's and fine. But I suppose with the bad luck associated with the staircase, they'll probably die, too. I now that I know my luck is bad, I'll probably die too someday.
And I'll bet many of the people who built and lived in Cape Cod houses in the 40's & 50's have probably passed away by now.
It's ridiculous.
Spend your money on moving the staircase? No way, I'd rather spend my money cultivating new interests and therefore, new friends. They ARE the issue, not the staircase!

Thank you, everyone who's offered suggestions. The friend making the biggest deal about this is a flake, pure and simple. And yeah, her bringing my father's death into it, was mean, but she didn't mean it to be, if that makes sense. She means well and to her, for me to live in the house is dangerous. I think to her, she's reacting as I might if I had a friend who said, "Yeah, the radon readings were high, but who cares, I don't believe in radon causing cancer." I'd do everything in my power to tell them that radon readings aren't BS and they should take them seriously.

It was more of a shock with my other friends, who said that yeah, it was more of an old wives tale, but still said, "Just to be careful, you might want to remodel your stairs." I would have understand, "Eh, just to be safe, you might want to put a mirror on the back of your door," because a mirror is a cheap solution. But to suggest a major remodel was telling me that they say it's superstition, but part of them believes it.

As for my father, he and my mother lived in the condo for twelve years. There are numerous reason for his fall, the biggest being that the people who laid the original carpet on the stairs screwed up, so there was always a big lump right at the top of the stairs. My father was shuffling a bit in his old age (84) and I'd told him many times he needed to get that fixed. If the placement of the stairs was really all that bad, I think something would have happened years ago.

So, I think I'm just going to pretend my flaky friend never said anything. As I said, the idea of her not staying in my place ever is not exactly a hardship, if she does visit, I'd rather she spent her time in a hotel anyway, rather than tour my house and tell me all the "bad" things I've done.

I like the idea of eventually putting a frosted glass door at the top of the stairs. I don't really need the light, but I think that would look awesome.

The bathroom upstairs will simply be a guest bathroom, so I think I will go with the bold color. The downstairs bathroom is twice as big, which still doesn't make it huge, but has a tub/shower. That bathroom we don't know what to do with either, because it's so dark. The fixture in it has four lights, but they have to be tiny lights. We're hoping that we'll be able to put in those low wattage, energy efficient lighting, otherwise, we'll be unable to even read a large print magazine in there. I'm betting we might even have to replace the whole fixture. What type of person has dim lights in the bathroom?

Again, thanks for the suggestions. I can't wait to move, I want to fix up the house so badly! The whole kitchen is being remodeled, and for the first time in my adult life, I'm going to live in a place with a washer and drier! No more laundromat!

Cindy,
I do not know about the stairs and Feng Shui but I would not worry about it and just enjoy your home.
My daughter renovated her small bathroom 60 inches by 78 inches last year and she went with dark (black) top of walls and white on the wainscott bottoms. She also went with a black and white toile shower curtain.I think it looks very nice and does not make the room look smaller.I will attach a few photos and please forgive me if they are too big I relaly have trouble trying to get them a good size.
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OMG, I LOVE that bathroom! I may steal some ideas with that for the downstairs bathroom.

I would have never considered black paint (usually seen in a teenager's room, lol) but those pix of that bathroom are lovely ;) I love how it makes the white aspects look so crisp and neat. I bet more than a few people use that for inspiration after seeing the pix posted...

"I would have never considered black paint (usually seen in a teenager's room, lol) but those pix of that bathroom are lovely ;) I love how it makes the white aspects look so crisp and neat. I bet more than a few people use that for inspiration"

Not all that long ago, I saw a photo of a black-and-white bathroom, and I thought it was fabulous. I wanted to steal every idea in that photo for a small bathroom that needs remodeling. If only the style and palette would work with what we already have here!

"It was more of a shock with my other friends, who said that yeah, it was more of an old wives tale, but still said, 'Just to be careful, you might want to remodel your stairs.'"

Funny, I thought it was the year 2011, almost 2012. Not 1011. I'm feeling the need for a good dose of science and logic right now.

Congrats!!! Get a fan, set it at the door facing up the stairs, and keep the flow going up. :)

Seriously, if you're really concerned and are a Christian, hang a Cross on the wall going up the stairs.

And you would be surprised how beautiful tiny bathrooms can be. It's a perfect spot for elegant wallpaper!

I am Christian, but I don't think a cross is good for something that has no basis in Christianity.

I think I'm going to take the risk of bad luck and worry more about decorating the place! And yeah, I was totally shocked at my saner friends suggesting remodeling.

I think if it bothers me, I'm going to just hang a mirror on the back of the upstairs door. This way, it'll reflect the front door. Yeah, that might not be an official way to deal with it, but hey, I can invent my own counteractions to superstitions. (But trust me, if I had the room, I'd go with the decorative plant!)

Your new home sounds lovely -- if you can -- post some photos here too! :)

Don't worry about your friend's ideas -- keep the hallway bright happy and sunny -- and yes! hang a mirror on the back of the door (very handy!) or a pretty windchime! If you can add a plant somewhere nearby -- thats always nice too! :)

Enjoy decorating your home!

Sounds like you are moving into my old house :)

Regarding the tiny bathroom, our current house has very small (and windowless) bathrooms with 8 foot ceilings and one of them was painted a very pretty but dark copper color by the previous homeowner. The color was lovely, but combined with the small size it felt claustrophobic.

After a year I painted it a light silvery blue and it was a big improvement.

That said, it's not a guest bath, it's in daily use, and the combination of tiny, windowless, and lowish ceilings is a real doozy. If you've only got one or two of those features, the more intense color might be just fine.

I think you don't have a lot to lose going with the bold color you like. You can always repaint it if the bold color doesn't work, and because the room is so small, you can do it very inexpensively :) I used Porter paint, which probably cost $27 a gallon, and I have enough paint left to paint the room over again if the light color shows wear and tear from the kids, or to paint some furniture :)

Also, in my town, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore has lots of mistint paints from the better paint shops in town--I've bought gallons of Porter and Martin Senour there for $3. At that price, you can repaint the bathroom every week :)

As for the layout, I'm not superstitous at all so I wouldn't change a thing unless I didn't liked how it looked visually and had the cash to do so.

I don't think you need to stay light for a small bathroom. Mine aren't very big and I have an olive green in one and red in the other. I think they're cozy. I really like the black bathroom above.

Do you have photos you could post? How tall are the ceilings in the attic? Rooms I've seen with low ceilings and slanted walls seemed to look better painted one color.

No, I don't really have photos, because the house is in Virginia and we haven't moved there yet. (We're still in New England) Once we get down there, I'll be taking plenty of pictures, I'm sure!

I see that unfortunately, superstitions are alive and well in the 21sst century. It amazes me that people actually believe that stuff. We have a house with a staircase just like the one you described, and we bought it from an Asian family, which evidently didn't have an issue with it. Unfortunately, in our area, there is a large Asian population, meaning we are more likely to lose a potential house sale due to a prospective buyer getting hung up over feng shui than many other parts of the country (please don't call this being discriminatory against Asians, I am just pointing out a simple fact). When people buy houses, they often take re-sale into account, so this is just one more thing to consider in an area with a large Asian population. Obviously, to me, it doesn't matter, and hopefully if a feng shui adherent would look at my house, they could come up with one of a number of supposed "remedies" that are out there, but I am not going to waste my time and money on that!

Ohhhhhhh boy! post is 7 years old!

Ha! I got sucked into reading then saw the first response from a poster who hasn't been around in forever and checked the date!