My Career Choice: Anjie Cho – Architect and Feng Shui Interior Designer

featured this month on Woman Around Town

Anjie Cho, a registered New York State architect and feng shui interior designer, has been creating beautiful and nourishing spaces for more than 14 years. A graduate in architecture from the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley, Anjie has managed a variety of high-end residential and commercial renovations.

The founder of Holistic Spaces, she creates and enhances balance and harmony with an understanding of sustainability and informed by the ancient practice of feng shui. Her focus is to create a nurturing and supportive environment for each of her clients, at whatever level they feel comfortable. Anjie is currently the co-manager of the New York City Chapter of the International Feng Shui Guild. She is a feng shui and green interiors blog contributor to Inhabitat.com and an eHow.com design expert and presenter.

Anjie is working on her forthcoming book, 108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces: Feng Shui and Green Design for Healing and Organic Interiors.

Can you point to one event that triggered your interest in your career?
Ever since I can remember, I have always found great joy in creating, designing and sharing beauty with others. I can specifically remember one occasion I attended a basket-making class. I was in a class at the local park, and we soaked long fibers in water until they softened. Then we carefully shaped them into baskets. I love the metaphor of intertwining different elements into a beautiful container to hold objects and experiences.

...read full article

by Anjie Cho

eHow.com Video: Separating the Area in a Studio Apartment By Using a Curtain

Separating the Area in a Studio Apartment By Using a Curtain

Separating the Area in a Studio Apartment By Using a Curtain

Separating personal from public space is important. Use a curtain to facilitate this separation in a studio apartment.

see more eHow.com videos here

Video Transcript:

Hello, I'm Anjie Cho, and today I will share with you some tips to separate an area in a studio apartment by using a curtain.

The most challenging aspect of living in a studio apartment is separating your public active space such as your living, dining, kitchen and work areas from your private passive sleeping area. It's very important to visually and physically separate your sleep and public areas when designing the layout of your studio apartment.

One way you can achieve this is with curtains. In this example I've used a ceiling mounted curtain track. There are also curtain wires that will work but in my experience, depending on how long the span is, the wire will begin to droop with the weight of the curtain and this doesn't look good. The ceiling mounted curtain tracks and rails are rigid and end up looking the cleanest. Regular curtain rods will also work well if you can mount the supports on the ceiling.

Make sure you get the correct types of screws and anchors for the ceiling you have. I have concrete slab ceilings here, so I used a hammering drill and concrete anchors. Be sure to measure out the space you have so the holes are located correctly.

In this application I used a semi opaque fabric so there is visual for that privacy but you still see some light pass through. If sound is an issue, it might be better to use a heavier fabric.

The other advantage of drapes is flexibility. When you need more space you can open it up like this because after all a studio is a small living space.

I'm Anjie Cho, and this is how to separate areas in a studio apartment by using a curtain.

by Anjie Cho

Bring a bit of feng shui into your home

featured last month on SheKnows.com, article by Sherri Kuhn 

The entryway to your home sets the tone for your whole living space, but what about the effect it has on your career success? Feng shui suggests that black and other dark colors have an impact on your success. We spoke with feng shui experts to find out how we can incorporate these concepts into our own homes — and boost our careers at the same time.

How does feng shui relate to your career?

The Kan Gua is located near the front entry, and is the career area of a home. "The colors of the Kan Gua are black, navy blue and dark blue," says Diana Hathaway Timmons, color expert at About.com, interior designer and author of Sell Your Home Without Losing Your Zen. "Decorating with these colors in the Kan Gua of your home can enhance career opportunities." She stresses that while using these colors is beneficial, it is important to approach it in a balanced way, or it will create the opposite effect. "Feng shui is all about balance, and that includes the use of colors," she adds. "Using large amounts of dark color in the room traps the chi (energy) and will defeat the purpose of using color as a career enhancement."

Your face to the world

Visualize the front entry to your home, which is what people see first when they approach your home or enter it. "The entry and front door of your home represent your face to the world, how the world sees you and how easily opportunities can come to you," says Anjie Cho, registered New York State architect and feng shui interior designer. "The entry is also related to your path in life as well as the season and energy of winter," Cho adds. "Using black to emphasize water and career will increase your career success. The colors black and dark blue, the number one, wavy shapes and the element of water symbolize this area."

...read full article

by Anjie Cho