Vastu for Home: Essential Tips and a Room-by-Room Checklist

By the VastuReport team · Last reviewed 20 October 2026

Vastu for home is about putting each part of your house in the direction Vastu Shastra recommends for it: the main door in a good position, the kitchen in the fire corner, the master bedroom in the zone of stability, the pooja room in the sacred north-east and the centre of the home left open. You do not need a perfect house. A handful of high-weight rules decide most of a home's Vastu, and many of them can be met without moving a single wall.

This guide starts with a 10-point checklist you can run in two minutes, then covers finding your home's true direction, every room, colours, furniture and plants, what to look for before you buy, how Vastu works in US homes, how to choose a lot and floor plan when you buy new construction, and how to correct problems without demolition. To see exactly how your own home scores, upload its plan to our free Vastu floor plan calculator.

Quick Vastu checklist for your home

These ten checks cover the rooms and zones with the most weight in a Vastu assessment. Tick the ones that are true for your home to see where you stand.

Step 1: Find your home's true direction

Every Vastu rule is measured from north, so get this right first. Stand inside the main door looking out: the direction you face is the direction your home faces. Then lay a 3 × 3 grid over your floor plan with north at the top. Each of the nine zones has its own element and suits particular rooms:

Use true north (map north), not the raw magnetic reading of a compass. On an iPhone, turn on Settings → Compass → Use True North; on Android, use a compass app with true-north mode, or check the street layout on Google Maps, which always has true north at the top. A builder or architect's plan usually carries a north arrow, but confirm it rather than assuming the top of the page is north. The house facing Vastu guide explains how to read the facing of any home.

Which direction is best for a home?

North, east and north-east facing homes are traditionally preferred because they receive the morning sun and the northern light. But no facing is bad in itself. Every side of a house has main-door padas that score as well as the best east or north ones, so a west or south facing home with the door in the right pada and the rooms in their correct zones can be just as good. What matters is the combination of facing, door position and room placement.

Read the guide for your home's facing: east, north, west, south, north-east, north-west, south-east or south-west facing.

Vastu tips for every room

For room sizes, colours and remedies, see Vastu by rooms. If you are designing or comparing a layout, the Vastu house plan guide shows the ideal layout for each facing.

Keep the centre of the home open

The centre of the home, the Brahmasthan, is governed by space and ties every other zone together. Keep it open and light: no toilet, staircase, kitchen, column or heavy furniture. In an open-plan home this is often easy, since the centre falls in a hallway or the living area; simply keep it clear. Use the Brahmasthan calculator to find the exact centre of an irregular plan.

Vastu colours for home by direction

Each zone has colours that support its element. Use them on walls, curtains or accents in rooms that fall in that zone:

For colours by room as well as by direction, try the Vastu colour calculator.

Furniture, mirrors, plants and clutter

• Heavy furniture (wardrobes, bookcases, safes) belongs on the south and west walls; keep the north and east lighter and more open.
• Mirrors work best on north or east walls. Never place a mirror facing the bed, and avoid one directly facing the main door.
• Plants: tulsi does well in the north-east or east, and a money plant in the south-east. Keep thorny plants such as cactus outdoors, and do not plant large trees close to the north-east of the house.
• Water features such as an aquarium or small fountain suit the north or north-east, never the south-east fire zone.
• Clocks are best on a north or east wall.
• Clutter blocks the flow of energy, especially in the north-east, at the main door and at the centre. Clear these first.

Vastu for a new home or before you buy

It is far easier to choose a home with good Vastu than to fix one later. Before you buy or sign for new construction, check:

1. The plot: square or rectangular, without a cut north-east corner, and ideally sloping down towards the north or east.
2. The roads: which sides face the street, and whether a road runs straight at the house (a T-junction or street focus).
3. The main door and its pada, measured from true north.
4. The high-weight rooms: kitchen, master bedroom, pooja room and toilets in their zones, with the centre open.
5. How the house sits on the plot: the same floor plan can score differently on different lots.

You can score a lot with the Vastu plot calculator, a floor plan with the floor plan calculator, and check how well a plan fits a particular lot with the plot and floor plan match. Buying with an agent? See Vastu for buyers and sellers.

Does Vastu apply to homes in the USA?

Yes. Vastu is based on compass directions and the path of the sun, which work the same way anywhere in the northern hemisphere, so the zones and room rules carry over unchanged. A few things are different in American homes:

• True north matters more. Vastu uses true north (geographic north), but a magnetic compass points to magnetic north. In India the two are almost the same; across the US they can be up to 15° apart, and a single pada is only 11.25° wide. An uncorrected magnetic reading can move your main door into the wrong pada.
• Attached garages fit best in the north-west or south-east of the plan.
• Basements are traditionally preferred under the north, east or north-east part of the house, and avoided under the south-west.
• Two-storey staircases follow the same rule as any staircase: south-west, south or west, never the centre.
• Builder plans and HOA rules often limit structural changes, so choose the lot and plan with the best score up front and rely on room use and remedies for the rest.

The gap between magnetic north and true north is called magnetic declination. It is different in every city. Approximate values for some US metros:

These numbers apply only to a magnetic reading: a needle compass, or a phone compass left on magnetic north. For example, in Seattle a magnetic compass's “north” is about 15° east of true north, so a door it shows as facing exactly north really faces about 15° east of north. To correct a magnetic reading by hand, add an east value to the compass bearing, or subtract a west value.

If your phone is set to true north, you don't need this table. With Settings → Compass → Use True North turned on (iPhone) or a true-north mode (Android), and location services enabled, the phone looks up the declination for where you are and corrects for it automatically. Phone compasses can still be thrown off by nearby metal, appliances or a magnetic case, so take the reading outdoors or a few steps away from them, and cross-check with Google Maps, which always shows true north at the top.

Buying new construction? Check every lot and plan

Many new homes in the US are sold by large builders such as Lennar or Toll Brothers. In a new community you choose from the lots that are still available, and for each lot the builder offers a set of floor plans that can be built on it. For Vastu, the lot and the plan cannot be judged separately: the same floor plan scores differently on different lots, because the house turns so its front door faces the street, and every room turns with it.

In this example the kitchen sits at the back-left corner of the plan. On a north-facing lot it ends up in the south-east, the ideal zone for a kitchen; on an east-facing lot the very same plan puts it in the south-west, a zone to avoid. Many builders also offer a mirrored (reversed) version of each plan, which swaps left and right. For Vastu that is a different plan: on the east-facing lot, the mirrored version moves the kitchen to the north-west, which works well.

The kitchen is only one room. The main door pada, master bedroom, pooja room, toilets and staircase all move the same way, which is why a lot that looks good on its own, or a plan you love, can still be a weak combination.

What to ask the builder's sales team

• The community site plan (plat map) with lot numbers and a north arrow.
• Which lots are still available, and which side of each lot faces the street.
• Which floor plans can be built on each lot. Lot width and depth usually rule some plans out.
• Mirrored or reversed options for each plan, and the floor plan drawing for each one.
• Lot premiums, so you can weigh a better Vastu score against the cost.

How to compare lots and plans

1. Mark north and the street side of each available lot on the site plan.
2. Upload each lot and each floor plan once, including any mirrored versions as separate plans.
3. Pick a lot and the plans the builder allows on it, and run them together. Each plan is turned automatically to match the lot's facing, and every pairing is scored and ranked.
4. Repeat for the next lot, reusing the plans you have already uploaded.
5. Note the best plan for each lot, then choose between those finalists, weighing in lot premiums and the street position.

Builder names are examples only; VastuReport is not affiliated with any home builder.

How to correct Vastu at home without demolition

Most homes have a few defects, and most can be eased without construction. Work through these in order:

1. Change how rooms are used. Move the master bedroom to the south-west room and the study to the north or east, if the layout allows.
2. Change orientation within a room. Turn the bed so you sleep with your head to the south, and face east while cooking.
3. Move weight. Shift heavy furniture and storage to the south and west, and lighten the north-east.
4. Clear and light the key zones. Declutter the north-east, the centre and the main entrance, and keep them well lit.
5. Use colour. Repaint or add accents in each zone's supportive colours.
6. Apply targeted remedies for specific defects, such as a toilet or kitchen in the wrong zone.

See Vastu remedies for home for room-by-room fixes. A full floor plan report lists the remedies that apply to your home and shows how much each one could improve your score.

Common Vastu mistakes at home

• A toilet or bathroom in the north-east corner
• A toilet, staircase, column or heavy furniture at the centre of the home
• The kitchen in the north-east or south-west
• The master bedroom in the north-east or south-east
• Sleeping with the head towards the north
• Clutter, heavy storage or an overhead tank in the north-east
• A main door in a weak pada, or blocked by shoes and bins
• Mirrors facing the bed
• Taking directions from a phone compass set to magnetic north

Check your home's Vastu

The checklist above is a quick guide; checking a real home by hand, room by room and pada by pada, is slow and easy to get wrong. Upload your floor plan and the calculator finds the north arrow, the main door and the rooms, then scores each one, free for your first two checks.

Frequently asked questions