Vastu Shastra, room by room
Vastu reads a home as a compass with a centre. Each of the eight directions suits some rooms and not others. Find the guide for your room, or tap a direction to see what belongs there.
North-East Clarity, prayer and water. The best place for the pooja room; keep it clean and light.
Find your room
26 guides. The darkest sectors of each compass are where that room belongs.
Home
Every room and fixture of a home, from the main door to the water tank.
- Main DoorIdeal: N, NE, E
- Master BedroomIdeal: SW
- BedroomIdeal: W
- BedIdeal: S
- KitchenIdeal: SE
- StoveIdeal: SE
- Pooja RoomIdeal: NE
- ToiletIdeal: NW
- Hall / Living RoomIdeal: N, NE, E
- Study RoomIdeal: NE, E
- Work DeskIdeal: N, NE, E
- Dining RoomIdeal: W
- StaircaseIdeal: SW
- MirrorIdeal: N, E
- Safe / LockerIdeal: SW
- BalconyIdeal: N, NE, E
- Store RoomIdeal: SW
- ParkingIdeal: NW
- Overhead Water TankIdeal: SW
- Underground Water TankIdeal: NE
Office
For a shop or an office: where the owner sits, the reception and the cash.
Plot
For land, before anything is built on it: the entrance, the slope and the borewell.
What belongs in each direction
The home as Vastu draws it, north at the top. Each direction has a guardian in the texts and each corner an element; the rooms are the ones the rule table calls ideal there.
NWNorth-West
Vayu, AirNNorth
KuberaNENorth-East
Ishana, WaterWWest
VarunaCentreCentre (Brahmasthan)
Brahma, SpaceEEast
IndraSWSouth-West
Nirriti, EarthSSouth
YamaSESouth-East
Agni, FireNorth-East
Ishana, WaterClarity, prayer and water. The best place for the pooja room; keep it clean and light.
Two kinds of question
Every guide says which kind its placement is and shows how to take the reading. The compass is divided into eight equal sectors of 45°, the same division the app uses.
Judged by the way it faces
A main door by the direction you look when you stand in it and face out, a bed by where your head points, a desk by the way you face while you work.
Judged by where it sits
Rooms: stand at the centre of the home and point at the room. The kitchen belongs in the South-East of the home, not facing it.
Questions people ask
What is Vastu Shastra?
Vastu Shastra is the traditional Indian science of building. It reads a home as a compass with a centre: each of the eight directions suits some rooms and activities and not others, and the centre, the Brahmasthan, is kept open.
Which direction should the main door face?
Ideal: North, North-East and East. Avoid: South-West. The guide for the main door has every direction and its remedies.
Where should the kitchen be?
Ideal: South-East. Avoid: North, North-East and South-West. The guide for the kitchen has every direction and its remedies.
Where should the pooja room be?
Ideal: North-East. Avoid: South and South-West. The guide for the pooja room has every direction and its remedies.
Where should the master bedroom be?
Ideal: South-West. Avoid: North-East and South-East. The guide for the master bedroom has every direction and its remedies.
Where should the toilet be?
Ideal: North-West. Avoid: North, North-East, East, South-East and South-West. The guide for the toilet has every direction and its remedies.
Do I need to rebuild if a direction is wrong?
Rarely. Each guide lists the traditional remedies for a direction that is not ideal — things like a metal strip at a threshold or a plant in a corner — for the many cases where a door or a room cannot move.
The compass lives on your phone
The app reads your phone’s compass, so you can stand in a doorway and see which way it really faces. Set up your home once — rooms, floors, bedrooms and their bathrooms — and it walks you through each one.
- A live compass, with interference reported honestly
- Your home set up once: floors, bedrooms and bathrooms
- Readings kept per room, on every property you manage
- Your kundali and the astrologer, on the same account
The Android app is not on Google Play yet. Everything on this site works in your browser today, and your account carries over when it arrives.