Feng Shui Bedroom Guide: Bed Placement, Colors & Romance Tips

A room-by-room walkthrough of the feng shui bedroom: what belongs beside the bed, which colors and fabrics settle a sleeping room, how to activate the romance corner, and how to fix bedrooms above garages, under slanted roofs, or shared with a roommate.

What Makes a Bedroom Good Feng Shui?

A good feng shui bedroom is a room stripped back to two purposes, sleep and intimacy, with everything serving any other purpose moved out. That single edit does more than any cure you can buy. Feng shui reads the bedroom as the most yin room in a home: dark, quiet, still, cool, and enclosed. Four checks tell you where a bedroom stands. The bed has a solid wall behind it and a clear view of the doorway. Nothing presses down from overhead, whether beam, sloped ceiling, heavy shelf, or hanging light. No work, exercise gear, laundry pile, or lit screen occupies the room. This guide walks the whole room, from what sits on the nightstands to how a bedroom over a garage gets grounded, while the compass mathematics of the bed itself is worked through in Feng Shui Bed Placement: Commanding Position, Wall Support & Coffin Position.

The bedroom carries unusual weight in feng shui because of how you occupy it. In the bedroom you lie still for seven or eight hours in a receptive state, absorbing whatever the room offers, which is why bedroom rules run stricter than the rules for any other room. It also explains why a bedroom is handled the opposite way to the rooms around it. A living room is arranged for circulation and generous chi flow, as covered in Feng Shui Living Room: Furniture Layout, Chi Flow & Energy Tips. A bedroom wants chi that arrives gently, pools, and settles instead.

What does not belong in a feng shui bedroom?

Items that do not belong in a feng shui bedroom include desks and work files, exercise equipment, televisions, overflowing laundry hampers, medicine bottles left in view, water features and fish tanks, mirrors facing the bed, and photographs of parents or children positioned where they overlook the bed. Each brings some other part of life into the one room that should hold only rest and partnership.

How long does it take to notice a change after a feng shui bedroom refresh?

Most people notice a change in a refreshed feng shui bedroom within two or three nights, usually as falling asleep faster or waking less. The physical changes act fastest, clearing under the bed above all. Slower shifts, such as a relationship warming, tend to surface over four to eight weeks.

Where Should the Bed, Nightstands, and Headboard Go in a Bedroom?

The bed should sit in the commanding position, seeing the bedroom door without lining up with it, and the method for finding that position in an awkward room is set out in Feng Shui Bed Placement: Commanding Position, Wall Support & Coffin Position. What matters at the room level is everything surrounding the bed once it lands. Leave walking space on both sides of a bed shared by two people, ideally eighteen inches or more, because a bed shoved against a side wall traps one partner and is read as trapping that person in the relationship. Flank the bed with two nightstands of equal height, kept free of stacked books, medication, and charging cables. Avoid a headboard wall shared with a toilet, a stove, or an elevator shaft, since feng shui treats those as noisy, draining structures pressed against a sleeping head. Skip a bed under a window where you can, since a window offers no support behind the crown of the head.

Headboards carry element associations that let you fine-tune a bedroom without repainting anything. A rectangular headboard taller than it is wide reads as wood and suits a couple in a growing phase of life. A curved or arched top reads as metal and brings clarity. A low, wide, square headboard reads as earth, the most stabilizing choice and the one usually recommended for restless sleepers. A wavy edge reads as water, and a pointed silhouette reads as fire, stimulating enough that few practitioners want it above a bed. Iron bars and open slatted designs let energy pass straight through the one place it should be blocked, and headboards with built-in cubbies stack clutter above the sleeper's head.

What should be on a feng shui nightstand?

A feng shui nightstand should hold a lamp, one book, and perhaps one small object such as a candle or a crystal. Nightstands should stand roughly level with the top of the mattress and match each other in height on both sides of the bed. Keep off them: work papers, laptops, chargers, prescription bottles, teetering book stacks, and anything belonging to a former relationship.

Do bed frames and mattresses matter in feng shui?

Bed frames matter in feng shui through height, weight, and airflow. A frame raised a few inches off the floor lets chi move beneath the sleeper, so mattresses laid flat on the ground are discouraged. For couples, one mattress is preferred over two pushed together, since a seam down the middle carries the same splitting symbolism as a beam. Secondhand beds are said to hold the previous owner's history, which is why practitioners advise a new mattress after a divorce.

Which Screens and Reflective Surfaces Disturb a Bedroom?

Screens are the main disturbance in a modern bedroom, and the television is the worst because it works as both a source of yang energy and a mirror. A powered-off television has a dark glass face that reflects the bed exactly as a wall mirror does. Standby lights on chargers and routers leave small points of active energy glowing in a room that wants darkness. Mirrors are a debate of their own, and the short version for a bedroom is that a mirror should never reflect the bed, with mirrors inside closet doors or hung perpendicular to it generally accepted. Where mirrors help elsewhere in a home, and how the bagua mirror differs, is covered in Feng Shui Mirror Placement: Where Mirrors Help, Hurt & the Bagua Mirror. The practical bedroom fixes: cabinet doors over the television, cloth over the screen at night, chargers and router in another room, curtains or frosted film over mirrored closet doors.

The objection to bedroom electronics comes out of yin-yang theory rather than anything modern. A bedroom is yin: dark, still, cool, quiet. Electronics are emphatically yang: bright, warm, noisy, in constant motion. When yang dominates a yin room, the room stops doing its restorative job. High-gloss surfaces belong in the same category at smaller scale: lacquered furniture, glossy paint, glass tabletops, polished chrome. Matte paint, brushed metal, and natural wood settle a bedroom in the way anything shiny works against.

Where should I charge my phone at night in a feng shui bedroom?

Charge the phone in another room entirely, which is the answer most feng shui consultants give. When the phone must stay in the bedroom, put it face down across the room rather than on the nightstand, so notifications cannot light the room and the device is not beside your head. An analog alarm clock replaces its alarm function, and the distance across the room makes you stand up to silence it.

Where should the WiFi router go if the bedroom is the only option?

A WiFi router should leave the bedroom whenever the wiring allows, since feng shui treats it as a small, constantly active device running all night in a room meant to be still. When it must stay, place it as far from the bed as the room permits, never on a nightstand or the wall behind the headboard, and keep it below mattress height with the blinking lights out of sight.

Which Colors and Fabrics Support Sleep and Romance in a Bedroom?

Bedroom colors in feng shui lean toward earth tones and skin tones, because both hold warmth without stimulating the eye. Warm beige, soft terracotta, sandy tan, clay, and creamy off-white correspond to the earth element, which governs stability and partnership, the exact qualities a sleeping room needs. Skin tones from ivory through deep brown are considered the ideal bedroom palette in classical practice because they wrap the bed in warmth. For romance, add fire through accents rather than walls: dusty rose, muted burgundy, warm peach, or soft coral in paired pillows, candles, or artwork. Bright white walls read as metal and turn a bedroom clinical, while black and dark blue flood it with water energy that feels heavy over months. How the five elements assign color across every room is laid out in Feng Shui Colors: Five Element Color Theory & Room-by-Room Guide, so what follows stays with the bedroom, where fabric carries most of the weight anyway.

Fabric does more for a bedroom than paint, and it is the part of a scheme renters can actually change. Layering is the principle: a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, a blanket, and a quilt create the weight and enclosure a single thin comforter cannot. Natural fibers are preferred over synthetics, since cotton, linen, and wool let a bed breathe. Curtains should be lined and long enough to touch the floor, both to block streetlight and to soften the wall edges. A rug under the bed, wide enough that bare feet land on it from either side, grounds the room in earth energy. Paint finish matters as much as hue, since matte and eggshell settle a bedroom while gloss keeps it visually active.

Is red good for a bedroom in feng shui?

Red works in a bedroom as an accent and fails as a wall color. Red candles, a folded throw at the foot of the bed, or red flowers add fire element passion without flooding the room. Red walls or a large red headboard create too much stimulation for sleep, and traditional practice links an excess of bedroom fire with arguments rather than romance.

How do I add feng shui colors to a bedroom I rent?

Renters can shift a bedroom's color reading without touching the walls. Bedding is the largest surface in the room after the walls, so a duvet cover in warm sand or clay changes it immediately. Add a rug under the bed, floor-length curtains in a warm neutral, a pair of pillowcases in dusty rose for romance, and artwork in skin tones. Lampshades in cream or amber warm the light itself, which shifts every other color along with it.

How Do You Activate the Romance Corner of a Bedroom?

The romance corner of a bedroom is the far right corner as you stand in the doorway looking in, according to BTB feng shui, or the southwest sector of the room in Compass School practice. Activating that corner is the most targeted thing you can do for a bedroom's love energy. Start by emptying it, because stagnant chi in the relationship corner is read as a stalled love life, and in most homes that corner has quietly become where laundry baskets and unpacked boxes live. Once clear, place meaningful objects in pairs: two candles of equal height, two pieces of rose quartz, two mandarin ducks facing each other, or one artwork showing two figures together. Earth element objects suit the corner particularly well, since the southwest belongs to earth: ceramic vases, terracotta pots, stone bowls, crystal clusters. Keep out single-figure artwork, photographs of parents or children, water features, mirrors, storage bins, and exercise equipment. Peonies, fresh or painted, are the most powerful romance activator in classical Chinese practice.

The two major schools locate the romance corner differently. BTB feng shui, the branch most common in the West, takes the doorway as its reference point and lays the nine-sector Bagua map over each room from there, putting the relationship area in the far right corner from any door. Classical Compass School takes an actual compass reading and locates the southwest, home of the Kun trigram, which represents receptive, nurturing energy. When the two point at different corners of the same bedroom, each school insists its own answer is correct, and treating both corners well costs nothing. How to lay that map over a whole home is covered in Bagua Map Guide: How to Map the 9 Life Areas of Your Home.

What are mandarin ducks in feng shui?

Mandarin ducks are the classic Chinese feng shui symbol of faithful romantic love, chosen because the birds are said to pair for life. A pair placed in the romance corner of a bedroom is used to attract a committed relationship or steady an existing one. They should face each other rather than looking outward, sit close together rather than at opposite ends of a shelf, and be made of natural materials such as wood, ceramic, jade, or stone.

Can I use the romance corner of a bedroom if I am single?

The romance corner matters most for single people, because the method works by making a bedroom look like a room that expects a partner. Clear the second nightstand and leave it empty rather than using it for storage, empty a stretch of closet rod and a drawer, sleep toward the middle of the mattress instead of hugging one edge, and use two pillows even if you need one.

What if my romance corner is a bathroom or a closet?

A bathroom in the romance corner is the hardest version of this, because draining water is read as carrying relationship energy out of the home. Keep the door closed, the toilet lid down, and the drains stopped, then add earth cures such as a ceramic soap dish, a stone tray, and warm-toned towels. A closet in the romance corner is far easier: empty it of clutter, leave real space in it, and hang a pair of matched objects inside.

How Do Paired Objects Strengthen Relationships in a Bedroom?

Paired objects work in a bedroom because feng shui treats a room as a story told in objects, and pairs tell a story of partnership. A single candle on one nightstand describes solitude. Two matching candles describe a couple. Carried through a bedroom, the principle produces two nightstands of equal height flanking the bed, which reads as equality between partners, two matching lamps, which reads as both people bringing light to the union, and two pillows even for someone sleeping alone, which reads as space held open. Single people who arrange a bedroom for two often report feeling more open to meeting someone. Couples who rebalance a lopsided bedroom, where one partner has three drawers and the other has a stack of books on the floor, notice the daily friction easing. Two cautions apply. Pairs should face each other or sit side by side rather than turning away, and both objects should carry similar visual weight. Avoid displaying three of anything prominently in a couple's bedroom, which traditional practice links with third-party interference.

The reasoning behind paired objects sits inside yin-yang theory, where completeness requires two complementary forces rather than one dominant force, so a bedroom furnished entirely in singles reflects half of that pair back at the occupant every night. The practical test is to stand in the bedroom doorway and count the singles. One chair, one framed photograph, one nightstand, one lamp, one hook on the back of the door. Each has a paired alternative that costs little and changes the room's grammar from singular to plural.

Do paired bedroom objects need to be identical?

Paired objects in a bedroom should be similar in size and visual weight without being identical twins. Two nightstands of the same height in different finishes work, as do two artworks of matching size by different artists. What breaks the effect is mismatch in scale.

How many pillows should be on a feng shui bed?

A feng shui bed carries two sleeping pillows, one for each side, whether the person sleeping there is single or partnered. Two matched pillows keep the bed symmetrical and hold space for a partner. Decorative pillows should stay minimal and even in number, since a mountain of cushions that must be cleared every night adds friction rather than beauty. Odd numbers, three across a double bed in particular, are avoided in traditional practice.

How Do Ceiling Beams, Windows, and Door Alignment Affect a Bedroom?

Exposed ceiling beams create sha chi, a cutting, pressing energy that bears down on whatever sits beneath, and a bed is the worst thing to put there. A beam crossing the bed sideways is read against the body: headaches where it crosses the head, chest tightness where it crosses the torso. A beam running lengthwise down a double bed is read as dividing the couple. The cure hierarchy starts with moving the bed, then hiding the beam behind a canopy or false ceiling, then hanging two bamboo flutes at forty-five degree angles with red ribbon, then painting the beam to match the ceiling. The same logic applies to a heavy chandelier above the mattress or a shelf above the headboard. Door alignment is the other structural issue. Two doors facing each other across a bedroom form a chi tunnel, a bedroom door aligned with a bathroom door sends drain energy at the bed, and a bedroom door in line with the front door lets chi rush in at full speed. Break those alignments with a screen, a curtain, or furniture that makes the energy turn a corner.

Windows deserve their own attention in a bedroom because they are the structural feature people most often ignore. A bed under a window loses its wall support, and the traditional reading is that energy escapes behind the sleeper's head all night. A bed positioned between a window and a door sits in a draft line, literally and energetically, and floor-to-ceiling apartment windows leave a bedroom feeling exposed after dark until heavy lined curtains go up. A window directly facing the foot of the bed pulls energy out along the same axis you lie on. Beam and alignment concerns come from Form School feng shui, and traditional Chinese architecture concealed beams behind flat ceilings for precisely this reason.

How do I fix a bedroom door facing the bathroom door?

Keep the bathroom door closed at all times, the first and most effective fix when a bedroom door faces a bathroom. Add a full-length mirror on the outside of the bathroom door so energy is turned back rather than flowing toward the bed, and keep the toilet lid down and drains stopped when the bathroom is not in use. A healthy plant between the two doors absorbs and transforms the flow.

What do I do about a sloped or attic ceiling over the bed?

A sloped attic ceiling presses on a bed the way a beam does, and the standard fix is to place the bed where the ceiling is highest rather than under the lowest part of the slope. Where the slope is unavoidable, paint that surface a light color to lift it visually, run uplighting along the low wall, and use a low-profile bed so the gap above the sleeper stays generous. A canopy stretched flat above the bed creates an artificial level ceiling.

How Do You Feng Shui a Small, Studio, or Shared Bedroom?

Small and shared bedrooms need feng shui applied through boundaries rather than through space, since the space is not there to give. In a studio apartment where the bed sits in the same room as the sofa and the kitchen, define a sleeping zone first: a folding screen, a curtain on a ceiling track, an open bookcase turned sideways, or a rug that marks the bed's territory. Position the bed as far from the kitchen as the layout permits, since a stove's fire energy beside a sleeper is treated as a recipe for restlessness, and keep the desk out of sight from the pillow even if that means a cloth over the monitor at night. In a bedroom shared by roommates, give each person a matched set of their own, a nightstand, a lamp, and defined storage, because uneven division is where household friction takes root. In a children's shared bedroom, avoid placing beds head-to-head against the same wall and never point one child's feet at the other's head. Bunk beds are treated as difficult because the lower sleeper lies under constant pressure from above, so soften the underside of the upper bunk with fabric.

Two beds pushed together to make a double deserves its own note, since it turns up constantly in guest rooms and rentals. Feng shui reads the seam down the center of the bed the way it reads a beam overhead, as a line dividing the pair. The cures are physical and simple. Use one large fitted sheet stretched across both mattresses rather than two separate sets of bedding, add a topper that spans the gap, and use a single duvet instead of two. Bridge connectors that clamp the frames together handle the structural half.

Where should the bed go in a studio apartment?

In a studio apartment, place the bed in the corner furthest from the front door, out of the direct line of that door, and as far from the kitchen area as the floor plan allows. Keep the head of the bed against a solid wall rather than a window, and screen it from the living area with a curtain, a shelf unit, or a folding screen. A rug that sits only under the bed gives the sleeping zone its own ground.

How do I feng shui a bedroom with a roommate?

A shared bedroom works best when both sides are visibly equal: matching beds, matching nightstands, matching storage, and a clear line down the middle that neither person's belongings cross. Avoid pointing one bed's foot at the other bed's head, which reads as one person aiming energy at the other. Give each sleeper their own light source so neither controls the room.

How Do You Feng Shui a Bedroom Above a Garage, Beside a Bathroom, or in a Basement?

Bedrooms in structurally awkward positions get cured through whichever quality the position lacks. A bedroom above a garage sits over a cold, empty, moving void, so the missing quality is weight: use a thick rug beneath the bed, a heavy solid-based frame rather than thin legs, ceramic and stone objects for earth energy, and keep the garage below swept and well lit rather than packed with dead storage. A bedroom sharing a wall with a bathroom should never have the headboard against that wall, since pipes and drains run through it; move the bed, or place a tall solid bookcase or a deep upholstered headboard between the sleeper and the plumbing. A bedroom above a kitchen sits over the household's fire, read as heating the sleepers from beneath and producing restless nights and short tempers, which a dense rug and cooler bedding tones help settle. A basement bedroom has the opposite problem, too much yin and too little light and air: add uplighting in the corners, a light-colored rug, a dehumidifier, warm bulbs rather than cool ones, and earth and fire tones through textiles.

Feng shui treats what lies beneath a bedroom as part of that bedroom's foundation, which is why the space below matters as much as the space inside. In an apartment building that means the neighbor's rooms, and practitioners will ask what sits directly under a client's bed one floor down before recommending anything. A bedroom over a stairwell or an entrance lobby counts as unsupported for the same reason as a bedroom over a garage, since the void beneath and the traffic through it undermine the stillness a sleeping room depends on. The general cure runs the same direction every time: reintroduce weight around the bed through a dense rug, a low solid frame, heavy ceramic lamp bases, and a substantial headboard.

Is it bad feng shui to have an ensuite bathroom off the bedroom?

An ensuite bathroom off a bedroom is common enough that feng shui treats it as manageable rather than disqualifying, though draining water beside a sleeping room is a real concern in the tradition. Keep the ensuite door closed at night, the toilet lid down, and the drains stopped when not in use. Add earth element objects such as a stone tray and warm-toned towels, and keep the room dry, since standing damp is what practitioners react to most strongly.

How do I improve a bedroom with no window at all?

A windowless bedroom has no fresh chi entering it, so the cures work on air, light, and the illusion of a view. Run a quiet air purifier or cross-ventilate through the door during the day, use warm full-spectrum bulbs on a timer so the room brightens in the morning, and hang landscape artwork with visual depth where a window would be. Avoid mirrors used as fake windows facing the bed.

What Is the Step-by-Step Order to Feng Shui a Bedroom?

The order for a feng shui bedroom refresh runs subtraction first, structure second, symbolism last, and following that sequence saves most people from buying cures they never needed. Step one: empty everything from under the bed and vacuum beneath it. Step two: clear both nightstands down to a lamp and one book, and clear the floor. Step three: remove work materials, exercise equipment, laundry piles, and screens, and move the phone charger out. Step four: check the bed against the commanding position and move it if the room allows. Step five: give the headboard a solid wall, adding a substantial headboard if it lacks one. Step six: pair up the room, matching nightstands, lamps, and pillows on both sides. Step seven: clear and activate the romance corner with paired objects. Step eight: replace overhead lighting with two bedside lamps on warm bulbs. Step nine: refresh the textiles, layering natural-fiber bedding and hanging lined floor-length curtains. Step ten, only now, add one meaningful new object such as a pair of mandarin ducks, rose quartz, or peonies.

The reason for the sequence is that additions made into a cluttered room do nothing. A rose quartz pair set on a nightstand buried under paperwork changes nothing, and this is where beginner feng shui usually goes wrong: shopping first, clearing never. The subtraction steps also produce the fastest results, so working in this order gives you the encouragement early. Making eight changes in one weekend leaves you unable to tell which one mattered, and a bedroom is the room where the difference is felt night by night. Change what is under the bed and watch three nights, then remove the screens and watch again.

What is the single highest-impact change in a feng shui bedroom?

Clearing everything out from under the bed is the highest-impact single change in a feng shui bedroom, and it costs nothing. Feng shui holds that chi should circulate freely around a sleeping body, and stored boxes, shoes, luggage, and paperwork block that circulation for eight hours every night. It is also the change people report feeling fastest, often within two or three nights.

How often should a feng shui bedroom be reset?

A feng shui bedroom benefits from a full reset roughly twice a year, traditionally at the turn of the seasons, with a lighter pass every month. The seasonal reset means stripping the bed completely, cleaning under and behind it, washing curtains, clearing both nightstands, and checking whether work or storage has crept back into the room. The monthly pass is smaller: clear surfaces, launder bedding, open the windows, and remove anything broken.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I feng shui my bedroom for love?

To feng shui a bedroom for love, activate the romance corner, which is the far right corner of the bedroom as seen from the doorway, or the southwest sector in Compass School feng shui. Place objects there in pairs: two candles of equal height, two pieces of rose quartz, two mandarin ducks facing each other. Remove images of solitary figures and anything left over from an ex-partner. Clear one nightstand and a section of closet for a future partner even while single, and stop sleeping pressed against one edge of the mattress. Peonies, fresh or painted, are the classic Chinese romance flower for a bedroom.

What should I put under my bed for good feng shui?

Ideally nothing goes under a bed in feng shui, because clear space lets chi circulate around the sleeper all night. If a small apartment forces the issue, store only soft, sleep-related items in closed fabric boxes: clean linens, spare blankets, off-season sweaters. Never store shoes under a bed, since shoes carry the energy of everywhere you have walked. Keep out old letters, photographs of past relationships, paperwork, suitcases, and exercise gear. Broken objects are the worst offenders, holding stagnant energy directly beneath your body for eight hours a night.

Is it bad feng shui to have electronics in the bedroom?

Electronics are considered disruptive in a feng shui bedroom because they pour active yang energy into a room that needs to stay yin for sleep and intimacy. A dark television screen also doubles as a mirror facing the bed. If clearing the bedroom completely is impractical, put the television inside a cabinet with doors or drape it with cloth at night, keep the phone at least an arm's length from your head, and move the WiFi router out of the room. A battery-powered analog clock replaces the phone on the nightstand and removes the glowing digits along with it.

How do I fix a bed under ceiling beams in feng shui?

A bed under an exposed ceiling beam sits under sha chi, a downward pressing energy, and the traditional reading is that whichever part of the body lies beneath the beam suffers: headaches under the head, chest tightness across the torso. A beam running lengthwise down a double bed is read as splitting the couple. The strongest cure is moving the bed. When the room will not allow it, hang a fabric canopy or fit a false ceiling so the beam leaves your view. Two bamboo flutes tied with red ribbon at forty-five degree angles are the classical cure, and painting the beam to match the ceiling is the easiest fix for renters.

Should the bedroom door be open or closed at night in feng shui?

A bedroom door should be closed at night in feng shui, because a closed door completes the boundary of the sleeping room and keeps the chi of the rest of the house from washing over the bed. This matters most when the bedroom door lines up with a bathroom door, a stairway, or the front door, each of which sends fast or draining energy at the sleeper. Ensuite bathroom doors should stay closed too, with the toilet lid down. Closet doors are the one people forget: open closets expose clothing clutter to the bed all night, so close those as well.

Are plants good in a feng shui bedroom?

Plants in a bedroom are where feng shui schools split hardest. The classical objection is that plants carry vigorous wood element growth energy, too active for a room meant to be still, and older practitioners keep bedrooms plant-free for that reason. Western practitioners more often allow one or two soft, round-leaved plants at a distance from the bed, and treat spiky plants as unwelcome near a sleeper. A workable bedroom rule is small, soft, and few: nothing taller than the mattress, no sharp leaf tips aimed at the bed, nothing dying. Which species carry which reputation is covered in Feng Shui Plants: Lucky Plants, Unlucky Plants & Placement Guide.

Can you feng shui a bedroom without moving the bed?

Yes, most of a feng shui bedroom refresh happens without moving the bed at all. Clearing everything from under the mattress, emptying both nightstands down to a lamp and one book, removing work materials and screens, and closing the closet doors at night all change how the room feels within days. Adding a solid headboard gives the bed support without shifting its position. If the bed cannot take the commanding position, a mirror angled to show the doorway from the pillow is the standard workaround.