Vastu floor plan checklist: 12 things to check on a 2 BHK or 3 BHK plan
A practical vastu checklist for apartment floor plans: entrance, kitchen, master bedroom, pooja, toilets, shafts and balconies by direction, with what is easy to fix and what is not. Written for buyers and the agents who answer their questions.
· 3 min read · 1.4K views · by the Cortex Digital Hub team
Check placements on a 3D view instead of a flat drawing. The render keeps the plan's exact orientation, walls and labels, so directions can be read off it. First render free.
See the plan furnished in 3D → Opens 2D to 3D Floor Plan · runs in your browser
Most vastu advice online is written for a plot of land with the freedom to place rooms anywhere. An apartment buyer does not have that freedom; the plan is fixed, the shafts are fixed and the only decision is yes or no. This checklist is for that decision. It lists what practitioners most consistently look for, marks what can be adjusted after you move in, and keeps the explanations short.
Read it with the north arrow on your plan. If the plan has no north arrow, nothing below can be checked; ask the developer for one.
The four placements that matter most
1. Main entrance. North, east or north-east are preferred; a door in the north-east segment of the east or north wall is the ideal. South-west entrances are the ones most practitioners advise against. For most buyers this is the deciding question, which is why brochures lead with "east facing".
2. Kitchen. South-east first, north-west second. Avoid north-east. Inside the kitchen, the hob is best on the south-east counter so the cook faces east; a hob under the window on the north wall is a common compromise in compact plans.
3. Master bedroom. South-west. This is the most consistent rule across every school of vastu, and it is also the corner that gets the least direct afternoon heat in most Indian cities. If the master bedroom is in the north-east, the plan is usually mirrored for the twin unit, so check your specific unit number.
4. Pooja. North-east, or anywhere on the north or east side. A pooja unit inside a south-west bedroom or under a staircase is the placement people most often want to change later and cannot.
The eight secondary checks
5. Toilets. West, north-west or south of the flat. A toilet in the north-east corner is the placement flagged most often; a toilet directly above or next to the pooja is the second.
6. Children's room. West or north-west, with the bed placed so the child's head points east or south when sleeping.
7. Living / drawing room. North, east or north-east, which in an east-facing flat is where it naturally lands, just inside the door.
8. Balconies and open space. North and east. Open space in the south-west is discouraged; a large balcony there is often the only "flaw" on an otherwise good plan and is easy to live with.
9. Shafts. Prefer them on the north or east side. A big shaft in the south-west corner is disliked for the same reason as a south-west balcony.
10. Staircase (duplex and villa plans). South, west or south-west, turning clockwise as it rises.
11. Water: tanks and bore. Overhead tank in the south-west, underground tank or bore in the north-east. In an apartment this is a building-level question for the site plan, not the unit plan.
12. Shape. A square or rectangle is preferred. L-shaped and cut-corner plans (common when two units share a core) lose a corner; a missing north-east corner is the one practitioners mind most, a missing south-east the least.
What can be adjusted after you move in
- Bed direction, study table direction, mirror positions: fully adjustable.
- Hob position within the kitchen: usually adjustable when the modular kitchen is designed.
- Pooja placement: adjustable if any north or east wall is free.
- Colours, plants, lighting: adjustable, and this is where most "remedies" live.
What cannot
- Entrance direction, toilet positions, kitchen room, shafts, balconies, the shape of the flat. These are the ones to decide on before booking.
How to check a plan quickly
A flat drawing with a tiny N in the corner is hard to read with a family over WhatsApp. Two things help. First, mark the compass on the plan itself: draw N, E, S, W on the four edges. Second, look at it furnished: a 3D render made from the plan, with the orientation locked, shows the kitchen, the master bedroom and the pooja in their real corners in one glance, with the ENTRY arrow outside the wall.
The 2D to 3D floor plan converter does exactly that: every wall, door, shaft and printed size stays where the plan has it and the render is never rotated or mirrored. If what you have is a photo of a printed plan, the free floor plan redraw cleans it up first.
A note for agents: buyers who care about vastu will ask these twelve questions in some order. A plan with north marked and a 3D view that shows the placements answers ten of them before the site visit, which is a better use of everyone's Saturday.
Frequently asked questions
Can a flat be 100% vastu compliant?
Rarely. Vastu was written for independent plots; apartments share walls, shafts and corridors, so every flat compromises somewhere. The usual advice is to get the four big placements right (entrance, kitchen, master bedroom, pooja) and treat the rest as adjustable.
Is a toilet in the north-east really a problem?
In vastu terms it is the one placement almost every practitioner flags, because the north-east is reserved for light, water and the pooja. If the plan has it, it cannot be moved after construction; decide before booking.
Does the kitchen have to be in the south-east?
South-east is the first choice, north-west the accepted second. What vastu consistently discourages is a kitchen in the north-east, and a hob placed so that the cook faces south.
Do shafts affect vastu?
A shaft is open to the sky, so it behaves like a small courtyard. Practitioners prefer shafts on the north or east side and dislike a large shaft in the south-west, which is meant to be the heaviest, most closed corner of the home.
See the plan furnished in 3D →