funny how simple questions can go off track and get into peoples beliefs. no wonder the world has wars.
This is a valid question and has been answered well with various options plants, crystals and screens between the bottom of the stair and the front door amongst others.
Just do what feels right to you and trust your intution.
Feng shui is a mixture of art and science and is based on thousands of years of observing the built and natural environment. As a builder who trained as an engineer my brain could not get around the concept at first however after 25 years of my own observations there is definitely something to it and why not consider the ideas when you have an opportunity to build a new home.
remember put a little feng shui in your life not your life in feng shui

The biggest complaint about feng shui as a science is that it has not been validated by modern scientific methods or that it doesn't stand up to the scientific principles.

Coming from a heavy science background, with a PhD in engineering however I can appreciate sometimes you don't have enough information to understand something and more importantly, appreciate that you may not even actually have the right methods by which to evaluate the results correctly.

I know a lot of 'modern' feng shui is actually a load of codwallop designed to prey on fears and superstitions. Others are misinterpretations of much more 'scientific' findings that were past down, but that now we have lost the methods by which to actually implement properly. It is these half baked 'feng shui' approaches that give it a bad name, no different to claiming adding adding a shot of wheat grass into drinks makes you more healthy etc. beyond what benefits it normally would have given you anyway.

Get past all that, and maybe you will see the real feng shui in action - like it's namesake, it may take many years to wear down the mountain, but I have no trouble scientifically accepting it's effects.

there are just too many conmen around - who attended a 4 weeks or 8 weeks basic fengshui course with just 2 hours per session per week and claims he/she is a MASTER in fengshui.

these are the ones who spoils the reputation of fengshui.

google fengshui and you will find lots of such MASTERS whose remedies are all the same.