I receive lots of inquiries regarding what colors to choose for certain rooms based on feng shui principles. People often try to figure out on their own the correct colors for an area based on what they are reading in popular books.

There are three common mistakes that are being made:

1. Some people are choosing colors based on their own personal “Gua” or Trigram. As an example, a person born in 1961 is the ZHEN trigram, which is associated with the Wood element and the color green. To paint your bedroom green because of this could easily be a mistake and not cater to the inherent energies of the room.

2. Some books outline the inherent elements (and colors) associated with a particular direction and readers think that those are the appropriate colors. As an example, the south direction is associated with fire and people think it is correct to make the south room in the house red! This is wrong about 80% of the time.

3. The third common mistake is regarding the arbitrary color assignments given to different sections of the house based on the New Age Ba’gua Map (Black Hat School of feng shui.) I have to remind students and clients continually that the Ba’gua Map (with the Wealth corner and the Marriage corner) was invented in the 1980’s and has very little to do with traditional feng shui. The Black Hat school (BTB) recommends certain colors for those 8 imaginary life stations, based partly on western color psychology (i.e.pink in the Marriage corner) and partly on a misinterpretation of the “later-heaven sequence” of the Lo-shu grid.

HOW TO CORRECTLY CHOOSE COLORS?

The first example of stylizing a room based on who is using it can in fact be done, but it is the least important in my opinion and more information is needed to come to a balanced conclusion. More than just one element based on year of birth, each person is some combination of elements based on the year, month, day, and hour of birth. Using myself as an example, I have too much earth in my chart and need to control it with wood or reduce it with metal. I do love earth colors and my house used to be painted two different shades of peach. But when I changed the interiors to green (wood) and white (metal) I instantly felt much more balanced. Additionally, when it comes to the combination of elements in your own astrological chart, you might address the imbalances with colored clothing or jewelry.

With mistake Number 2, there is some truth to the inherent element associated with a direction. As an example, the direction of southeast is inherently a Wood direction. But this doesn’t mean the room in your house that falls in the southeast should be painted green. It is more like a “shadow” influence for the other combinations of elements. Calculations based on when a house is built will reveal much more explicit information about each room and what element or combination of elements/colors are needed there.

It is also incorrect to believe that the function of a room totally dictates the colors. This would be rather rigid to think that a bedroom must be dreamy blue or an office, power red! Some people also have an extraordinary sensitivity to color, but from a feng shui stand point, Swiss coffee white and Navajo white are essentially the same color.

Water=all shades of blue or black
Wood=all shades of green
Fire=red, maroon, burgundy, hot pink, etc.
Earth=orange, yellow, brown (from light to dark)
Metal=white, silver, gray, gold

Question: What color should I paint the exterior of my house?

Answer: Ideally, the exterior color should match or enhance the basic house type that you have.

If your house sits North (facing South), white, gray, or blue.
If your house sits NE (Facing SW), red tones or earth tones.
If your house sits East (facing west), greens and blues.
If your house sits SE (facing NW), greens or blues.
If your house sits South (facing North) red or green tones.
If your house sits SW (facing NE), red or earth tones.
If your house sits West (facing East), earth tones or metal tones.
If your house sits NW (facing SE), earth tones or metal tones.

It is the “Sitting side” or back side of the house which determines its real nature and personality.

This whole concept is based on the idea that the color which nurtures the house type will strengthen it all around and then have a good influence on the occupants.

Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R)
From the Architecture & Design Series