Will painting your bedroom walls red improve your love life? Will a live plant in your living room enhance your family relationships? Will a silver framed black and white photograph in your entryway make you more focused?
Feng Shui, as an art form, may seem like decor with a new age twist. But the Chinese have practiced Feng Shui for over a thousand years. It is a healing art, and in its purest form, is meant to either create a living or working space that promotes well being and success, or remedy a problem that is rooted in the design of your home.
It is a complicated art form, and those who are professionals in the field are referred to as Feng Shui masters, not interior designers. But you needn't hire a master to incorporate a few basic ideas of Feng Shui into your own personal style.
Here are a few tips on how to add a little Feng Shui to your life.
There are five elements in Feng Shui design. They are fire, wood, earth, water, and metal. Each represents aspects of the human personality.
Fire is passion, and is associated with energy, and with love. The colors representing fire are red, orange, bright yellow, purple and pink. But red walls in your bedroom will create too much current, leaving you jittery and hyper. Instead, your walls should be a skin tone, anywhere from pinkish beige to chocolate brown. The red should be subtle, just a bit of edgy excitement. Incorporate it into your bed linens, or accessories such as lampshades and candles.
Wood influences health and vitality, as well as creativity and intuition. Wood's colors are green and brown, colors often associated with earth tones. But in Feng Shui, earth is represented by light beige tones and light yellow. Earth as an element promotes balance, strength, and stability.
Earth is a centering element. Think about where the “heart” of your home is located. Is it the family room or kitchen? Bring the earth colors into the room with paint and natural elements such as tiles or stone. Adding the colors of the element of wood, green and brown, in moderation will promote vitality within the family as well as good health.
This doesn't mean your home's central gathering point has to be all green and yellow. It means those colors and natural elements like stone and living things such as plants should have strategic placement in those rooms. One of the concepts of Feng Shui is the continual harmonizing of the five elements.
If you have a country kitchen filled with red and white check fabrics and wood cabinets, it's likely you've painted the walls a pale yellow or creamy white. You may even have a wood bowl filled with green granny smith apples on your white tile countertop.
The red, for fire, is energizing your cooking creativity. The color of your cabinets is brown, for wood, to influence health and vitality, two human characteristics associated with a healthy diet. Your wall color represents the element of earth. The apples in the bowl express both wood and earth.
Your warm country kitchen includes four of the five elements of Feng Shui. The white in your room represents metal.
The element of metal is associated with mental acuity, focus and clarity. Represented by the colors white and gray, this element should be a light touch in your décor. Like fire, too much metal can be disruptive and bring disharmony to your space. Metal can also be represented in such items as picture frames, lamp bases, or chandeliers.
The element of water influences your spirituality and emotions. Water is also associated with wisdom and contemplation. The color blue, ranging from pastel to deep jewel tones and the color black represent water.
Your country kitchen, with a touch of blue or black, would now have the five elements.
A basic principle of Feng Shui is incorporating the five elements into a space so they work together to bring harmony to that space.
One very obvious choice for incorporating the element of water is a water feature. Few people, however, want a fountain in their house. An aquarium is an excellent way to bring in the element of water. It also satisfies the earth element; glass is made from sand, a natural element and an earth color. Place the aquarium on a metal base and you've brought in yet another element.
If an aquarium is not your style, a simple bowl of water with stones and flower petals will satisfy this element.
Feng Shui is of course more complicated than just adding a few colors or objects. The art form includes concepts such as energy flow, which involves furniture and room placement. Feng Shui also uses directional positioning for elements. For example, fire is an element from the south direction. To place dark blue colors or water elements in the southern part of a room can dampen your fire.
The few suggestions given here are aimed at introducing the art of Feng Shui into your decor style. Look at your current decor with a Feng Shui approach and you will most likely find yourself rearranging certain objects and introducing new color schemes that will revitalize and energize you, bring harmony to your inner space, focus your thoughts, and inspire you.
