How to Use Feng Shui to Choose Color for Your Room

If you want to create a certain mood in a space, you may want to use Feng Shui to choose color for your room. Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement that focuses on enhancing the flow of positive life force energy called chi. This energy is influenced by the five elements: earth, fire, wood, water, and metal. Each of these elements corresponds to a color, and knowing which color symbolizes which element will help you create the right feeling in your room.

HALLS AND ENTRANCES. According to Feng Shui, you should use neutral and earth-tone colors in hallways and entrances. Whites, browns, and even blacks have unifying effects and are easy on the eyes. Each of these shades will affect you differently: Pure white represents truth and can lead you to higher spiritual knowledge. But used in excess, it can feel sterile. Earth tones like the color brown represent nature and fertility. Brown is also a "balancing" color that can help you overcome depression. But, as with white, too much brown will make you feel stagnant. Black, while associated with grief, can be dramatic when used sparingly.

BEDROOMS AND BATHROOMS. Cool colors like blues and greens are best to use in bathrooms. In Feng Shui, the color blue reflects love, heals, and relaxes. It has a calming and soothing effect---something you definitely want to have in your bedroom as you rest---but is sometimes also associated with adventuring since it is the color of the wide open sky. Crisp greens are also a good choice for your bed or bath as they also make us feel calm and balanced and remind us of abundance in nature.

MEDITATION ROOMS. Purple is the way to go for meditation rooms. The color purple symbolizes a connection to spirituality in Feng Shui. It is said to promote relaxation and enhance intuition, wisdom, and dignity. As with any color, use it sparingly as overuse of the color purple is associated with fatigue, physical and mental illness, and even snobbery.

KITCHENS, DINING ROOMS, LIVING ROOMS. Since these areas are the main places in your home where people will congregate, you want to use Feng Shui to choose warm colors that uplift and stimulate. Red is a great choice for a dining room as it promotes digestion and is associated with joy, love, and strength. It is a very lucky color in Feng Shui. Just be careful to pick the right red as overly bright shades can generate fear and excessive anger. Orange is also a great color for these gathering spaces as it is a social color that promotes optimism, energy, and creativity. Uplifting yellow colors will also have a mood-lifting effect, promote digestion, and be lucky.