Hi Patsy, my youngest DD, the one is Austin, is very *into* Feng Shui. She had one semester when she attended a holistic school of medicine here in CA. She has DH's office set up for prosperity, since he works from home part-time, and that's where business, which brings in money, takes place. The room has all *his* personal elements, colors, and furniture set up that best accommodate his decision making, etc. She's done a few things in other rooms, but the whole 'process' in her home isn't complete.

I also know that round 'corners' are best, as a squared-off corner pointing at someone is like a dagger. That's why I chose tables that are oval, round, or have rounded corners, plus they appeal to me more. This applies to all furniture, even upholstered pieces~curved arms, backs, and pillows would be the choice if you're wanting to feng shui your home. Mirrors are a no-no in the bedroom~I took my bedroom dresser mirror down years ago, and installed one on the iside of my closet door. I'm planning a dressing room in my MB closet, and the whole back wall will be mirrored, and i'll have two wall sconces on the mirror~aka Victoria Secret style. LOL I'll also have a vanity built in along with chests/dressers/shoe racks~i'm planning to do this myself! All I need is a matching dresser/chest of drawers, will trim them out, build shelves and add trim, paint everything the same color, and i've got custom. Okay, enough!

Anyway, if you want to know anything re:feng shui, i'll get the 'right' answer for you. LOL DD has thought of opening a business using the principles of feng shui when deocrating a house. It's a neat concept, but I don't know how scientific it is.

Brutuses, do you have a link?

Trish, I can't wait to see pics of your new place.

Great topic! I want to know if anyone had feng shui'ed their homes/offices and noticed that their luck has abruptly changed for the better. In fact, I'd like to know if everyone who tried it noticed that. It doesn't look to me like the Chinese have been so lucky; I'd rather live here.

I think you have to apply what makes sense to you, individually. Blue is not the only restful color for a br, and I'm not sure why you need a yellow kitchen! Blue in the kitchen is good for some because it's not the type of color that makes you want to eat or that food looks particularly good on :)

Plan your house for your own needs and decorate in a way that feels and looks good to you. That is what will work best for you. Do your research, which can be exhausting, but only 'take what you need, and leave the rest' :)

Ummmm, I just put a HUGE mirror in my MBR. I needed something on a massive wall and it is huge - 4 feet by 6 feet. It is leaning against the wall bc it is so heavy it can't be hung. We didn't have a full length mirror in there so we bought it and it was just delivered last weekend. At first, I was OMG what did I do but now it has grown on me. Oh yeah, and I started my diet - again. LOL

Blue in the kitchen is good for some because it's not the type of color that makes you want to eat or that food looks particularly good on

Thats it! Im painting my entire house blue and running out right now and buying blue dishes and glasses! Next year, I'll be skinny!

I think the rules about blue bedrooms and yellow kitchens are a trap...just someone's notion. The Feng Shui, though I don't know much about it, is based on cardinal directions, and as such, is relevant to the quality of light in a particular space. That makes sense to me, of course. Funcolors is the real expert on cardinal directions, paint and light, but if you spend some time thinking about it, I believe you can grasp a rudimentary understanding. Northern exposure = cooler light = warmer wall colors, and so on.

Ultimately, you have to like a particular color and feel that it works with what you already have. Unfortunately, it's mostly a matter of trial and error. I have been a student of color now for several years, reading books, taking classes and speaking with as many "experts" as I can. It's a process.

Brutuses, I think it's great that you're engaged in the process. I should tell you that on my color path, I am coming to a better understanding of neutrals long after I "figured out" colors. Sometimes taupe is the perfect choice. But it's good to know when and where and not just use it because you can't figure anything else out!

As for finding a system that works, it's kind of like religion, IMO. Just different paths to the same goal. You have to find the language or ritual that resonates with you. Same applies to brands and palettes...some will always turn to BM Historical, others to F&B or Ellen Kennon. We all have to find our comfort zone. Hang in there...it does get easier!

a mirror in the bedroom is ok as long as it doesnt cross the bed. the mirror reflects energy or chi and it may keep you awake at night if it reflects on the bed. tv's in the bedroom are really bad but i cant give mine up. i got feng suid. most of it is common sense from a decorating point of view. the whole room doesnt need to be the best colour. ie a vase or pillow or throw in the color is ok too.

darn,

I thought this was going to be about paint and it's not about paint at all, it's about color. :)

Michael

As stated above, I take my cues from the quality of light and directional orientation, and now the climate.
In the mid-west I favored warm tones throughout the living areas. Here in the gulf coast area of Texas, I've found myself drawn to the cooler spectrum. I have a north facing living room I'm painting gray because it's so warm here most of the time and I feel like I need to tone down my warmer toned furniture so that I "feel" cooler. I would have NEVER chosen gray in my former house.

I got the kitchen/bedroom rule of thumb completely reversed! I like warmer tones in rooms where I'm looking at myself in the mirror. The cool colors aren't super flattering to my skin tone.

Great question! The house we're in now is, for some reason, very sensitive to color. In other words, I've noticed that some colors look incredibly beautiful in this house, and others (that look fabulous in the store) go positively putrid. And furthermore, that colors that look perfect in one room go awful in another.

I've come to the strong conclusion that there's absolutely something about the quality of light coming from different directions that influences how different rooms handle color. My standard approach now is to paint sheetrock & trim scraps and move them around the room until I'm happy with the color.

I'm sorry I don't have the link but I did write down the author's name. It is Kartar Diamond. She has 2 books out about Feng Shui. If you search for her name the article I read will most probably come up. If you can't find it let me know and I'll search for it.

My original choice for a pale yellow living area and blue bedroom were my choices and then I learned they were good ones according to the experts. They were colors that would make the spaces feel like I wanted them to feel.

I guess I continued to do research because I was not 100% sure my master should be blue,(someone on this forum told me that a long time ago) only because it does not get a lot of light and like sweeby said, some colors just look putrid in some rooms. From what I've read it's the opinion of some that blue rooms require a lot of light to look their best. Even though I will have a lot of artificial light, I don't want to rely on that to make the room look good. When I walk through the room during the day, without artificial light on, I don't want the room to scream "ugly." Here's the kicker, the bath that is attached to the master is exploding with light. So I'm thinking I'll paint the bath blue and maybe a nice creamy yellow in the bedroom. I've some beautiful samples gracing my walls right now. My current house looks like an ad for paint chips!!

My new great room gets the southern light, the brightest, and the notion is you don't want to paint a room in the South with warm colors if it gets southern exposure or else it makes the room feel hot. Now that makes sense to me. My question is though, did they consider low e-windows when they wrote that? LOL

To complicate my decisions even further, I have porches 3/4 of the way around the house so I have to compensate for them. Oh, I love my porches don't get me wrong, but it does affect my color choices for sure. I don't know why I'm obsessing over the inside of the house because the fact is on nice days I'll be living on the back porch!!

In my current house one of the back bedrooms has a structure built on to it ontside so it is like having a covered porch. It is a west facing window and without the structure, would get glaring light in the afternoons. It is painted a soft creamy yellow (don't remember the name). That room is a great place for me to experiment with all the colors as it simulates what some of my rooms will be like with the porches over the windows, especially my dark master.

I'm definitely considering the Coconut Milk by Glidden. I have a swatch painted on a wall and it's a very pale creamy yellow, yet bright. Sorry, I can't remember the OP, but I remember her saying it was like having sunshine all the time in the rooms that are painted with it. That definitely sounds like what I need for my master bedroom. I may just paint an entire wall of my current dark bedroom with the CM and see how it looks.

Thanks everyone for discussing this with me. It's so much fun learning new things, but my poor brain is on color overload.

All I know is that you are never supposed to have a mirror in your home office that reflects the desk. Apparently it will double your work load and make it unmanagable.

The bedrooms in this house have those mirrored panneled closet doors, its a small room so you can not really escape it without making other Feng Shui no nos.

You should not have your back to the door, nor your back to the window nor should you be stuck in a corner and looking at the wall... so everywhere I put my desk was wrong so I decided to angle it so I was sitting facing the door opening at an angle. Good Feng Shui position but the mirrors are right across from me.

Since I did this the work load has increased to a level that I can not handle, if it produced as much money as the augmentation of work load it would be nice but that has not happened. I wonder if covering the mirrors with curtains would make it stop?!

I have had crazy friends that ripped up an entire drive way and walk way to the house and re did it based on what their Feng Shui guru told them.

Its best to know nothing about Feng Shui because if you read to much you start to wonder and then you start to re decorate because.. what if it is all true?

Overall i think that much of is is just good sense, like not having to go around furniture to get through door ways and to create a nice open flow through the house. Too much focus on it drives me nuts, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing with this.

I did use blue in my kitchen and dining area, I have not noted much of a difference in eating more or less... but that mirror thing IS a little wierd.

Brutuses....not to make you crazy, but I wouldn't make paint selections until the porch floors are painted or stained or whatever. The color on those floors will also reflect up into the adjoining rooms and have an influence on wall colors.

(sorry....)

They are painted, here is a photo and yes, you've now made me crazier. HA! HA! I could just keep the blinds closed. LOL

I don't get into feng shui too much because like you say it can make you crazy. According to feng shui my entrance is a big no no because it's a direct shot to the back door. Yikes!! Guess those feng shui people never lived in the bayou and seen all the houses built like this. LOL I do have a dining area that kind of stops the straight shot to the back door and I'll hang a crystal from my chandellier that will be over the table. That's suppose to block something or other. I have one hanging from my fixture in my present hall and can't even remembet why it's there. HA!

I read you can cover mirrors with material and it will block the bad energy from the mirror or whatever it is that it emits.

I never sit with my back to doors just because I want to see what/who is coming toward me so when I go to restaurants I can't be shoved in a corner.

With limited living space it's impossible to practice all of the FS recommendations on furniture placement.

If I thought for one minute blue would decresase my appetite, my entire house would be painted blue!!

Thanks again, and keep up the chat, I'm enjoying it.

Sometimes, things just.....

"Make sense"

...whether they are part of a series of Decorating Rules, Feng Shui, Granny's Gems of Wisdom, or Your favorite professional painter's observations while painting 25 different houses. Seriously.
For example....dark colors CAN make an already low-light room look dreary and depressing. (That's why you need lots of light sources to offset the effect of using deeper colors) Or.....Using the same nice color throughout the main living spaces creates "flow". Well, of course. Anytime your eye doesn't have to stop to take in a different color, things tend to look more organized and seamless.
And Sweeby made an important point about the use of color that also makes sense. She said,
"I've come to the strong conclusion that there's absolutely something about the quality of light coming from different directions that influences how different rooms handle color"

But will certain colors bring you Good luck? Will hanging mirrors in your bedroom bring you Bad luck? Will breaking a mirror bring you 7 years of Bad luck? You can call it anything you wish........but some things make sense and some things do not. I have only enjoyed just over 50 years of a very, very happy and good life thus far. My bed was placed (according to one friend who quoted Feng Shui stuff to me) "Coffin Style" with the head of the bed visible from the doorway, for many, many years. That's Many, Many, years of a great marriage, wonderful, obedient, respectful, children, good friends, nice job, and thousands of "good hair days". Currently, I have a gold, not blue, bedroom, with mirrors on most every wall. My bedroom desk has nice square corners, as does my dresser, tv armoire, and nightstands. I watch t.v. in bed and type on my computer a few feet away.
I think a lot of people are looking for some sort of guidance or principles or direction in their lives, but sometimes, all this stuff just obscures what's really important.

Red

I think one of the the main priciples of feng shui is one everyone should practice and that is to declutter, your home, car, brain!! That just makes logical sense.

I'm trying to get this paint color thing correctly because I don't want to walk into any of my rooms and think "ugly." and I don't want to walk into a room that is suppose to be calming and have it make me nervous just looking at the color. LOL

My current house for the last 18 years was bascially linen white and taupe and just in the last 5 years, the pale yellow in the bedroom. Before than I tried Mauve and ended up with pink. OMG, those were some long years living with that paint color. It's not until recently, with reading this forum, that I've began experimenting with colors. I fell in love with RH's silver sage and painted the top half of my bath SS and it was like an entirely different world opened up to me in color!! I wanted to paint the entire house in SS!! I wish all colors were as forgiving as SS meaning it looks good in bright light, sunlight or no light.

That sounds like it might be a good color for your br, then, if you're thinking blue. It's a very soothing and pretty color with a nice blue to it.

Don't forget that Feng Shui originated in China, and the Chinese have a completely different approach to color -- different tradtions and emotional connections.

The silver sage is a lovely color. The folks who bought my house painted their bedroom that color and it was beautiful. What does RH stand for?

Restoration Hardware, the store.

Since you love the SS so much, why not consider the other RH palettes also. This blue they have looks so serene if you're wanting more blue, and their soft light yellow looks gorgeous. (Have seen the website photos only.) The browns are really pretty also.

Here is a link that might be useful: RH Blues

squirrel, I actually have all of RH's samples. LOL Well, not all of them. I have the 2 lightest shades of blue and the 2 lightest shades of yellow. I also have some of the browns. You are right, they are all very pretty. I definitely will be trying them on the walls to see how they look.

On my SS just for information sake, I brought a sample of the RH's SS to BM and they matched it exactly. I now know they have a color to match RH's SS, called Gray Whisp. For all I know the guy might have just mixed me up some gray whisp, I don't know. Whatever he did, it's an exact match and I was quite happy.

I planned on painting the guest bedroom SS. That's the room I was going to go Shabby Chic in with some frills and stuff. Didn't want poor DH to have to endure that in the master. LOL

mclarke, my interest in the feng shui use of color was strictly based on their idea of how the light hits the room and makes the color look. I try to use feng shui that has logic for me. I'm not a true believer in all of it so as squirrel said, I take what I need and leave the rest.

I had the same experience with the Silver sage. All of their colors are really nice to me. The cappuccino is really really nice and the shore collection is really beautiful to me and I am not a blue person. I have atmosphere blue in my bathroom and it is a very clean color .. for me is is the perfect blue. Very calm and more of a pure blue than the silver sage. I love them both.

Oh, Red Bazel, you said it so well. Big thumbs up.

And on that point about the Chinese...
"fung make for unhappy little children working in sweat shops putting chemical in subpar furniture."