As we know Feng Shui is all about balancing the 5 elements and colour is a huge part of Feng Shui because every one of the elements is represented by colours. We can use colours to complement and pursue good fortune, avoid disaster and bring us good luck in the Art of Feng Shui study. Let’s get started with how colours represent each of the 5 elements and the five principles one should abide by first.
Conforming To The House Owner’s Element
According to Feng Shui, it is important to know the house owner’s elements before choosing the colour of the house. That is because the colours conform to the five elements of the house owner and are beneficial to the owner’s luck. For example, if the owner’s element is wood, the suitable colour will be green, light blue, etc.; if the owner’s element is water, the suitable colour will be black, dark blue, etc.
Distinguishing The Primary And the Secondary Colour
In Feng Shui, there is always a Yin and Yang- it is all about keeping them in balance. To choose the colour of your home, you need to understand that Yang is the primary while Yin is the secondary, therefore, distinguishing the primary and the secondary is required to balance the Yin and Yang in the house Feng Shui.
In general, there are two aspects you needed to know about the principle of colours in Feng Shui. First of all, a house shall have only one primary colour which accounted for at least 50% of the entire house decoration colour; secondly, the primary colour shall cover at least the living room and the master bedroom.
Relationships Between The Five Elements
The principle of colours in Feng Shui also stated that the secondary or matching colour has a mutual generation effect with the primary colour. For instance, if the owner’s element belongs to the wood in the five elements, hence Green is chosen as the primary colour and both Red (Fire) and Blue (water) can be used to complement and generates the Wood Element. The principle of Generation among Five Elements embodies the flow of five elements in Feng Shui, which is beneficial to the energy flow of the owner. Therefore, the owner will be full of vitality and have good luck.
Some specific colours represented in Feng Shui elements:
Metal/West: White, Apricot, Golden
Wood/East: Cyan, Green
Water/North: Black, Blue
Fire/South: Red, Purple
Earth/North-East & South-West: Yellow, Brown
Generating and Controlling Cycle of Fiver Elements:
● The Generating Cycle: Wood makes Fire burn; Fire creates Earth; Earth bears Metal; Off of Metal runs the Water; Water makes Wood grow.
● The Controlling Cycle: Fire melts Metal; Metal chops down Wood; Wood breaks the Earth; Earth soaks up Water and blocks its flow; Water controls Fire.
Complementing Colour Theory:
| Main Colours | Complementing Colours |
| Green, Cyan | Blue, Black, Red, Purple, Yellow, Brown |
| Red, Purple | Green, Cyan, Yellow, Brown, White, Apricot, Golden |
| Yellow, Brown | Red, Purple, White, Apricot, Golden, Blue, Black |
| White, Apricot, Golden | Yellow, Brown, Black, Blue, Green, Cyan |
| Blue, Black | White, Apricot, Golden, Green, Cyan, Red, Purple |
Example of application and matching of colours based on five elements since ancient times “The Forbidden City”. You can see that the walls are painted in Red while the glazed tiles above and the top of many palaces are in Yellow, well reflecting the generation between fire (red) and earth (yellow) in five elements. After hundreds of years, the Forbidden City still stands majestically.
Light Heaven And Dark Earth
Based on the Art of Feng Shui, the ceiling is referred to as The Heaven, the floor is The Earth and The Walls are the humans. The rule stated that one should paint the ceiling in a light colour as the heaven is a symbol of a career, so the light heaven symbolised a bright, hopeful and promising career; the earth on the other hand symbolised the foundation, so dark earth is a symbol of the solid and long-term career foundation. As for the walls, use the colour darker than the ceiling but lighter than the floor.
If you, do it the other way round, the heaven is dark while the earth is light; the people living in the house will tend to feel unknown pressures and stresses. This combination creates inharmonious and full of negative energy that affected your decisions making abilities.
Cool Up And Warm Down
Generally, colour can be divided into two categories “Warm” and “Cool.” From science, we learned that hot air rises and cold air sinking; cool air belongs to the Yin and warm air belongs to the Yang. Therefore, adopting this principle of Cool Up & Warm Down means Yin up and Yang down to form the perennial effect of sinking cool air and rising warm air.
