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In traditional Feng Shui, the ideal color for a home's exterior is determined with a formula based on the home's orientation in combination with something called "Five Element Theory." Five Element Theory pervades all of Chinese metaphysics and Chinese medicine and martial arts as well, but for the purposes of this article, we can refer to these Five Elements literally and symbolically with colors associated with them. Water is represented by blue or black (which happen to be uncommon colors for home exteriors, although not necessarily for commercial properties which can use the same formula.) Wood is represented by any shades of green and Fire is associated with any red tones. Earth is represented by an expansive palette of colors that are any variation of yellow, orange or brown. Many homes have earth tone exteriors, from the lightest beige to coffee brown. Metal colors include white and grey. Now that you have an introduction to the Elements, let's move on to the premise that we have Eight Basic House types, based on their orientation. And the real character of a house is associated with its back wall, the sitting side. So if a house faces West, then we say it "sits" east. Therefore it is referred to as an East House. The back wall of a house is like its spine and that is where it gets its strength. The East House is best with blue, black or green exteriors. This could be done with a green house that has black trim for example. The Southeast House is also good with the same exterior colors as the East House. (Remember, we are only referring to EXTERIOR colors and not interiors.) The South House is best with green or red exterior colors. The Southwest House and the Northeast House are both good with any of the Fire colors or Earth colors. The West and Northwest Houses are best with Earth or Metal colors and these might be the easiest house types to work with since the colors that are good for these house types are so conventionally common. The North House is best with white, grey, blue or black which are the Metal and Water colors. In the interest of brevity, this article will forego the theory behind these color choices, but the idea is that the exterior color (like a person wearing a comfortable coat) should either match the house type and/or nurture it or support it, give it strength as opposed to draining it. What happens to occupants when the color of their house drains it is that the occupants' health will be undermined or they will have a harder time saving money. In Five Element Theory, colors (as elements) can either support, weaken or destroy another element so care is taken to not have the destructive or draining colors for exteriors. And of course, some color palettes could be considered nuetral. For one example of a destructive choice, let's refer to the house that "sits" North. This means it faces South and the back wall is to the North. The direction of North is associated with water. In the cycle of the Five Elements, water is dominated or destroyed by earth. So it would be a poor choice to have a North sitting house painted yellow or brown. Rather, Metal strengthens Water, so white or grey are better choices for that house type. For the complete explanation and charts for all house types and their best colors, The Feng Shui Matrix contains this information in Chapter Three: Have You Hugged Your House Today? Kartar Diamond is a full-time Feng Shui consultant since 1992 and author of four books. Her website is www.FengShuiSolutions.net
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