Feng Shui & Exterior House Colors (Part 2)
I was recently asked, “What color should I paint my house?” Oh, that’s such an easy question to ask, and it’s such a hard question to answer! Here’s what I said:
Picking external house colors is the trickiest thing I do—by far! It’s based on the Five Elements and it also has to do with the owner’s life goals. Some colors boost fame and some colors hide fame, and it’s not as simple as whether or not the color is very noticeable (although that can play into it). In a nutshell, it concerns looking at what the predominate Element is in your neighborhood and using the Cycle of Elements to paint your house a color that symbolizes an Element that is fed by (or created by) the Element of your neighborhood.
For example, say the Element of your neighborhood is Wood. Wood feeds Fire, so a fiery color would be good if you want fame. That could be anything from pink to purple. Our house, which is more than one building, is purple (with a side building painted a kind of mauve called “Cabernet”), but it’s way off the road. I suggested purple to a client who had a store in Pahoa and her first reaction was, “Oh, I couldn’t do that!” Then she thought about it and said, “Well, it is my favorite color, and it is Pahoa.”
Another way to approach it is to paint it your favorite color so that your heart leaps every time you arrive home, and you think to yourself, “I love my house!” We used that approach for a client on the Hilo side and her house is now purple—she loves it and so do her neighbors. (Please note, I’m not pushing purple as the “best” color; these are just examples.)
Here are a couple of thoughts:
- Avoid peach or coral. They are in-between colors, not quite one thing and not another, so they are not appropriate for a house color.
- Yellow is the color of happiness, so you might use a beige that’s a little yellower. (Behr has one called Warm Cocoon 310C-3.)
I’ve written before on this topic a while back and I’ve also written specifically about using bold colors (yes, like purple) on home exteriors.
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saraalexander2012
May 6, 2021 7:08 amWhat color goes with the element of a meadow?
clearenglebert
May 6, 2021 12:26 pmAssuming the meadow is fully covered in greenery, then it is considered Wood, so Fire would be the appropriate element for the house to benefit from its surroundings. So use any shade of red (except terra cotta) or purple.
saraalexander2012
May 6, 2021 3:34 pmThanks so much for writing back. The meadow (in CA) is green in the winter and spring when/if it rains, but the color of straw in the summer and fall. It has a few trees but is mostly open grasses. For better or worse I just painted it a deep blue called Country Sky. That looks better than the pale green it used to be! But too late to paint it red or purple! …….