feng shui color meanings: using color energy in your home
In Feng Shui, color meanings are extremely important. Colors contain vibrations and energy all their own, which plays a huge role in how we experience a space.
You don’t have to be a designer to use color deliberately. You can easily use feng shui to help you use color throughout your home to create a space you love. Here’s how!
Getting Started With Feng Shui Color Meanings
As with all things in Feng Shui, you have to understand that every object is energy. In Feng Shui, the energy is expressed as chi, and it is described as how well energy flows through your space. The energy flow correlates to your life flow, so if things aren’t happening the way you’d like them to, the chi could be blocked somewhere in your home.
Color is closely related to chi because it corresponds to both the elements and the bagua. But a simple way to think about this is: think about how you feel if you’re in a space that is full of bright and loud colors — do you find it energizing or even draining? How about if you are in a spa, full of neutral and earth colors? Do you feel relaxed and grounded?
Color affects our moods even when we aren’t conscious of it. It’s why brands spend so much time on choosing the right colors for their advertising – they want to elicit an emotion from you in less than a few seconds, and color is a perfect way to achieve that goal.
Because color meanings in Feng Shui are closely tied to the bagua and the elements, adding or subtracting colors from your space is a fast way to affect the chi and flow of your home. You can bring in specific colors as Feng Shui cures to help you achieve the things you want in your life.
Let’s start with the colors of the bagua:
Top Row: Purple, Red, Pink
The Feng Shui meaning of the color purple is: royalty, wealth, spirituality, and abundance.
This is why the color purple is closely tied to the abundance/prosperity area of your home. Purple = wealth!
You can add purple to your wealth area to boost this space. You can even wear purple if you would like to feel more abundant, noble, or wealthy.
The Feng Shui meaning of the color red is: fire, intensity, boldness, daring, fame, passion, and is considered extremely lucky.
Red grabs your attention and can help you raise the energy of your space.
The color red is closely tied to the fame area of the bagua. Red brings the spotlight! Red is also the color of passion (but use sparingly in the bedroom because you want to be able to sleep in there!)
You can add red any time you want to quickly add some fire to your space. You can wear red any time you want to feel like all eyes are on you!
The Feng Shui meaning of the color pink is: love, romance, nurturing, feminine energy, and partnership.
It has the fire of red but is tempered with the white of metal, so it’s more calming and has a more balanced energy than bright red.
The color pink is closely related to the relationships/love area of the bagua. Pink is a great color to add to your bedroom (and relationship area) because it’s not as stimulating as red. Add pink to a space any time you want to add more feminine energy. Wear pink when you want to feel more feminine and want to call a partnership into your life.
Middle Row: Green, Yellow, White
The Feng Shui meaning of the color green is: growth, vitality, nature, balance, and prosperity.
Green is the color of possibility, which is why it is ideal in the family/legacy area of your home.
Green is the perfect color to add when you want a boost of growth and balance in your life. Wear green when you want to peaceful and abundant.
The Feng Shui meaning of the color yellow is: happiness, warmth, health, optimism, and focus.
Yellow is stimulating, which is why it is associated with the health area of the bagua.
Wear bright yellow when you want to feel focused and excited. Avoid bright yellow in the bedroom though, because like red, it can be too exciting and interrupt restful sleep.
The Feng Shui meaning of the color white is: purity, expansiveness, innocence, clarity, and cleanliness.
White is the color associated with goodness and hope, which is why it is great for the children/creativity area of the bagua.
Add white when you want to add more of the metal element to your space. Wear white when you want to feel clarity, spirituality, and lightness of being.
Bottom Row: Blue, Black, Gray
The Feng Shui meaning of the color blue is: calm, healing, vastness (think sky and ocean), wisdom, and social interactions.
Blue is perfect for the wisdom/knowledge and spirituality area of the bagua because it is associated with truth, communication, and calm wisdom.
You can add blue to your space when you want to add the water element to your space. You can wear blue when you want to feel inspired or when you want to bring more calm clarity into your life.
The Feng Shui meaning of the color black is: sophistication, power, reflection, mystery, introspection, and protection.
Black is also associated with death and mourning, so black should be used sparingly in a space, especially if the people living there are prone to depression.
Black is also associated with the water element, which means it can be added to a space to help balance fire and metal.
Wear black when you want to feel powerful and luxurious, or need to balance too much energy. Wearing black in a very active workplace, for example, can bring a sense of calm and temperance and help you feel more grounded.
The Feng Shui meaning of the color gray is: harmony, neutrality, helpfulness, calm, maturity, and quietness.
When you think about it, gray is the perfect balance between light and dark, so it can also be quite boring or too calming.
Add gray to rooms where you want a sense of calm and harmony. It’s associated with the helpful people/travel area because it represents drama-free balance.
Wear lighter gray colors when you want to feel calm, clear, and a sense of detachment. Wear darker gray colors when you want to feel commanding and powerful.
Color Meaning in Feng Shui: The Elements
Colors can also represent the 5 elements. The spectrum/hue of a color determines which of the 5 elements it represents.
A purple on the red spectrum, for instance, is more associated with fire. But purple on the blue spectrum, is more associated with water.
The same happens with green. A green on the yellow side, is more associated with health and vitality. A green on the blue spectrum is more associated with water and calm.
- Fire colors: reds, purples, oranges, bright yellows
- Earth colors: light yellows, peach tones, and beiges
- Metal colors: whites and grays
- Water: black and blues
- Wood: greens and browns
Here is a video that explains more about how the energy of the feng shui elements is represented by different colors:
What about the feng shui of pastel colors?
Pastels are colors with white added. White brings purity and innocence to a color. It also removes some of the intensity of pure colors. This is why pastels are better for bedrooms than bright reds or yellows – they are less stimulating and less likely to keep you awake at night.
Where should you start if you want to think about using color in your space?
Using the bagua for color application is always a great place to start. Keep in mind that in Feng Shui, nothing is hidden and everything counts! So you don’t have to actually SEE the color if you want it to boost your space.
Taping construction paper under tables or inside drawers (or underneath them) is a fun way to test out Feng Shui for yourself without really changing other things in your space. So if you want to take the Feng Shui color meanings for a spin without making your home look like a rainbow, this is a great way to do it!
