Feng Shui Q & A : How Are The Five Elements Related To Feng Shui Or Home Decorating??

Apr 10, 2012 | Feng Shui 101

enzo henze

Enzo Henze

Today a great feng shui question was in my email-

” I recently started following your blog on Tumblr. I read one of your posts which happened to be a critic of someone’s bedroom and you wrote something about an elemental profile. Is this related to our astrological sign? How are the Five Elements related to Feng Shui or home decorating? I’m just curious because I’d like to be able to decorate my apartment in a way that helps feel good.

My Answer:

Ah! Yes! The Five Elements in feng shui are Wood, Water, Earth, Metal and Fire.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine and philosophy, these five components comprise everything in life that there is(from objects to food to animals to people), and all five of these elements must stay in balance to have a harmonious life.  Each element has specific traits attached to it—- for instance, wood is the element of growth and flexibility, and adding wood to a room can increase your energy, prosperity and creative flexibility.  However, too much wood can be stifling, make you feel stiff physically and mentally rigid and stuck.  You don’t want to have too much or too little of any one element in your life for a long period of time.  Imbalances in elements often are expressed physically, mentally and emotionally in your life…and your home will probably feel bad to you. While I don’t make any claims to be a doctor or a magician, I do know that balancing elements for my clients has opened up their lives significantly. (or so they say…!)

So, to apply this to your house on a basic level, decorate with a good mix of materials- wood, metal, some glass, some texture- and feel out what you need.  You always know when you have too much of one thing.  Try to add a mix of many materials so you have a better spectrum of elemental richness.

For instance: If you have too much wood in a room, add some metal or splashes of red and pink or orange for a bit of fire to “burn” some of the wood . If you feel there is too much earth tone happening, a bit of pure white, grey or additional metal may be the answer for you.  I know I am not being specifically helpful with these ideas, but this is because the study of elements is vast.  It took me years to understand the elements fluidly as they relate to your body, life and home.   But if you tune into your environment and read the critiques I do of spaces where I talk about elements (I do them on Tumblr often!), you will have some of the basic tools to make your house shine!!!

Good luck  & thank you!!!  If you need more help, I’m here!  xoxo  Dana

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If you have a feng shui question that you’d like answered, please join me on Facebook or Tumblr to join the forums of question-askers!  I do my best to answer every single general (and sometimes specific) question I receive!

And, if you are ready to design your dream life, you can always work with me one-on-one online or in-person to make the big moves!

Always, I love hearing from you! xoxo Dana

2 Comments

  1. Arzu

    Hi Dana,

    I have a bedroom that juts out. I mean you enter the bedroom through a short corridor. Also on the left side of this corridor is an en suite bathroom. So it is like both the entrance door and bathroom are outside the main square bedroom. My basic problem is that if I want to see the bedroom door, there is no way the bed will be in a commanding position since I can only see the door if I move my bed very close to it cause the entrance juts out. What can I do? It really makes me nervous that there is darkness where the door should be and the only door I can see is the bathroom door. I usually put a night light to illuminate that small corridor but I should be able to sleep in a dark room right? Light in the roo while sleeping is no good:) Pleaseee help:)

    Reply
    • danaclaudat

      you can put little jingle bells on the door so you have a “safety factor” that will minimize the idea that the door needs to be seen 🙂

      Reply

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