Hi this is Kathryn Weber, and I write the DIY column, "Living Space," and today we're talking about how to use Feng Shui to choose comforter colors. Now if you are not familiar with Feng Shui, it's the idea that the colors, elements and objects that you surround yourself with in your home can affect your health, wealth and happiness and what better way to do that than in your bedroom. So let's talk about the various comforter colors that go with each sector of a house based on where your bedroom is located. So for instance, if your corner of your house, your bedroom is located in, is in the South like this bedroom, then you'll want to use fire-related colors. That's because each sector or each direction of your house which North, South, East and West, those directions are all associated with colors and elements and I'm going to talk about which colors and which elements that you can bring in that will be the most auspicious for you and give you the best chi. So as I started to say, here in the South bedroom in this bedroom, this is a fire element bedroom and what makes fire? Wood makes fire. So if you want to harmonize the bedroom with the right colors, you can use anything in the red family, so because that represents fire. The red family ranges from pink all the way to russet and orange. So you see this bedroom has a comforter that is dual sided. On one side is brown and green and orange. Those are all colors that are perfect for a South corner bedroom. For instance, the orange represents fire and the brown represents wood. Now you may not always find a comforter that has both of these elements or both of the colors that are correct for the South, but even one of them is good. So for instance, even if this was colored cream on the back or white, this still would be appropriate because wood feeds fire. Now let's talk about if the corner of your bedroom or of your house is your bedroom and you have a Southwest bedroom, if the Southwest bedroom, you want to have colors that are related to fire and Earth, the Southwest is an Earth-related corner of the house. So the Southwest Earth colors would be, well like Earth colors. It would be a taupe or an ochre or a gold, anything that looks Earthy, not brown like wood but more along the lines of taupe and beige and ochre. Those are considered Earth colors. Now, if you don't like those colors you can also use fire colors because fire makes Earth. So again if you wanted to choose a comforter that had this orange or russet, or red, a pink, a mauve, all of those are represented by the fire element and would be perfect in a Southwest corner bedroom. If your bedroom were in the West, that's a metal color. So both West and Northwest are considered metal sectors. So if your bedroom is in those corners, then metal is the color that you want. Metal colors are gray, silver, gold and white. All of those colors are perfect and would be harmonized with the West and Northwest. But, if you decided you didn't want those metal colors, you could also use Earth colors. So back again, back to the Southwest, those Earth colors would be beige, ochre, maybe a pale yellow or a tape color. Those are all perfectly acceptable. Now if your bedroom is in the North Corner of the house, North is associated with water. The water element is represented by blue and purple and black. Those are the water colors. But, if you don't like those colors, you can also use the metal colors because metal colors or metal makes water. Again the metal colors are white, silver, gold or gray. Those would all be perfectly at home in a North corner bedroom. Now if your bedroom is in the Northeast, it's just like the Southwest, it's also an Earth sector. So those Earth colors of beige and taupe and ochre would be perfect. Ochre is kind of a deep saffron gold. So those would be perfect and again, fire colors would also be a perfectly harmonious arrangement with the Northeast corner. Now if your bedroom is in the East corner, that's a wood element. Both East and Southeast are wood elements. So that's brown colors. It's also green colors. This particular bedroom actually has or this comforter actually has greens and browns. Now the orange is a fire element so we might want, might not want to put that in there but the browns and greens in this would just be perfect. Now what makes wood, what makes wood grow? Water does. So a watercolor is always perfect in an East corner bedroom. A watercolor would be again, blue or black or purple. Now, some people say that maybe they don't like any of those colors, but you can always use purple. Purple is what I call the Feng Shui beige. So if nothing else fits, go with purple or go with lavender and either of those colors will go in any of the sectors of the bedrooms in your house. So next time you are shopping for a comforter, think about using Feng Shui and choosing the colors that harmonize with the corner that your bedroom is in and then you might just find your sleep better at night.
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