Fusing Feng Shui with Traditional Country Home Design

Feng Shui has long been considered an acceptable way to build and design a home. It is based on the perceived natural flow of energy, the use of color and light to create a certain atmosphere, and the placement of furniture that will be most conducive to relaxation. If you have a traditional country home, you can fuse it with feng shui.

Colors

Many country homes---particularly those in the south and Midwest portions of the United States---have very definitive color schemes. Extensive use of browns, blues and greens with the occasional red accent are quite popular. With Feng Shui, you use the five elements to dictate the color scheme in your home.

Brown and green are both wood colors, and are representative in Feng Shui of health, vitality, growth and abundance. If you use browns and greens in the design of your traditional country home, you'll be welcoming those energies into your space.

This is especially true in country homes with bare-wood rafters and accents, which can create a uniformity that is popular in feng shui. Those browns can be offset by green plants, green furniture and green pillows.

Blue is a water color, which is representative of relaxation and peace. This is obviously an important energy to create in your traditional country home, and can be expressed through accent pillows, framed pictures, rugs and tapestries. Red, on the other hand, is a fire color, which is geared mostly toward ambition and careers. This is the perfect accent to your country home, and should be used sparingly in decoration.

Lighting

Feng shui teaches us to use lighting effects to promote both the unity of the space and the efficiency of it. Bright lights are discouraged, which works perfectly with the traditional country home design, and dimmer switches are recommended to help control lighting for different occasions.