Feng Shui color and material trend for 2009

Feng Shui colorjavascript:void(0) and material trend for 2009
Posted by howardchoy under art/architecture
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One of my students works for an interior design magazine and she wants to know just before Christmas last year how to use Feng Shui to predict the color and material trend for the coming year.

I told her Feng Shui prediction is done through correlative thinking, and one of the most widely used method is to associate the color and material with the elements of the coming year’s Stem and Branch and use the Wuxing Sheng-ke relationships to do the predictions.

It is more desirable to match the year’s elements; then use a good dose of generate-in, less dose of control-in, and avoid generate-out and control-out, unless one deems necessary. But she must also do the three following things as well:

One is to find out the trend for the current and past couple of years so she has a good sense of continuity from the past to present then she has a better chance of projecting her thoughts into the future.

Two is have a thorough understanding of the current social, political and economical situation of the world, in particular the country and the audience she writes for. The audience’s needs, fears and longings in a particular situation and time frame, should be addressed as fitful as possible in her predictions.

Three is to be general and not too specific in her predictions, and try not to pick a choice that will alienate too many people, but she has to be creative and slightly controversial at the same time to generate “ganying” (mutual response).

She asked me for an example, so I gave her the following practice piece, telling her this is a rough sketch because I have not done my proper research yet and my writing skill is geared for someone who knows a bit about how Feng Shui works and not for a more general audience. Her editor can help her better than I can in this aspect.

“With Yin Earth on Yin Earth, a receptive gray/yellow/brown organic earthy tone pallet will be the dominant Feng Shui color theme for the next year of the Ox. The accent is on a return to authentic and sustainable materials that makes one feels cool, protected and stable.

Next year’s color choice should make one feels nurtured and cared for. They are colors of hibernation deep deep down in the damp earth, but with a generous amount of fire red (generate in) accent to keep us warm and a little bit of wood green accent to keep us awake (control in).

If you ever dream of building a mud brick home, this is the year to do it, you don’t need to go and see your bank manager, just pick up a shovel and dig up the earth on your land to do it.

Make sure you mix the dirt with plenty of hay and water, don’t use corrugated iron for the roof, it will weaken the Earth, use an earth covered roof and grow grass on it for insulation instead.Don’t use metal windows either, use wooden ones instead and let them go gray naturally.

As for flooring material, it should be burnt clay or naturally exposed grayish concrete. Think Yin Earth with a little bit of warm Fire and naturally weathered Wood, being receptive and nurturing in your choice and you can’t go wrong in a Yin Earth on Yin Earth year of the Ox.”

Everything goes in cycles, I would like to think our 230 years old timber and mud farmhouse show below is trendy again in the year of the Ox. Come and spend a few days there, if you have the time: