Now that we've thrown out America's favorite bedroom hues, what colors are good? All skin tones, tans, light browns and pink help the body feel nurtured. The colors of plants, especially shades of green, add a Venus-like quality to the bedroom. Avoid red, except as an accent. While red encourages passion, it disturbs the sleep. Instead, pick out something slinky to wear to bed in that passionate hue. On the body, it doesn't disturb the slumber, and it promotes some delightful warmth.

      If you lean towards darker shades in the bedroom you'll sleep better. An amazing number of relationships break up over sleep-deprivation in one of the partners. Often times, they're light sensitive, and the bedroom is too bright. Ban all illuminated dials and clock radios from the bedroom (see sidebar). Remove any mirrors that are pointing at the bed. Use opaque window coverings to block out external light. If you do these simple things, you'll go a long way towards saving a sleep-deprived relationship.

      The second key to committed love is also pretty simple, but first it's helpful to understand something about how your body reacts to a space. You have a left and right side to your body, and on your left side is your stomach. This is where nutrition comes in. The Chinese express, "I love you" by saying, "I feed you," and just above the stomach is where we feel our heartbeat. Think of the left side as "mine." On your right side is your liver, where your blood is filtered and the stored nutrition is distributed. The liver is continually balancing the body's various needs and sharing its resources. That's why we extend our right hand in greeting. Think of the right side as "ours." When you walk through a doorway your body reads the left side of the room as "mine" (individual identity and resources) and the right as "ours" (partnerships and shared resources). Energy flows around a space clockwise, from left to right like the body. That brings us back to, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then." In other words, one thing leads to another.

      The sections that relate to romance and relationships are all on the right side of the room. From the point of view from the room's doorway, the right third of the back wall is about your passion, the adjacent third of the right wall is about caring and the middle of the right-hand wall is about committed relationships. Anything you place in the right side of the bedroom should relate to your relationship. Any image there needs to contain pairs, preferably of the same type or species, and should demonstrate a polarity-for example, big and little or male and female. The middle of the right wall is the perfect place for a picture of you and your partner. Furniture placed there should have a sense of balance, such as a love seat or a cabinet with two doors. The best material in the commitment section is real wood because it expresses beauty, durability and longevity.

      Which brings us to the third key. The only photos in the bedroom should be of the couple. Don't cover your dresser with pictures of your kids, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, best friends and the annual family barbeque. The bedroom should be your haven, where you're able to shut out the world. It's hard to relax and be intimately romantic if you feel like the whole family is watching.

      Also, there should be no pictures of angels in the relationship sections. If angels are having sex, they're not telling anybody and if you're telling the universe that you want an angel for a partner, you're missing the point. The same thing goes for religious images. Filling the room with the Virgin Mary and half of the saints leads to separate bedrooms. There are places in your home for all of these things, but that place isn't the bedroom. In any other room, close enough to the door so that you see them when you first enter, place pictures of the two of you with pictures of your loved ones. This reinforces your connectedness, belonging and collective worth. It is a reminder that you are loved and loving, and that wonderful reality helps relationships last a lifetime.

      Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis are directors of one of America's largest and most modern professional feng shui schools, based in Philadelphia. Their articles and book, FengShui and the Tango, are available at their web site, www.FengShuiAmericanStyle.com, or by calling 888-998-BOOK (2665) ext. 3.

  Toss the clock for a good night's sleep