Visual imagination

I’m artistic, draw and paint, but come day go day about my surroundings. Very shabby chic. I was a window dresser for a time (or Display Artist, our official title?) and can put eclectic things together which work.
I’d really like to paint Italian style murals on my walls but cant get round to it.
Dress wise I have too much as I love fashion. I sometimes plan an outfit before dropping off to sleep.

I have no visual imagination whatsoever and yet I have a child who is an interior designer and a husband who works in a job where he has to envision what his designs will look like in 20, 60, 100 years time! They try to help me to ‘see’ their visions and sometimes I just can’t.

With practice I am now more able than I was when I got married 35 years ago, so although I can’t ‘create’ a vision myself I can now understand my husband’s illustrations; (light bulb moment just occurred) actually I think my inability to ‘see’ things has been helpful to his work because he knows that if I can ‘see’ what he’s planning then others like me will too.

A friend of mine who did various training courses said there were two kinds of people. Those who say ‘I hear what you’re saying’ and those who say ‘I see what you mean’ and, in business dealings you need to work out which is which. It’s something that always stuck in my mind. I think I’d fall into the ‘I hear what you’re saying’ category as I don’t imagine things very well and I’m in awe of creative people.

Have to say I've always been eventually delighted with my selections thus far but would be embarrassed to admit how much foot trudging and length of time taken from blank canvas to decision.

This is me too, Kim and I'malso particular to make each room look part of the whole as you stand in the hallway.

Clothes-wise for the last few years I wear the same thing every day to avoid having to think. I'm busy so can't be bothered with faffing about.
The same outfits all year but layers in the winter and replace the summer sandals with shoes. Simple.

With clothes I just have a fair range of colours of everything then mix and match until I feel/look right for the occasion ahead. Sometimes gentle, sometimes stunning but always coordinated. As for the domestic scene, I simply build up from a blank canvas with any structural work first. Have the ceiling plaster skimmed if necessary before painting. Woodwork is always white and done by me. Next come the walls with paper selection my greatest challenge. Have to say I've always been eventually delighted with my selections thus far but would be embarrassed to admit how much foot trudging and length of time taken from blank canvas to decision. Dearie me! Flooring is always carpet (yes, I'm that old!) and is colour coordinated to fit in with adjoining rooms and the new one I'm creating. Furnishing is usually already around but gets the odd injection of any piece that needs replacing. Took me a couple of years to redo this house from skin out and I'm very happy with the end result. Don't have one iota of artistic flair unfortunately but I do recognise what looks and feels good for me and I happily settle for that.

I'm with you Fannycornforth no faffing about here either. In fact if I'm faced with too much choice it would confuse me.

As for clothes I decide on the look and buy multiples in my colours

Elderlyperson love the word Serendipity

I cannot make a decision on decor.I hate how suppliers determine what is available to buy and everyone ends up with the same colour schemes.We are having same problem now with new furniture, wanting to replace our oversized lounge furniture(downsized small bungalow).From what we have seen everywhere, its side,coffee,console tables with small sideboards all same in rustic,scandi or industrial look.Reluctantly purchased storage cabinet from IKEA, ideal for amount it holds(DGCs playarea) the total cost for veneered chipboard was ridiculous and for lounge would like something a little more substantial.

I’m not the best, but usually have a fair idea of what I want. With clothes, it’s sometimes taken someone else to point out what’d really suit me.
Younger sister has pointed out the odd thing I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Biggest ‘hit’ by someone else was after I’d made my (reg office) wedding dress - all hand-sewn! - and my mother put me right off it by saying said that although very pretty, it looked like an old-fashioned nightie. (To be entirely fair, she was right.)

It was then a close friend (she still is) who pointed out a dress I would almost certainly have passed by - when we weren’t even looking for a wedding-y dress anyway.
It was perfect.

I consider myself to be artistic, in that I’m pretty good at painting and drawing, but when it comes to interior decoration I’m timid. I know what I like but haven’t the courage to make it work on walls! I think this comes from living in service accommodation for the better part of our married life where you can have any colour as long as it’s magnolia! You develop a magnolia mentality. However, when it came to a new kitchen and bathrooms, I knew exactly what I wanted and it worked. As for clothes, I’m a dead loss, because I have really never cared enough about them.

There's a word for this: aphantasia.

I have no trouble visualising things but it's often difficult to describe it to others. I can't draw at all, but I can envisage a room or an item of clothing very clearly in my mind.

I love the fact that I can get a computer to realise my imaginations for me and I enjoy expressing my visualisations in photo books or illustrated letters to the DGC.

I know how I want a room to look, get all the basics right, then spot bargains for the accessories and the design ends up somewhat diluted from my original vision.

I know what I like and know what suits me but have great difficulty sometimes finding items.

I'm hopeless at envisaging things. If I was looking at a house to buy I would find it difficult to see past the existing layout or decor.

I am not sure, because I am very interested in design and I am always looking and evaluating things I see, shop dispays, magazines, other peoples houses, how they dress. I have a folder of pictures and clippings in my top desk drawer, so by the time I go out to buy stuff for the house, I know what I want and can see the finished room in my mnd's eye.

We are having a kitchen refit and extension built at the moment. This has been mulled over for nearly 5 years, so by the time we went out to order units and think about furniture, I had got it all clear exactly what I wanted.

With clothes, it is slightly different, I only buy clothes when I perceive a need to replace something and I will work out how it will fit in with the rest of my wardrobe before deciding the colour and style of garment I want - and then going out to look for it.

My budget never stretches to my idea so I need to see lots and lots of samples of everything. I need to put them in daylight, dark corners, next to other things I'm definitely wanting to include...
I'm pretty fussy about colour so have been known to try up to seven tester pots in nearly-the-same shade and paint them in different areas of the room to see how they react to the changing light. When I couldn't get mixed a good-enough copy of a yellow I loved (but couldn't afford), I settled on wallpaper with the exact shade quite prominent, instead

If money were no object I'd be so much quicker deciding!

I've had no curtains in my dining room since Christmas as the fabric I like is way too expensive at over £100 a metre - and it's a huge window. I'm waiting till a certain discount fabric shop is open again and I may get something lovely at a bargain price! We shall see...

I can visualise what I want decor wise but find the reality very hard to achieve. I see beautiful ideas in magazines which make me envious.

ElderlyPerson

LauraNorder

Oops just looked up wabi sabi, seems I am misinformed. More about embracing and appreciating imperfection.
I’ll stick to ‘happy accident’ as the thing that happens to me when I make something look good.

You might possibly like these three words.

www.lexico.com/definition/serendipity

www.lexico.com/definition/serendipitous

www.lexico.com/definition/serendipitously

No “serendipity” is something else altogether.

Pretty good, our whole kitchen refurb was ordered online with no shop visits, ditto living room and greenhouse. The garden was redesigned with online research then the gardener and I sourced plants with a list. Both MrJ and I are happy with the results and have received complements from others.
As for proper art, I haven’t really tried any, it doesn’t interest me, but I like and buy others. Clothing is jeans, t shirts, jumpers when it’s cool, swop for shorts when it’s hot. Boots or Skechers, flip flops in summer. I do possess the odd floaty frock for real heat!

Exactly Fanny

I'm able to "see in my mind's eye", what I want a room to look like and what the end result will be. I've got a reasonably good eye for colour and what will "go" in a room and, once bought, I rarely change my mind. unless they've been delivered in the wrong colour, thank you OFL

I have definite images of what I do not want when it comes to colours for the home or clothes.

I know immediately when I see an item of clothing, shoes, bag or curtain fabric if they are the one .

For example I have had a list of items which I desperately needed (ok wanted) have mooched around pre-lockdown and looked on-line with no joy. I went out Thursday with DH trailing behind as a redundant bag carrier (wasn’t expecting to find anything I liked) and managed to get all but one of the items on my list in under an hour and a half involving three shops.

LauraNorder

Oops just looked up wabi sabi, seems I am misinformed. More about embracing and appreciating imperfection.
I’ll stick to ‘happy accident’ as the thing that happens to me when I make something look good.

You might possibly like these three words.

www.lexico.com/definition/serendipity

www.lexico.com/definition/serendipitous

www.lexico.com/definition/serendipitously

If it's any consolation FannyCornforth my brother was also an artist and his wife used to despair because he would burn the paintings that didn't work out, in the garden! I wish I lived near you and could encourage you, because I have this belief that everyone can produce art but need some hand-holding for the process.

Is “wabi sabi”, that concept of making a visual virtue of an imperfection, eg a mended pot?

Regarding art:
I'm exactly the opposite to you, Laura and Alizarin
I always have a strong mental image of what I want to create; and the finished result rarely fails to disappoint
As a child I was very talented at drawing, but always hated what I'd done. I used to sit at my Nan's dining table, drawing for hours; and then, to the adults horror, it would all go in the fire.
I really wish that I could have a more positive attitude to it!