Accessorizing

A no -brainer: the patience to learn to sew properly. Then I'd have curtains like 3dog's and pillows like C&J and Jan, etc. Oh! And a sewing room like texas hotties( where is that girl?). Sigh.

DIY upholstery? Or, barring that, the ability to make $100 bills sprout from my finger tips.

An extra set of strong arms to move furniture when I want to. One arm and a whipy one don't add up to easy quick decorating LOL

It's not a skill, but I could use it anyhoo...the power of fearless decorating. Sometimes someone will post something entirely rediculous (to me) ie, Pink dining room? and I'll instantly think "E GADS PINK is AWFUL!" and then you'll see 15 examples of the most beautiful pink dining rooms follow and I'll think...sheesh I wish I was brave enough to explore the unusual like that. The results are normally gorgeous, but I'm too chicken!

LOL I just read that "the power of" ok my son is 4 and likes super hero's (oommie zoomie...the power of patterns and math and...wait they sound like decorators LOL). If I was a real super hero I'd wish for the power of a black amex and the power of a mail man who never brings the bill LOL

all of the above!
Okay, but if I had to pick one...color sense. I am always second guessing my choice once finished.

ditto to ideefixe.

Accessorizing, use of color, and mixing colors and patterns.

Well I was going to say spacial planning but then I read sewing.

Wait - I can learn to sew and if I can learn to sew I can learn to upholster so I'm going to stick w/ spacial planning. I don't think that's something that I can learn.

Or wait - mixing patterns.

Okay - now I'm torn.

Spacial planning or mixing pattern?

Okay, ladies, having $100 bills sprout from your fingertips or miraculously getting a black amex but never the bill are not decorating skills. They're just luck! (or planning, as my mother would say when reminding me why it might have been better planning to marry an investment banker instead of a professor);-)

Seriously, for myself I was thinking mostly about scale, because I have a limitation in that area-- often choosing things smaller than I should. But then I saw upholstery, and yes, of course, I wish I could upholster, too.

And I don't know if this counts, but I wish I had the "neat as a pin" skill. When I am walking my dogs around the neighborhood I see some houses that look terrific not because of a striking color combo or outstanding landscaping job, but because they look so incredibly neat and crisp. Same thing when I see the photos of some of the houses folks have here and on blogs. They look super tidy. But even when it's sparkling clean, my own house always has a slightly rumpled look about it--even the yard. Like they slept in their clothes.

I wish I could do a lot of things better than I do but I really wish I could be more daring. I tend to stay on the safe side of decorating.

LMAO Leafy...I was out weeding the garden last week and someone was taking a picture of the house. They said to me "lovely place, do the new owners stay here all year?" I smiled and said most of the year (apparently the new owners don't garden heh heh). The gal says "what a glamerous life they must live in that house".

Apparently she couldn't quite imagine the gardener living here, but I guarantee she couldn't have imagined the inside, which has scaffolding in the dining room, china in every other room due to the work in the dining room, the dog pooped in the parlor that morning and DS drug the carpet runner from the hallway into the other parlor to make a race track, so half a dozen hot wheels were "racing" on the carpet sitting catty wompas on the parlor floor (wrinkles are hills). Dishes weren't done because the fridgerator install guys broker the water line and had to shut it off to the house. the toy room looked like we had 40 children playing in it. It was trash day, all can's full needing to be empty...I ran from the house to the garden to escape LOL Yup galmour all the way! I like the rumpled cloths analogy. It fits up far more often than I want.

Upholstery/drapery skills.

Less expensive tastes.

Ditto palimpsest! No question.

I'm going to take my answer outside and say landscaping. I have such admiration for those who are knowledgeable about plant life, and have the ability to plan a garden that looks beautiful year-round. I am especially envious of those who have big, beautiful blooms on seasonal rotation so that their landscaping is always lush and showy. I wish I had that know-how and vision.

Better sewing skills. Visualizing things comes very easily for me; the actual sewing part of it is MUCH more difficult for my puny skills . . . and usually shows in the final product, unfortunately.
Lynn

Excellent thoughts and answers!

Yes -- instant money! LOL!

Yes -- our home always looks rumpled, crumpled and needs a really down-to-the-brass-tacks cleaning. Wish I had the energy and the strength to do it! Or a cleaning crew! LOL!

A large truck to carry things when I find them!

Tiling skills.

Plumbing skills.

Some electrical skills.

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

I'll take one of those magic Amex cards when you find one...

I wish I knew more design theory...understanding the 'bones' of good decor better. So that my attempts at bring more color into the house ended up looking like Sarah Richardson's results, instead of as if a crayon box exploded.

The moxy to be perfectly happy even with the crayon box explosion. (I'm closer to that than I am the theory.)

I do have flair. I need more moxy to trust my own vision.

I need a seriously bitter dose of patience. I have an easy dozen projects waiting for me (need paint for one, fabric for another...) My job is to start things.

Oh, and I really wish I could ID furniture better!

A more discerning eye for white.

Usually I am comfortable with my design choices and skills. I was humbled shortly after I joined and read the thread on white paint. I know there are nuances, but gee whiz!
So that is the skill I would like to have.
I'm having a ceiling painted white. I'll post pics of the space soon and beg all of you experts for help.

Here is a link that might be useful: BM white paint

Furniture placement. I am a genius at creating furniture arrangements that look great but don't work--no place to set down a mug of tea, can't get to the windows to raise or lower the shades, can't easily vacuum, people bump their legs on the coffee table, can't see the TV. But the room looks wonderful!

Or I do the opposite--you can move easily in the room, see the TV, get to the windows, put down your tea, but the furniture looks like what would happen when a little girl picks up her doll house and carries it downstairs--everything looks all jumbled up.

I study inspiration pictures not for the colors and designs, but for how they get the furniture to look good in the room.

I wish I could learn to combine fabric patterns. I love the look of layered fabrics and patterns, and wish I could loose my fear of combining patterns.

Upholstery and slipcover know how . WT's I can sew. I can stumble around with choosing fabric since I used to be a mad quilter. paint color I can get. But if I could just whip out new upholstery and slipcovers- Look out!

Drama.
I've been a pretty good designer in my time; I understand color and lighting and function and proportion, and can work in three dimensions, and preserve circulation through the furniture placement, and I know enough about construction and installation to talk turkey with contractors, and was pretty good at wrangling clients...but I am a little too sedate, and tend to quietness and calm.
I'd like to know how to blow the roof off now and then...

Energy! It takes me forever to do anything (as y'all know from my bedroom curtain stories.)

I was outside today, trying my hand in the yard. I got all potted plants done, two hostas planted, some landscape lights put in the ground, washed the front porch bench, and my new tomato bag filled, along with the thistle bird seed sock. After that, I was exhausted!!!

The bedding plants will have to wait until tomorrow, and then the screen porch gets cleaned on Saturday. Sigh...

I would love to be able to paint (not walls) but on canvas, gorgeous art, have your own showing at a gallery art.

The ability to find a money printing press. Now that would come in handy! Keep watching my CL, but I never see those for sale!

I'd want the art of furniture arranging~ without a doubt.

Upholstery and fine woodworking/finish carpentry for me, please.

Oh, and a time turner.

Flyleft...
What's a time turner??

Now, if we all just lived near each other, we could barter! I'll help with landscaping in exchange for draperies-teehee.

Well I don't think I need any of the above. I'm a perfect decorator that can do anything she sets her mind too.

In my head. LOL
What I need is time management. Or just someone that kicks me in the butt every few minutes and tells me what time it is. Hey, maybe all I need is a grandfather clock that bongs every fifteen minutes to remind me that time really does move along whether I'm doing something productive or not. I have absolutely no concept of time. Sad but true.

I have my grandfather clock set 10 minutes fast so when it bongs, I jump to action if i am suppose to be doing something!

Actually NHB I have a wall clock the chimes every fifteen minutes that I forgot all about. I don't know why I forgot all about it. Well other than I turned the sound down. LOL.

For me it would be accessorizing. Upholstery I could learn but accessorizing is a skill and a talent I don't have.

Ditto with auntjen there...LANDSCAPING!!! I do OK in the house, but I do not have outdoor skills or a green thumb...plants commit suicide at my house.

bronwynsmom, I guess bronwyn hasn't read Harry Potter yet? :)

Hermione is so smart she carries a double classload, and Prof. McGonagall has given her a time turner, which can set the time where she needs it to be so she can go to two classes simultaneously in succession. *Lovely* invention.

So I could be driving my daughter somewhere at the same time I'm, say, reupholstering a sofa :)

Bronwynsmom don't you have a blog? I may of asked you this question before but can't remember the answer. Don't you live in a brownstone in Brookyn?

....Jane

For me it would be accessorizing. Upholstery I could learn but accessorizing is a skill and a talent I don't have.