Trying looking at your photo upside-down, or sideways, or with squinted eyes. It sounds silly but it can help your eye to focus on the visuals, without the layers of 'blindness' that we have with our homes.

I was just thinking the same the other day.....So true.....I can look at someone else's room and immediately have ideas....how about a bookcase in that corner, you need to bring your blue to the other side of the room, straight panels in a soft print would work on that window, etc .....

But i look at my own room and get so frustrated and don't know what to put where, can't pick out the right fabrics.....

feisty68 -- great ideas! I should maybe just take off my glasses...everything will look like blobs ;-)

joaniepoanie -- glad I'm not the only one.

A thought I had was maybe I can't think of ideas for myself b/c I know how much work or money it will be to make changes LOL!

Have you ever disliked your garden until you looked at it from the back toward the front? Amazing! but I (and I have had many friends say the same) designed backward or I see different when I see it from the back to the front. My garden is gorgeous backward and forward, not so hot. LOL. It does look pretty from my desk as well because I am looking out from a distance. I guess men are the same. They look better until we closely examine them and then...well, they become human.

I wonder if it is because you aren't looking at the photo of someone else's room with a bunch of limitations in the back of your mind. The color and fabric choices are not immediately limited by what is liked or not. You may subconsciously resist rearranging the furniture of your own rooms in ways that might change your existing walk patterns. You are emotionally attached to Uncle Ed's ottoman, and cannot guiltlessly consider removing the behemoth. And there will be infinitely more nagging, little flaws you perceive that cloud the emotional big picture; photos of other people's rooms miss those little paint splatters, tiny fireplace cracks and messy wall patches. Topped off by what melle_sacto noted--the money, dust and work!

As mentioned look at the room from different angles. Move furniture out of the way or stand on your couch, etc. to get different views. Also sit on the floor and look up and stand on a step ladder and look down. I am always surprised at how different things looks for just a slightly different angle.

Sometimes I think we look at the photos of rooms for other people through dispassionate, technical eyes. When we look at our rooms we're looking at them through more contextual and emotional eyes. By that I mean we look at them from the point of view of our DH, our kids, having friends/relatives over for a visit, the cost of doing something, having to keep certain things, the way the light plays, etc., etc.

So much more goes into the making of decisions of our own rooms including the fact that we actually then have to live in them.
We don't have to live in the ones on which we give advice.

So what is the MAGIC TRICK to having objective, unbiased, unemotional "eyes" when looking at our own spaces?

Invite out of town company over.

A fresh eye. Haven't you been away on a trip and come home and it's like you're seeing the house for the first time?

It also looks different when you take pics of your own rooms...you'll see things you didn't see in RL.

Yes yes and yes. When I've been gone and come back, I realize that the clutter is actually MORE clutter than I thought.

I'll try the pictures suggestion, maybe that would make a difference.

I always take pictures of my own space and see exactly what is wrong. Thankfully, things look better in person, so even if it looks awful in photos, it is improved IRL. (I am still aiming for photo-worthy, but that is a slow, slow process.)

I think one reason it is easy to give is advice is that the advice does not always work. Something may seem correct based on a photo, but being in the actual room or having the person's lifestyle may not work. Ditto for taste. Availability also comes into play.

Let's see:

a)Take good photos -- LOTS of real-in-your-hand photos! :)
Turn on lamps -- take lots of angles -- stand on a small ladder (be careful always!) and shoot down into the room .... take the real photos and study them ....

b)Empty the room of ALL accessories -- it is shocking to see a naked room! :) Now take photos around the room ... really sit in each and every chair/sofa in the room .... AND then spend a night in the guest room ....

c)Yes -- planning a party or having guests can really spur on the need/want for changes .....

d)Pretend to be a house buyer .... really consider each room and space ... write down its good points and bad points .....

I can usually see more about my room in a photo than from looking at it in person. But I also agree there is the emotional attachment, or dislike, of items in the room that cloud judgement, even in a photo.

But there are also things a person knows about their own house, like - the tv has to be on that wall because of glare from the sun, the sofa can't go in front of that window because of the a/c, etc.