The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home by Shea McGee

The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home by Shea McGee

408 pages

Published September 2023 by Harper Horizon

Publisher's Summary: 

Whether it's through her thriving design business, Studio McGee, her popular Netflix series, Dream Home Makeover, or her online community of over five million followers, Shea McGee has shown the world how the principles of high-end design can be applied to any home. As the title of her new book suggests, designing rooms for maximum impact while also remaining approachable to any who enter is an art. But it's also a skill that can be learned because it's inside each one of us.

In The Art of Home, Shea takes us through every room of the house, starting with an explanation of process and then guiding our entryways, living rooms, kitchens, offices, kids' rooms, and even our utility rooms. With step-by-step guides paired with her own design projects and the power of her personal stories, Shea helps us transform the most important parts of our lives and how we live.

What I love about design is the opportunity to dream and then will that vision into existence.

Join Shea as she teaches us to dream and then shows us how to make it reality. Her new book, The Art of Home, is as functional as it is heart-stoppingly beautiful and it will maintain a presence in your home for years to come.

My Thoughts: 

You may have heard of the Studio McGee line of home goods at Target.  I mostly became aware of it there because of influencers on Instagram, who go nuts every time a new collection is released, causing so many of the pieces to sell out quickly. But it wasn’t until I was browsing Netflix for something to watch and came across Dream Home Makeover that I actually became aware that the Studio McGee was created by Shea McGee as part of a company she and her husband own (of course it was – Target isn’t collaborating with just anyone!). Think Chip and Joanna Gaines and you’ll understand how McGee’s efforts have expanded into television, both higher end and more affordable product lines, and now books. 

I learned about the book while watching Myquillin Smith (the Nester) in a Cozy Minimalist community video. The community had a summer reading group - best I could do was try to read a couple of the books (success on that score!). I expected not to be able to get this book for a long while so was surprised to have gotten it in time to participate in the discussion. 

The Art of Home is very much a book designed on the outside to live on the coffee table of a room designed by McGee. Neutral, uncluttered, and yet, somehow, eye catching. And that’s just the outside. It’s equally beautiful inside, filled with two-page spreads of full-color photographs of rooms McGee has created in the past ten years and her own home. Are they all my style? No. McGee has a distinctive style and uses a lot of neutrals (something I always find beautiful but can’t make myself do in my own home). But are they all beautifully done? Yes, yes, they are. Which makes me want to read what McGee has to say about why the spaces were created they way they were and why they work. 

McGee walks readers through the full process, from the very earliest stages architecturally designing the room to the finishing touches. She demonstrates how to mix patterns, provides definitions, guidelines, and tips for a variety of design and décor topics. If you’re not formally trained or haven’t been doing room renovations for years, there is a lot to learn here. I think it would be really useful to have as a resource if you were contemplating renovations. One day, hopefully in the not so distant future, we’ll be doing some renovations and I can definitely see myself purchasing a copy of this book to help walk me through the process.