The long-awaited design book from the New York Times bestselling author showcases the beautiful spaces behind Studio McGee and the tools needed for crafting them on your own. When it came to the cabinetry design, I wanted a shaker detail, and then we added this little cove bead along with the profile of the cabinetry. We worked with Killowen on the build of our home, and they also do cabinetry, so he helped bring that custom detail to life. Some of the info about their life was interesting and new to me but a majority of the book was things you already learned and knew about them if you watched their show on Netflix. 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.

The photos are sooo detailed that you can almost feel like you’re physically in the room looking at things. They really paid attention to the quality of the images. Interior design superstar, bestselling author, and host of the EMMY-nominated Netflix’sseries Dream Home Makeover, Shea McGee will release her highly anticipated design book, The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home on September 12, 2023 with Harper Horizon. I knew I wanted a plaster hood that had a delicate slope to it and a really great texture. Then, I wanted to frame out the edges to create balance symmetry because we don’t have walls on either side. We ended up with these really tall cabinets with latches on either side.When designing a kitchen, we typically always start with the range and the hood as the focal wall, and then we build out from there. Tyler, with Killowen Construction, was awesome, and he drew our entire range wall to scale so I could see it and make changes before things got serious. Shea McGee founded her design firm, Studio McGee, with her husband Syd in 2014 and together with their team, she has designed hundreds of homes across the country. As their design portfolio and following grew, it paved the way for the launch of their e-commerce brand, McGee & Co., two years later. Their popular Netflix series,Dream Home Makeover,is entering its third season. With a vision that beautiful design can be approachable, they have become one of the leading innovators in the interior design industry. Their firm has become a premiere online retail destination and continues to share their light-filled aesthetic with millions. What I wish is that they would have included pictures, just like many memoirs do. She mentions a lot of specific projects, and I would have appreciated seeing the pictures there instead of a lengthy description (that I kind of skipped), which resulted in me having to Google the projects. It would have been nice to see pictures of their first home, the nursery, their rental in SLC, etc. Make Life Beautiful is raw, honest and motivating. A captivating read as Shea & Syd navigate us through the early days of their relationship, family and growing business. A form of a modern day romance success story. I enjoyed reading about their compelling journey that shaped their design empire we know as Studio McGee. Truly inspiring in every way.” - Monika Hibbs, Founder and Creative Director of Monika Hibbs and author of Gather at Home 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.

Syd was working with his oldest brother and decided to leave that business,” Shea McGee said. “As he was deciding what his next step would be, I asked him to help me on the side. We made a very good team. He and I have very different skill sets and very differentiated roles. It worked once we got over inserting ourselves into each other’s goals and started to trust each other. We sold our home in Utah and invested that money as a launch pad to start our business.” The Lacanche Range is a beautiful work of art, and it was a splurge, but for me, this was the focal point of the kitchen. It comes from France, and it took about 6 months to get here, and it was worth the wait. We went with the double oven, and we have a griddle that Syd makes chocolate chip pancakes on for the kids every single morning. We went with a color called Chantilly, which is a soft white, and it has the silver and the brass, tying in a lot of the metals we have working throughout our home. In a world of picture perfect, Syd & Shea are a much needed breath of fresh air. It takes courage to admit that things aren’t always perfect. I applaud them for authentically sharing their story with the world.” - Mikel Welch, interior designer, lifestyle expert, and TV show host

From the beginning, I always wanted putty-colored cabinetry, meaning a creamy, off-white color on the surround. But we have this 13-foot island, and I felt like if I was to do the same color on everything, it would fall a little flat. Both long-time and new fans will not only gain insight into how the McGees built such a successful company but also be inspired to apply design principles to their lives. Inspirational topics to help readers build an authentic life include For the one million-plus followers who turn to Syd and Shea McGee for advice on building a beautiful home and life, Make Life Beautiful is a behind-the-scenes look into how the couple transformed Shea’s small room of fabric samples and big dream of becoming a designer into one of the most successful and fastest-growing interior design businesses in the country.

We incorporate coffee table books in nearly every project we design, and they can be a great source for learning more about your favorite artists or designers. Here, we’re sharing a few of our favorites and a few tips for styling them. No. 1: Architectural Digest at 100 In 2020, Shea and her husband Syd McGee released Make Life Beautiful, their New York Times bestselling autobiography which offered fans an insider and intimate look into how they built their business. Our mission to Make Life Beautiful has taken on various meanings since we started this journey,” Shea notes, “but our goal from the beginning has been to inspire people to make their homes a more beautiful place, and it remains the same. We want to continue to inspire people to create beauty around them and believe that good design has the power to draw us in and spend more time with the people we love. It all starts with love at home.” 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.Shea is a designer’s designer. Whether you are a professional designer or just a weekend aficionado looking for new ideas, this is the book for you. I can’t recommend it highly enough,” said Matt Baugher, SVP and Publisher of Harper Horizon. Apart from the “quality” of the binding, the book is stunning. This is more than a coffee table book. It’s kind of like a mantelpiece masterpiece. I love that the shape has this bridge details, but then it has this square arch here that makes it still feel modern. Scroll through for some inspiration from some of our favorite reading nooks we’ve designed and styled over the years. Plus, at the bottom, a step-by-step guide to creating your own cozy reading nook at home. The book switches every paragraph between Shea and her husband Syd's perspective. Personally, this made it very choppy and repetitive for me and would have loved if the book was all in one person's perspective. Even switching from chapter to chapter would have flowed a lot better.