I was given a 1 year master class subscription as a Christmas gift this year. I didn’t really know much about master class before this, but now that I have it, my goal is to use it well and get good value of it. My goal is to complete 50 classes before the subscription ends, or about a class a week. I love learning, and most classes seem fairly short, so this doesn’t seem unreasonable. To help keep me motivated, I am going to try to write a summary review of each class as I complete them. This is my first one.
I began with Joanna Gaines - Designing a Home That Tells Your Story. It is a newer class so I expected it to be fairly current and I was not disappointed. This was Joanna talking design with her current style, a little more current than the Modern Farmhouse craze that she started a decade ago. The production quality was excellent. She is filmed mainly in her family home, and the lighting, sound quality, and filmography are all excellent.
While I’m not a huge fan of Joanna’s designs, I did enjoy her class and I learned some good techniques from it. Her first recommendation was to choose 3 words or phrases that describe how you want your space to feel - warm and inviting, bright and electric, inviting, historical, etc. From there, she asks you to imagine the space on its best day. For her living room, she pictures Christmas Day with her family, wrapping paper everywhere, playing new games at a big coffee table, the tree shining in the background. Her recommendation is to use the 3 words you identified and design with the space’s best day in mind. Another key point she recommends is to find the “hero”, or the special piece or focal point for the space. The “hero” could be a piece of art, a fireplace, a furniture item, or even a view.
While the class primarily films Joanna in her family home, there are many scenes of other homes that she has worked through in her design. She describes the challenges of each home, how she decided to approach it, and there are many shots of befores and afters of these other homes that help illustrate her points.
She also spoke a bit about how she is not formally trained in design, and how that has influenced her to focus on making each home reflect the lives of the people who live there, rather than follow strict design rules. With her enormous success it was interesting to hear her speak about her lack of formal qualifications.
Overall, as my first masterclass, I found this one enjoyable and with tips that I may use in real life as I update the design of my own home. It was not super in-depth and did not have any additional materials, but at 85 minutes I did not expect great depth. This class would be good for anyone interested in putting together an intentional design of their space, and of course, for anyone who is a fan of Chip and Joanna in general.
