Home Town returned for a sixth season earlier this month, and star Erin Napier has continued sharing behind-the-scenes looks at the hit HGTV series. Napier and her husband, Ben Napier, have been open with fans about how the show is made since it began back in 2016. One of the biggest secrets the couple revealed early in the show’s run was who actually buys some of the furnishings fans see on the show.
“The homeowners’ budget usually does allow for lots of pieces they get to keep + the custom pieces [Ben] builds for each home and I like to use the homeowner’s own furnishings and objects as much as possible,” Napier wrote on Instagram in May 2017. Other products they bring into homes are created by local shops in Laurel, Mississippi, where the series is filmed. The homeowners are then given a cataloged binder of everything they use, listing the special prices they can pay the local business owners to keep the furnishings. So in other words, the homeowners may have to pay a little extra for things viewers see in the home on the show that was not covered in their initial budget.
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“It’s a kind of ‘Welcome to the neighborhood!’ from locals to these sweet new folks,” Napier wrote. “Some may say my style is maximalist or cluttered, but I say it’s real life. We all have STUFF, or at least I do–and those things are the pieces that comfort us on a stormy night (literally and figuratively) and welcome us home when we walk in the door.”
Things do work a little differently for Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines’ Fixer Upper series. The people featured on each episode of the original series were required to either buy everything from HGTV or return the products after filming is completed, according to Pure Wow. There are some exceptions to the rule though. If Joanna gifts the homeowners a piece from the staging, they could keep it. HGTV also gifted couples one big ticket item after the renovation. HGTV covered the cost of the piece, but the homeowners were responsible for paying for their own demolition. Fixer Upper ended in 2018, but the Gaines are developing new content for Discovery+ and their Magnolia Network.
As for the Napiers, they also hosted the successful limited series spin-off Home Town Takeover, which followed the couple as they took their skills to Wetumpka, Alabama. They also welcomed their second daughter, Mae, in June 2021. The Napiers are also parents to their 4-year-old daughter Helen. New episodes of Home Town air Sundays on HGTV at 8 p.m. ET.
