HGTV’s Erin Napier Speaks out After Fan Backlash Over ‘Home Town’ Decision

HGTV staple Erin Napier is responding to the backlash she received from a recent episode of Home Town. During the March 17 episode, Erin and her husband Ben Napier bulldozed an unsalvageable house and built an entirely new one in its place, a move that was a first for the couple. 

The project was for a newly married couple who were looking for an “eclectic, English apothecary style” property with lots of cottage charm. Thankfully, the couple loved the home, but some viewers didn’t like Erin’s choice of a green-and-white striped awning for the front porch as opposed to the architectural team’s proposed wooden arch. Erin took to Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, to explain the decision, noting that the budget was minimal and they had to make tough decisions.

“Our first new build and on a $150k budget, but we did all we could to infuse it with historic charms,” she captioned alongside a slideshow of the new house. “I know y’all were upset I asked for the striped awning vs. the arched porch,” she continued. “It was edited such that you didn’t hear the part where we learned the cost to do that (about $3500) would have made it too expensive to have any woodwork and larger trim inside.”

Erin added, “The juice wasn’t worth that squeeze for us—millwork is the difference between new construction and historic homes when you’re talking interiors, and with LVT floors we needed every last bit of character inside. I love the charming awning, and it seems like they did too.”

The couple have been on the network since 2016. In an interview with Collider to discuss the show’s seventh season, the couple attributed their seamless work relationship with one another to them balancing each other out. “We understand the balance that we have in our relationship and how that affects design,” Ben said. “So, if you design a room to be overly masculine or overly feminine, it falls flat.”

Erin added there needs to be a good mix of things to make it work. Ben said it’s all about mixing old and new.

He said, “I would say that that’s something that we’ve learned. But it was before the show. We knew it going into, you know, making this show. We’ve learned it more since we became parents, like knowing that we have gifts.”