Joanna Gaines, one half of the Fixer Upper team, revealed: "My home is my safe place,
it is my exhale, it is my shelter from the storm." After seeing her home, it's not hard
to understand why. Here's a sneak peek into the Gaines' beyond incredible family home.
If you were a regular watcher of Fixer Upper, you saw a few snippets of Chip and Joanna
Gaines' home here and there. You already know it's beautiful, but just how did Joanna design
it? The shiplap queen granted Today a tour of the couple's farmhouse in 2018.
When speaking with Jenna Bush Hager, Joanna revealed her secrets behind creating a simple,
inviting front porch. The design guru believes a house should be welcoming — and explained
how that begins at the front door.
"I think little things like potted plants, sconces, front door mat — little things
that just when you walk in just feel intentional."
If you're looking to create a similarly cozy space, Joanna's got your back. In an interview
with Architectural Digest, she revealed her tips for improving curb appeal, advising -
"Freshening up the landscape, adding new shutters, and wrapping dated columns with redwood or
cedar wood. These are all things you can tackle over the weekend and without killing your
budget."
With five children, you could assume Chip and Joanna Gaines have a giant foyer filled
to the brim with kids' coats and backpacks, but that's not the case. In fact, Joanna thinks
families could easily make do without one.
"Some people don't have, like, this carved-out entry space, and so, even if that means a
table, it doesn't have to be this grand foyer. It's just the idea that 'Hey, I can set my
keys down.' It's just like that nice, warm welcome."
The Gaines' entryway may be small but it packs a big punch. Not bad for a small space, right?
Joanna Gaines once called her farmhouse kitchen "the heart of the home" when speaking to HGTV.
However, in 2018, she revealed to Today that it's actually her living room that's started
to steal the show. Much like the home's small entryway, Joanna explained,
"I didn't have a ton of space to work with, but there's something about that I love. You've
got your couch, a couple little stools, but the pieces in here are really special."
Joanna also threw in a splash of color with a green piano.
Mounted to the wall behind the sofa is an oversized antique clock, one of Joanna's favorite
pieces. The clock, which is missing its hands, is also symbolic to the mother of five. She
explained, saying,
"Any time I'm home with the kids, time kind of stands still and I feel like just always
remembering what a gift time is."
Since Chip and Joanna Gaines' lives have changed since Fixer Upper's premiere, it must be nice
to take a break from the fame and just enjoy life with their family in their gorgeous home.
The living room may be the heart of the Gaines family's home, but there's actually a much
different room in the house that has Joanna smitten - the laundry room. With young kiddos,
the room surely gets a lot of use. But Joanna doesn't just use the area to wash and dry
clothing, telling Today -
"This is where I read, this is where I write. This is kind of my space."
In the room sits a washer and dryer, yes, but also a round table with a tray, a few
books, and a candle. This is as peaceful as laundry rooms get. Joanna's reasoning, she
explained, is that if you have to complete a chore anyway,
"Why not do it in a room that you love?"
Plus, she added, it smells fresh. There's no arguing with that logic.
As was evident in the episodes of Fixer Upper, Joanna is all about creating inviting spaces.
It's no wonder she opted against having a stuffy sitting room and instead created an
inviting and cozy, but still useful, office space.
The space is light and bright, as evidenced by pictures on her site. Above the sofa, a
large quote filled the wall. It fittingly read:
"By wisdom a house is built, through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful
treasures."
However, in 2018, a much different beautiful treasure began to fill this space.
Joanna Gaines revealed in Magnolia Journal that while their older kids had shared rooms,
making them share a space with a baby wasn't practical.
"While we didn't have any spare rooms at the farm, this challenge seemed like an opportunity
to get creative with the square footage we had."
So just like that - the office became Crew's nursery.
Joanna kept it real when sharing a photo of her newborn son's nursery. Over 700,000 people
liked Joanna's picture of her newborn's dresser with its half-opened drawer and floor littered
with soap, wipes, diapers, and copious amounts of dirty bedding and clothing. Still, fans
looked past the mess and complimented the plush, fringed rug, artwork, and wall color.
The reinvented room is undeniably incredible. Joanna explained her thought process to Today
-
"I love when nurseries can be pretty neutral and soft. I love antiques, I love a little
bit of the modern elements and so that's all kind of tied in there."
You may remember the fun project Chip and Joanna Gaines tackled in Season 2 of Fixer
Upper. The duo transformed the house's original garage into a "bunk room" complete with two
sets of bunk beds.
The Gaines family now also has a similar setup in their home. In a picture Joanna shared
to Instagram, the boys' room features four beds against shiplap walls painted white.
Above the bed hangs a quote that reads, 'These are the days.'
Not only does the photo show off the epic kids' room, but Drake can be seen cuddling
and reading to baby Crew in his bunk. Can't. Handle. The. Cuteness. As Joanna noted in
her Instagram caption,
"Yes indeed... these are the days."
As the Gaines kids have gotten older, Chip and Joanna Gaines have worked on keeping their
bedrooms up to date and appropriate for their ages. A 2013 Instagram photo of Ella and Emmie
Kay's bedroom shows a cozy space with lots of natural lighting, a gorgeous doll-sized
farmhouse between their beds, and a couple of other miniature homes in the background.
As the girls have gotten older, Chip and Joanna have updated the space. Joanna said she wanted
to make sure that the updates reflected the kids's personalities as they got older. Joanna
made sure to keep the room whimsical by leaving its chandelier intact and also added in some
arched doors, but kept the walls gray, as the color is something that can be built on
for any future updates.
Through episodes of Fixer Upper, fans were able to see some key elements of Chip and
Joanna Gaines' kitchen: white subway tile, concrete countertops, and floating wooden
shelves. While you've likely noticed the beautiful island, Joanna revealed to HGTV Magazine that
the piece is actually an antique, revealing -
"I probably stalked that thing for two years."
She found the large cabinet in an antique store in the family's town of Waco, Texas.
When putting it in their kitchen, the couple decided to paint it white, matching the rest
of the kitchen, and fit it with an oversized countertop. This helped bring together one
of Joanna's favorite rooms -
"I think for me when I get home after a busy day at work the kitchen is a place for me
to unwind."
In an interview with HGTV, Joanna explained her love of the space, saying,
"I love the farmhouse sink, and I love looking out the window at the animals and cows while
I work."
The Gaines' home is about as open-concept as it gets. From the foyer, one can easily
view the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Of course, this is the inviting look Joanna
Gaines was going for and was often an element she introduced to her clients on the couple's
show Fixer Upper. Former client from Season 2, Rachel Whyte revealed to Country Living
that it was actually difficult reacting to each room individually while on camera since
-
"Most of Joanna's designs are open concept."
In pictures shared to Magnolia.com, Chip and Joanna's minimalist dining room transitions
perfectly into the kitchen with the white wooden table and metal-legged furniture. Having
an open-concept dining room also allowed for Chip and Joanna to purchase a whopping 13-foot
Christmas tree. The furniture can easily be rearranged and relocated when more, or less,
space is needed.
As you'd expect, Chip and Joanna Gaines sleep in a gorgeous and spacious bedroom. Joanna
revealed on Magnolia.com that they built the bedroom as an addition to their farmhouse,
so it's tailor-made for the couple.
The master bedroom also features a fireplace, which is the only working fireplace in the
whole house.
Joanna explained that the master bedroom isn't just a place for her and her husband to sleep,
but also a place for spontaneous family gatherings, especially in cold weather when everyone likes
to crowd around the fireplace.
"Once you take the whole idea of design and style out of the equation and say let's tell
our story, I feel like so much of the weight falls off."
The room may be big, but it's still cozy and a place where the Gaines kids can hang out
with their parents.
Back in 2018, Chip teased Joanna about the messy attic in their home. For a while, the
attic was used as a storage space, filled with the usual holiday decorations, odds and
ends, and some materials for future decorating projects.
The once-cluttered space has since been converted into a gorgeous craft room, as Joanna revealed
in a post over at Magnolia.com. This not only added to the home's livable square footage,
but also gave the attic a purpose and the family a nice area to escape to from the rest
of the house and where everyone can work on projects. Joanna made sure to add in lots
of storage space to prevent the space from getting so disorganized again.
There are she-sheds and then there's Joanna Gaines' she-shed. The exterior of the garden
house features a cobblestone walkway that leads to a pair of stunning antique wooden
doors. The inside of the little cottage is equally marvelous, with Joanna revealing on
her site -
"Everything needed to be solid — only using the kind of materials that could handle dirt,
pots and sharp tools on a regular basis."
Although that meant incorporating sturdy zinc countertops and a concrete sink, the designer's
garden house doesn't look cold or stark. Thanks to lots of greenery, tons of terra cotta planters,
and white oak cabinetry, the space is inviting. In the center of the glamorous potting shed
sits a very large wooden table that Joanna uses for working and entertaining.
The couple even grows vegetables for their restaurant beside her garden house. Joanna
wrote about the space, saying -
"For us, this farm represents home — the kind of lasting place that gets passed from
generation to generation, and adding in this garden adds one more chapter to the story."
While it's not technically part of their house, Chip and Joanna Gaines have a stunning greenhouse
on their property, a structure that Chip and Joanna renovated themselves. In a 2015 Instagram
post, Joanna showed a picture of the century-old building that was in the middle of being reconstructed.
So, how did the couple get their hands on the 100-year-old English greenhouse?
As noted on the HGTV website, Joanna rescued the building when she learned that a client
was planning on tearing it down. Instead of destroying the antique structure, she brought
it home and fixed it up. Now, the serene space is a beautiful work of art. Outside the greenhouse
are jasmine vines that climb up the walls of the building. On the inside, it's also
brimming with plants. Among the things Joanna and her daughters plant in there are roses,
fresh herbs, and miniature orange, lemon, and lime trees. From the various pictures
on Instagram, it's obvious that they've been able to turn something that was destined for
the garbage into something that any gardener lover would cherish.
"We could, like, garden together!"
"I love to garden!"
We know that Chip and Joanna Gaines live on a beautiful plot of land, and although we've
seen the magic that is their garden and greenhouse, we actually don't get many glimpses of their
outdoor recreation area.
However, an Instagram photo from Joanna shows that they not only have a stunning outdoor
pool, but it comes with an outdoor fireplace as well. The pool is the ultimate relaxation
spot and the perfect place for the family to congregate on a summer day or evening.
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