2 min read- In a recent interview, Joanna Gaines reminisces about tackling her first home renovation when she and her husband Chip were newlyweds.
- The space was a 1,200-square-foot yellow ranch house in Waco, Texas—though the couple intended to flip it, they ended up moving in.
- Joanna used the space to develop her interior design skills, though she admits the jumbled aesthetic probably looked “confusing” in retrospect.
Joanna Gaines may now be known as the “farmhouse decorator,” but before she and her husband Chip became household names among home renovation enthusiasts, she first tried her hand at a 1,200-square-foot fixer-upper in her hometown of Waco, Texas.
In a recent video from Magnolia Network, Joanna reminisces about everything she learned from this first project. The home in question was a little yellow ranch house that was practically falling apart. Intending it to be a quick flip, the then-newlyweds began working to restore the home on a tight budget. Together, they gutted the interior, painted the walls, and tiled the floors—and they quickly realized that they loved the resulting home too much to part with it.
The house marked two major milestones in the Gaineses’ lives: It was the couple’s first marital home and Joanna’s first full-scale interior design project. Though not yet experienced in the art of home decorating, Joanna explained how she used the space to experiment with her creativity and connect with the emotions that drive her design style. Looking back, she humbly acknowledges that the resulting look was a jumbled collage of themes and aesthetics.
“It was very confusing. I am sure that for anyone who walked in, they were like ‘Oh! She’s really trying her hand at some styles,’ Gaines says. “In that process, I started realizing how you can feel something in each space.”
That sentiment has followed Gaines throughout her career, influencing how she approaches design and decor.
“I think Chip kind of letting me go is really what ultimately taught me that there’s a lot of power to what you do in a room and how you create that space and what you can feel because of that design. The whole journey for me with design was following Chip’s lead,” says Gaines.
Little did he know that supporting his wife’s passions would spark the creation of a $50 million business empire, launch their successful careers, and establish them as a leading force in home renovation, flipping, and design.
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