The Star of 'Home Town' Just Answered Your Most Burning Question About HGTV Shows

From Country Living

Every time we watch a renovation show on HGTV, we are blown away by the before-and-after shots. While the house itself—the floors, walls, the layout—are obviously the primary focus of Fixer Upper, Home Town, and other flip shows, what would the reveal be without Joanna's and Erin's stunning styling? Empty, that's what.

But despite the decor and furniture playing such a huge role, interestingly, one major question is never addressed: Do the homeowners actually get to keep the furnishings? If so, are they included in the overall budget? Just after revealing another huge HGTV question ("Why don't we see all the rooms in the reveal?"), Home Town host Erin Napier took to Instagram to spill this behind-the-scenes secret as well.

"The homeowners' budget usually does allow for lots of pieces they get to keep + the custom pieces @scotsman.co builds for each home and I like to use the homeowner's own furnishings and objects as much as possible," Erin wrote in response to a question they clearly get asked a lot. "For what's left, we fill the houses with goods from all our favorite local shops around Laurel ... and the homeowners get a catalogued binder of everything we use that shows the special price our shop owners offer if they would like to keep it. It's a kind of 'welcome to the neighborhood!' from locals to these sweet new folks."

So that's how it works! It's nice that the Napiers try to incorporate the owners' personal touches as much as possible, and we're glad the budget usually covers the rest—how hard would it be to say goodbye to all that great stuff?

However, it seems that's not the case on every HGTV show. On Fixer Upper, for example, the majority of the furniture is "staging furniture," according to former client Jaime Ferguson. "When it came time to pack up all their beautiful staging furniture, Kyle and I had to decide what we really loved because our budget at that point was pretty spent," Jaime told Holy Craft. Similarly, former client Rachel Whyte told CountryLiving.com that any furniture used to stage the home is taken away, unless the homeowners have an additional budget for it (except for those beautiful custom pieces Clint Harp makes!). "They give you an itemized list of how much everything costs at the end to see if you want to purchase things at a discounted price," Rachel told us. "I wasn't really sad to see the staged decorations go. We did buy some of the decor, but I was excited to fill our home with our things and make it ours."

That leaves us with one more question: What does the house look like after the HGTV cameras and borrowed furnishings have been cleared out and replaced with personal belongings?

Well, Erin also addressed another issue in the same post: her "more is more" approach to decorating: "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."

So true! We love her down-to-earth style, and we can actually see ourselves living in the rooms she designs. With that said, we can't wait to see what she does with the "mid-century modern" house set to appear on this week's episode—a task she called "really stepping outside of my comfort zone."

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