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Press
Southern Living
Erin And Ben Napier Share Their Dream Home In The Mississippi Countryside
Growing up in Laurel, Mississippi, Erin Napier had driven past her dream house countless times, but she’d never actually seen it. The stately, old brick Tudor isn’t visible from the road, so Erin had never realized what was hiding behind the rolling green fields and tall pine trees on a two-lane highway outside town. When her husband, Ben, sent her the listing in the spring of 2021, she couldn’t believe she had missed it all those years. “I was in love immediately—and that scared me to death,” she says. “I thought, ‘We don’t need another house...but maybe we do.’ ”
By Sid Evans
People
Erin & Ben Napier Are 'Living the Best Years of Our Life' with 2 Girls: 'It's Special and It's Fleeting'
Erin and Ben Napier have their hands full of TV shows, businesses and special projects — but the couple still always manage to put family time first.
The stars of HGTV's Home Town recently completed a new home in the country, where they can spend quality time with their two daughters, Helen, 4, and Mae, 17 months, and take a break from the spotlight they've found themselves in thanks to the success of their show, its spinoffs, and now, acting roles in one of the network's first scripted holiday movies, A Christmas Open House.
By Mackenzie Schmidt
CMA's
Erin and Ben Napier present Male Vocalist of the year at the CMA Awards.
It was such an honor to present our friend and mentor, Chris Stapleton, the award that made him the winningest male vocalist in CMA history. Ben got misty-eyed when he opened the envelope. To add to this surreal experience was The Dress. I had about 12 days to find something to wear when we found out we would be presenting. I am ignorant about fashion, frankly. We are not red carpet people. I was lucky enough to meet my style icon Drew Barrymore last year when we were guests on her show. I looked up to her for so many years! I nervously reached out to her to ask: where do I begin to find a dress? I found one I loved but couldn’t find my size... Drew asked the fashion brand Marchesa to help me, and help they did. Because of her and my dear friend Melissa Cole, I’ve never felt so lovely and fancy and outside my norm. It helped me feel like I belonged when I was so nervous. -Erin
PEOPLE
Home Town's Ben and Erin Napier Are Finding Their 'Groove' as a Family of 4: 'Every Day Is a Dance'
Erin and Ben Napier have three TV shows, two stores and a handful of new business ventures on the horizon — but their world still centers on two little girls.
The Home Town stars welcomed their second daughter, Mae, 7 months, last spring and share daughter Helen, 3. And while they admit they don't have all the kinks worked out when it comes to parenting as a family of four, they're grateful to be finding their "rhythm."
By Mackenzie Schmidt
COWBOYS & INDIANS
The Home Town heroes of Laurel, Mississippi, let us in on why they love their slow-moving small town, what home means to them, and why they fiercely champion American manufacturers every chance they get.
2021 was a year of big debuts for HGTV superstars Erin and Ben Napier. Not only did the home-renovating power couple premiere three new shows (season five ofHome Town, the brand-newBen’s Workshop, and the six-part docu-seriesHome Town Takeover), but they also welcomed a second daughter (baby Mae, sister to 4-year-old Helen). These days, though, action-packed years are nothing new to the Napiers — not since HGTV came calling in the summer of 2014.
By Rhonda Reinhart
USA TODAY
'A Happy Accident': Ben and Erin Napier welcome HGTV fans to their new 'Home Town Takeover'
The genesis of their story is the stuff of TV fairy tales. It goes like this: College sweethearts Erin, an artist and graphic designer, and Ben, a woodworker, craftsman and former minister, had their historic home in Laurel, Mississippi, featured in "Southern Weddings" magazine in 2014. Erin gained a slew of Instagram followers practically overnight, one of whom happened to be an HGTV executive who loved their collected, easygoing style. She wondered, might the couple consider a new chapter on television?
PEOPLE
Erin & Ben Napier Feel ‘Blessed’ to Be Expecting Baby No. 2: ‘We Didn't Know If It Was Possible’
Erin and Ben Napier are thrilled to be expecting their second child, but parenthood wasn't always a certain future for the pair. "We're very, very blessed," Erin, who will welcome a baby girl in May with her husband of 12 years, tells PEOPLE in one of this week's cover stories. "I think it's really wonderful to have a sibling if it's possible. And we didn't know if it was possible."
By Mackenzie Schmidt
PEOPLE
How Home Town's Ben and Erin Napier Keep Family Their No. 1 Priority: 'We Say No to a Lot'
Since Ben and Erin Napier's hit series Home Town premiered on HGTV in 2017, the couple has been on the fast track to fame. But just because they're in high demand doesn't mean the couple is willing to put fame over their marriage and their 3-year-old daughter Helen. "We say no to a lot of opportunities," Erin says in the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
By Emily Strohm
Southern Living
Erin and Ben Napier Reveal That Wetumpka, Alabama Will be the Destination for Hometown Takeover
Late last year we brought you the news that the first couple of Laurel were headed out of Mississippi to take on their biggest project yet. Erin and Ben Napier weren’t just going to renovate one home – they were going to take on an entire town. And they were looking to their fans for suggestions. Erin took to Instagram to ask her Southern neighbors for towns who could use some extra love. "If your small town needs restoration and has homes with beautiful architecture that need some love, we want to know about it," her post read.
by Rebecca Angel Baer
People
Home Town Couple Ben and Erin Napier’s Unbelievable Journey to HGTV Stardom: ‘We Never Expected This’
Ben and Erin Napier might be some of HGTV’s biggest stars, but the college sweethearts never planned on being famous. Before the former church minister, 36, and his graphic-designer wife, 34, shot to success on their hit series Home Town, on which they find and renovate homes for families, they were newlyweds trying to fix up their own dream house: a 1925 craftsman cottage in Laurel, Miss.
By Emily Strohm
SOUTHERN LIVING
Love Lessons from Laurel, Mississippi: Erin Napier Shares Her Mother's Best Advice
When she was a girl growing up in tiny Laurel, Mississippi, Erin Napier remembers being bullied from fourth through seventh grade. “I was a bit strange and introverted,” says Erin, who wasn’t interested in makeup or clothes. “Library time was my favorite. I had a fossil collection. I would put together natural history dioramas in old shoeboxes. Or I’d stay home and make a tiger costume—that was really exciting to me.”
By Mimi Read
LOS ANGELES TIMES
When Pandemic Reality Hits Reality Real Estate Shows
Stuck at home? HGTV and the ever-expanding universe of renovation and real estate shows are happy to accommodate — by serving up even more home time.
Since the novel coronavirus disrupted lives — and production schedules — the network has had to get creative to keep Americans tuned in to their favorite aspirational programs.
HGTV paused air dates for several shows. Others that had wrapped, or nearly concluded filming, launched on schedule — sometimes with hosts using the iPhone FaceTime feature to complete a few scenes.
by R. Daniel Foster
Variety
How HGTV Maintains Its Grip on Comfort Television by Constantly Evolving
When David Bromstad, the host of HGTV’s “My Lottery Dream Home,” won that network’s reality series “Design Star” in 2006, the network was a very different place. “Coming in through a reality show, I was just at the start of the big changes that were happening,” he recalls. “When HGTV started, there were still crafts in the morning and quilting — it was a whole other genre.”
By Daniel D'Addario
SOUTHERN LIVING
The Incredible Comeback of Laurel, Mississippi
The rebirth of Laurel, Mississippi, is proof of what real people can do with a little creativity, a lot of commitment, and a deep well of love.
by Danielle Claro
GUIDEPOSTS
Erin Napier Shares How She and Husband Ben Came to Be HGTV Stars
She was a designer; he was a woodworker. Together, the hosts of Home Town stepped out in faith to shine a spotlight on Erin’s hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.
by Erin Napier
Parade
Erin and Ben Napier Give Us a Peek Behind the Scenes of HGTV's Home Town Season 4
The show, entering its fourth season, follows Erin and Ben as they turn dilapidated old houses into dream digs. It’s also bringing new energy to Laurel, an old timber town of almost 19,000 that waned in the mid–20th century once the area’s loblolly pine forests were logged. Laurel has “seen some hard times,” said Ben in the show’s season-one opening.
by Leanne Potts
Country living
How Ben and Erin Napier Throw the Ultimate Small Town Thanksgiving Feast
HGTV's Home Town stars give thanks for their beloved Laurel, Mississippi, during a "Friendsgiving" feast beneath twinkling lights.
by Laura Kostelny
How ‘Home Town’ Stars Erin and Ben Napier Are Preparing for Baby Helen
At age 6, Erin Napier was confident she’d never have kids. “My dad is a doctor in physical therapy and he had all these medical books,” the artist, one half of the husband-wife duo on HGTV’s hit Home Town (season 2 returns January 8) reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. “I found pictures of childbirth and it seriously traumatized me! I was terrified.”
By Sarah Grossbart
WASHINGTON POST
HGTV is a starmaking network. Will this small-town couple be the next Chip and Joanna?
Ben Napier is massive, 6-foot-6, 300 lbs. His wife, Erin — 5-foot-5, slim — is not. She calls him "Big" and cranes her neck in such a constant state of adoration that she appears to be risking long-term muscle strain.
by Karen Heller
GARDEN & GUN
Home Town Strong
After a tornado swept through Laurel, Mississippi, locals Erin and Ben Napier of HGTV’s Home Town start a fundraiser to help get their community back on its feet.
by Caroline Sanders
People
HGTV Is Looking for U.S. Town In Need of a Complete Makeover for New Show — Could it Be Yours?
On their HGTV show Home Town, Erin and Ben Napier have completely transformed their home base of Laurel, Mississippi, one house at a time. Now, the design-savvy duo is taking their talents to a new neck of the woods — and this time, it could be yours.
by Hannah Chubb
NEW YORK POST
‘Home Town’ hosts Erin and Ben Napier are building an empire of adorableness
Apparently they really are as cute as they seem. Erin and Ben Napier, the supernaturally sweet married duo who star in HGTV’s hit “Home Town” reality series, made their name restoring old homes in the quaint city of Laurel, Miss. And when they’re not power sanding floors, they’re putting other couples to shame with the intoxicating beauty of their love.
by Hannah Sparks