Sorry, ‘Fixer Upper’ Fans: Much of the Furniture Is Just There for the Big Reveal
Published July 17 2021, 3:23 p.m. ET
After renovating dozens of houses on the HGTV series Fixer Upper between 2013 and 2018, marred renovation experts Chip and Joanna Gaines are back “with new ideas for turning outdated homes into jaw-dropping, innovative living spaces” in the new series Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, according to the Magnolia show’s logline.
But those jaw-dropping spaces might look a little less jaw-dropping off-screen. In the original Fixer Upper, at least, the furniture wasn’t included.
Yeah, much of the furniture on Fixer Upper was just there for staging purposes, and then the production staff carted it away unless the homeowners decided to buy it. Read it and weep, people.
Joanna said the renovation budget doesn’t include furniture.
In a now-offline 2015 Q&A about the show, Joanna confirmed that her and Chip’s Fixer Upper clients have the option of buying the staging furniture at the end of filming.
“Our show features real clients with real budgets. The furniture budget is not part of the renovation budget; it’s something some clients add at the end,” she wrote. “About half of our clients already have all their own furnishings (some of which I use for the reveal), and others buy the items I decorate the home with.”
But Joanna also offered a good reason for the staging: “The main reason I decorate the rooms for the reveal is because I want the clients to get the full picture of how to maximize their newly renovated space.”
A former ‘Fixer Upper’ client said she ended up buying some of the staging furniture.
Former Fixer Upper client Jaime Ferguson — who appeared with her husband, Kyle, in the Season 3 episode “A Big Fix for a House in the Woods” — confirmed that the furnishings aren’t included in the final product.
“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,” she explained to lifestyle blogger Rachel Teodoro. “ We decided to keep the coffee table from Wayfair.com, two striped chairs from Wayfair, and the dining table. Joanna gifted some of the music room items that she had custom-made for Kyle. So special!”
That client did say, however, that Joanna used a lot of her furnishings in the final design.
Jaime seemed to have no regrets about the experience, giving Joanna props for doing “an amazing job” and for incorporating some of the pieces that Jaime and Kyle already owned.
“I have a big blue buffet that’s special to me!” she said. “We bought it when we were first married. It was cherry wood. One day in Austin, I decided I wanted to jazz it up, so I painted it blue, antiqued it, and added gold gilding. So when Joanna wanted to use that piece in our final design, it made me giddy! … She also used our antique gray and black dresser … and our old sofa in the music room. She hung a few of our things up as well, like a mirror and some framed music sheets in the music room.”