Gaineses’ appeal is built to last
Chip and Joanna Gaines have installed the last bit of shiplap on their final Fixer Upper.
The HGTV power couple said goodbye to the series that put them on the map last week, with a finale that left fans emotional and reeling. But the burgeoning Gaines empire can’t be contained by a single HGTV show.
To get more Gaines, look no further than their books, blogs, restaurants, rentals, shops, design lines and, of course, new HGTV spin-off series, Fixer Upper: Behind the Design (Tuesday, 8 ET/PT), a half-hour behind-thescenes style show that gives viewers a closer look at the designs that went into some of the Fixer Upper homes. Or if you want to know more about the couple, you can simply pick up recent copies of People to find all the details of their growing family and home life.
The first episode of the spin-off offers the backstory of the renovation from November’s Season 5 Fixer Upper premiere, when Chip and Joanna turned Patti Baker’s bungalow into a cozy cottage, and includes footage that didn’t show up on that episode.
So how did the couple, one of many construction-and-design duos on HGTV’s slate, turn into such a phenomenon? What’s that something they have that the others don’t?
To put it simply, the Gaineses have designed and built the perfectly modern celebrity couple. With their sweet family, Joanna’s farmhouse-chic aesthetic, their goofy marriage and their perfectly played marital roles, they check all the boxes in our beauty-obsessed celebrity marketplace.
It starts with the look. While it may seem that everyone is into the stylish barn motif in interior decorating these days, its ubiquity can be traced in part to Joanna, who slaps shiplap, sliding barn doors and vintage books into every house she can. The minimalist style, which relies on black, white and gray more than bright colors — and, of course, giant clocks — fits nicely into your Instagram feed alongside those influencers and beauty bloggers.
As a married couple, the Gaineses also have the look down. The couple’s onscreen personalities fall into distinctly American archetypes, with Chip’s “aw-shucks” playfulness perfectly pairing with Joanna’s organization and demure style. Call it a softer, chicer version of the lazy husband and nagging wife. It’s a familiar trope, but
modernized and positive enough not to seem regressive.
Whenever we see Chip and Joanna on air, on a magazine or online, they are a version of #relationshipgoals. Celebrities we know from Hollywood or the music industry may be just like us in some ways, but there is unquestionable distance from their fans, no matter how relatable they may appear.
The Gaineses are not like that. They are just a couple from Texas with a family to take care of and a business to run. There are no movie premieres, location shoots or sold-out concert arenas. And while this is true of many HGTV couples and personalities, their setting in Waco, Texas, helps them relate to Middle America more than shows such as Flip or Flop, set in pricier cities. And although there have been rumors about their relationship (which Chip told the Today show had “some credence”), their seemingly happy marriage is more endearing than Flip’s tabloid-frequenting Tarek and Christina El Moussa, too.
Their lighthearted banter is more natural than the likes of the identicaltwin Property Brothers or Hilary Farr and David Visentin on Love it or List It. They work together seamlessly, easily fixing “problems” that arise in their “renos.” Their sweet outings and DIY projects with their TV-adorable children are aspirational. They’re always teaching and learning and spending the kind of quality time with their family that you wish you could.
Fixer Upper may be done, but Chip and Joanna aren’t going anywhere. And expect every new home and design show to try to capture just a little bit of that Gaines magic.