The Magnolia Story

Genre: Non-Fiction

This is the true-life story of Joanna and Chip Gaines, the designer and contractor, respectively, of the show, Fixer Upper, on HGTV. We learn about how they met, their growing family and how they started out as two unknowns, without a penny to their names, and now, a famous duo, who have turned their one-time small business into an empire of many home-good products, stores, design and much more.

I love Fixer Upper, and regularly DVR their show. In the beginning I would faithfully watch the whole show, but I now, truthfully, skip most of the antics in the middle and just watch the introduction about the home owners and the end when the house is all finished. Joanna does the best job designing functional and beautiful spaces and, together with Chip, makes it look so easy. This book, as you might imagine, was not particularly insightful or moving. But, I, nonetheless, liked learning that from the beginning to now there was a learning curve for these two. This show, like most things in our very (overly) visual world, shows the audience the progression of a house falling apart and being beautifully reconstructed and designed in a matter of an hour’s time and, most of the time, under $400K (I live in a part of the US where house inventory is limited, and property prices are skyrocketing!). All the while, these two laugh it up and generally seem stress free. I like getting the reminder, that, like most worthwhile things in life, creating anything requires hard work and is generally associated with a steep learning curve. Aside from this, I thought it was really interesting to learn that these two don’t stop! They are true entrepreneurs and their achievements are due to long work days and endless negotiations of time and energy. This was enjoyable enough and a quick read.