How Chip And Joanna Gaines Have Changed Since Fixer Upper's Premiere

Chip and Joanna Gaines have changed a lot since Fixer Upper's premiere. When the HGTV television show first introduced the world to the small town couple, they became a success story they never could have imagined. "My dream was really small," Joanna admitted on Today. All she wanted to do was open a home decor shop called Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas. Her husband, Chip, was working hard on the construction side, and when HGTV found them, they were trying to make a living flipping houses. They had no aspirations to ever be on air.

Though Chip and Joanna were terrified of television at first, now they go after every opportunity they're given with humility and humor. "The worst thing that happens: you go start a store, it doesn't work," Chip explained. Fast forward many years later, and Fixer Upper has completely flipped their world upside down. "Best thing that happens: you go start a store, you're picked up by a reality television show, you become a multimillionaire, and you move to the Bahamas," he joked.  

Here's how Chip and Joanna Gaines have changed since Fixer Upper's premiere.

What started as a small way for Joanna Gaines to share her love of design with the world turned into a massive media frenzy. Her world completely changed when a producer from HGTV just happened to stumble across her small blog in 2012. "I don't think we ever knew it was going to be this national thing," Joanna admitted to Today.

By the time fans had followed Fixer Upper into Season 3, it was the number show one on cable television. By Season 4, it was taking up 10 percent of HGTV's air time (via Dallas News). And by the time their television series came to an end after five seasons, it had received two Emmy nominations.  

In 2018, after becoming the most popular duo in HGTV history, Joanna and Chip Gaines left HGTV for a special reason. "We really want to focus on this break and take a step back to let this all soak in," Joanna told People. Understandably, fans were frazzled that Fixer Upper was ending, but it was just the beginning of what the Gaines were building.

As if Chip and Joanna Gaines weren't busy enough, they decided to tackle television while also working a construction business and chasing after four kids. However, when the couple signed on for Fixer Upper, their dance card wasn't full yet. Many other opportunities followed, and alongside their growing businesses came a growing family as well.

In 2018, Fixer Upper's Chip and Joanna Gaines welcomed their fifth child, Crew. It was then that the pair decided to take a break from TV. Watching their kids grow up while working on Fixer Upper had already been enough of a whirlwind for the overwhelmed family. "Those years just flew by because there was so much happening in the moment," she explained to People. "I feel like I can really take this one in and relish these moments."

However, the Gaines family decided to take on television once again in 2021, and they show no signs of slowing down — in all aspects of their life. So are Chip and Joanna Gaines having another baby? Perhaps. "I think Chip just loves a full plate," Joanna told Today.

Before Fixer Upper catapulted Chip and Joanna Gaines in mega-celebrity, few people knew that the couple was having trouble financially. Money was tight when it came to making their mortgage and feeding their family of six. "There was a good ten year run to where Jo and I were literally consistently worried about things that most people take for granted," Chip explained to Success Magazine. It was thanks to the successful show that the couple was able to make a real change, building the foundation for their futures. 

However, this Hollywood-type career took the pair even further than that. As Chip and Joanna's fan base continues to grow, so does their bank account. So just how much are Chip and Joanna Gaines really worth? The two now have a net worth of $20 million. However, becoming multi-millionaires was never the Gaines' end goal — it was much simpler than that. "I was wanting to support my family," Chip said. "I wanted to live, you know, the American dream." It sure sounds like they sure are now!

A year before Fixer Upper premiered, Chip and Joanna Gaines fell in love with a farmhouse outside of Waco, Texas. Its 40 rolling acres seemed like the perfect place to raise their family — and dozens of farm animals (via Country Living). However, much like all the properties the pair work on, it required a bit of labor.

Throughout Season 1 of Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna released a series of YouTube videos showing fans how they were renovating their home. As their fame came to fruition, so did their own fixer upper. "Just like all of us, our homes have a journey of their own," Joanna posted to her blog. Here's a look inside Chip and Joanna Gaines' gorgeous farmhouse.

While the Gaines family have a busy life running their businesses and appearing on our television screens, Chip and Joanna still claim to be homebodies at heart. "You can drag us out and make us travel and even put us up in some fancy place way nicer than where we live, but the reality remains the same," Chip posted to their blog. "We want to go back home."

Needless to say, fans quickly fell in love with Fixer Upper. So to share their in-demand designs, Chip and Joanna Gaines launched their Texas based retail businesses, Magnolia Market at the Silos – but countless viewers all over the country wanted to bring the heart of Waco into their own homes, too.

To that end, in 2017, the Gaines family finally made a deal with Target and created a collection called Hearth & Hand to share with the world. "When guests visit [our shops at] the Silos in Waco, Texas, they get to experience the true essence of what Magnolia is," Joanna said in a press release. "We know that not everyone can come visit, so we are excited to bring some of our home to yours." That was a welcome change for eager fans!

To preserve the Magnolia image in the Hearth & Hand collection, Joanna made sure that the national collection shared a similarity to their small store in Waco. "It's like a little shop inside of Target," Chip explained on their blog. "Jo keeps calling the look 'modern farmhouse,' whatever that means."

Chip and Joanna Gaines didn't have to leave the small world of Waco, Texas, in order to get famous — rather, the fame came to them instead. This Fixer Upper couple now has fans all across the country, and the entire world now knows them by name. In fact, in 2017, the pair's social media presence earned them a spot on The Hollywood Reporter's list of Top TV Personalities. 

With over 12 million followers on Instagram alone, Joanna was named the number one personality that people loved to follow across all platforms. It turns out that she had more fans posting to her social media pages than Jimmy Fallon and even Oprah Winfrey. "We get tweets from celebrities," Joanna told Today. "It's very surreal."

However, these two homebodies — and now household names — are hopeful that they can still lead normal lives outside of the limelight; the urge to live the simple life hasn't changed for them.

What makes Fixer Upper so successful isn't just the fact that fans love to watch Chip and Joanna Gaines flip houses. People also love that these two Texans come across as an average family that fans can relate to. 

In 2016, the Gaines realized there was more to them than renovations — and that publishers were interested in their story. To that end, the couple gave fans an inside look at their lives in their book The Magnolia Story. Within its pages, Chip and Joanna explain how they began their businesses, what life lessons they've learned, how they've changed, and even shared the secrets to their success. Not surprisingly, the book quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. "Getting to tell this story together was like uncovering and reliving half-a-lifetime's worth of happy memories, failures, and adventures," Joanna said in a statement.  

In addition to The Magnolia Story, Chip and Joanna have published additional tomes to the delight of Fixer Upper fans. That includes the countless cookbooks they've written, as well as a children's book inspired by their own little ones.

When Chip and Joanna Gaines signed on to star in Fixer Upper, they originally thought no one but locals would tune in (via Today). Boy, were they wrong, as things have changed significantly for the couple. In fact, the Gaines family can't go anywhere anymore without being recognized. "No matter how many times someone asks me to sign their hat or asks Jo for a picture, it still feels surreal," Chip Gaines told The New York Times. "We don't think of ourselves as 'famous' even now." Rather, they view themselves simply as a family of fixer uppers. 

Yet even as they've gotten super famous, the Gaines always remember to stay grounded. "We're trying to make it to where it's as normal as possible for our kids, that they don't get the magnitude of this," Joanna explained in an interview with People. So while television has treated them well, raising their kids right will always come first.

Here's what Chip and Joanna Gaines were like before the fame, if you're curious.

Joanna Gaines had always dreamed of opening her own businesses. In fact, when she met Chip Gaines, "she had this whole book, a notebook, full of businesses that she would hypothetically start one day," he shared in a chat with BUILD Series. Impressed by Joanna's ideas, Chip wanted her to make what she wrote down a reality.

Once they took over the world of television, another industry seemed to be calling out to Chip and Joanna. And after releasing countless cookbooks, it really should be no surprise that the pair wanted to get into the restaurant business. So in 2016, Chip and Joanna Gaines fixed up an abandoned restaurant that the locals had always loved. They turned it into Magnolia Table, and when that was a hit, they also opened a quaint coffee shop called Magnolia Press in 2020.

At the end of the day, fixing up a food business wasn't so foreign to Chip and Joanna, either. "We're especially excited about the custom furniture Jo designed that you'll find throughout the Press," they wrote on their blog.

Since the first episode of Fixer Upper aired in 2013, Chip and Joanna Gaines have had quite an effect on audiences everywhere — so much so that in 2019, a whole year after they wrapped up their show, they made Time's list of the 100 Most Influential People. These two small town celebrities have built up a big fan base!

During the awards gala, Chip and Joanna found themselves rubbing shoulders with celebrities like Taylor Swift and Dwayne Johnson — quite the change from their humble Texas roots. "It set in really quickly and overwhelmingly," Chip shared in an interview with Today. "It was like, what are we doing here?"

Truly, the Gaines never dreamed they'd be where they are today. Their initial plan for Joanna was to eventually take over her family's automotive business, after all (via CBS Sunday Morning). "If I had planned my life, it never would have ended up like this," she explained in The Magnolia Story. "So maybe it's kind of fun not to plan."

Everywhere Chip and Joanna Gaines go, they want it to feel homey. They want others to feel the same, too, so bringing people to Waco is what they're most passionate about. "What it really comes down to is our desire to create a place where people feel welcomed," Joanna explained on their blog.

Fans can spend the night in homes that were featured on Fixer Upper, but in 2019, Chip was dreaming bigger. He decided to buy a boutique hotel close to their downtown shops, and naturally, fix it up. But at nearly 53,000 square feet, it was a much larger project than the pair was used to. "Let's just stick with houses," Joanna initially said in a chat with Today. But after hearing Chip's plans for the place — and getting over the fact that it may be haunted — she began to share his vision. It makes you wonder: can you hire Chip and Joanna Gaines to do your house?

Later that year, Chip and Joanna Gaines purchased a historic castle in Waco as their next fixer upper. Talk about ambition!

Two years after Fixer Upper ended, Chip and Joanna Gaines let fans know that they were bringing it back in 2021 — finally! "We are mostly just giddy about getting the band back together again so we can share the story of these families and their homes with you," Chip revealed on their blog. However, that's not the entire story.

It turns out that these two Texans have more to share than just their love of fixer uppers. To that end, in 2019, Chip and Joanna Gaines announced that they're launching their own network on television, appropriately called Magnolia Network. Set to replace the DIY Network, the Gaines family are creating their own lineup of original content, from cooking to crafting (via People).  

Truly, fans have become obsessed with Chip and Joanna, something that Magnolia Network president Allison Page is keenly aware of. "It was their authenticity, relatability, family focus and zest for life that made America fall in love with them," she told Variety.

During Joanna Gaines' time on Fixer Upper, she found herself falling in love with cooking. But with dozens of growing businesses and her five kids to contend with, how could she possibly find time to cook? By being paid do it on TV! Here's the truth about Joanna Gaines' new TV show.

Clearly the Gaines family can do more in the kitchen than just design it. So after authoring cookbooks and even whipping up some at-home cooking videos on YouTube, Joanna will host her very own cooking show on Magnolia Network. "I want to share recipes with you that I love," she wrote on her blog. "But, even more than sharing recipes, I hope it reminds you of what a gift it is to spend time in the kitchen, being creative and making good food for people you love."

To tease her new television show, Joanna starred in a special on the Food Network; three million viewers tuned into In the Kitchen with Joanna Gaines to see her cook (via Variety). Is there anything this Waco woman can't do?

Waco, Texas wasn't necessarily a tourist destination before Chip and Joanna Gaines featured the town on television. But ever since Fixer Upper became a massive hit, more people make the pilgrimage to Magnolia Market than the Alamo; over 30,000 visitors from all over the world stop by the shops each week (via Waco Tribune-Herald). "This entire business idea was born completely out of a dream I didn't know could ever come to life," Joanna admitted on her blog.  

While Fixer Upper may have started out as a show about flipping houses, for the Gaines, it's so much more than that: it's special footage of their family, town, and way of life. "It makes sense that we like it, it makes sense that my grandmother likes it, but why does everybody else like it?" Chip shared in an interview with Today. 

While their mass appeal is something that Chip and Joanna still can't wrap their minds around, they have revitalized Waco and given it a new energy. "We just feel extremely thankful," Chip added.