It’s always a treat when Home Town’s Erin Napier graces our screens. While we love seeing her design skills at work, we like to know what’s going on behind the scenes, too. That’s why we headed over to her Instagram to see what we could uncover about the beloved HGTV host. Ahead, discover 10 things you might not have known about the 35-year-old corporate graphic designer-turned-home renovator and restorer.
She purposely leaves her daughter Helen’s face out of photos.
If you’ve followed Erin Napier on social media over the years, you may have realized that, while she frequently posts snaps of her daughter Helen, her little one’s face is never actually in the shot. In January 2021, Erin revealed in her Instagram stories that the reason she doesn’t post Helen’s face is to protect her likeness and shield her from fans' unrelenting attention. “We love and appreciate everyone who supports the show, but Helen doesn’t owe anyone anything,” she concluded her story.
She’s great at improvising.
It’s no secret that Erin is the queen of improvisation. Whether it’s a Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile coloring book for her daughter Helen or a gorgeous DIY mercury glass mirror backsplash for one of her home renovations, she’s never afraid to roll up her sleeves and get creative to bring her vision to life.
She adds a sentimental touch to every single home she decorates.
As if fully updating each home she works on isn’t enough, Erin always goes the extra mile to add something sentimental to the space. In one episode, she included a custom-embroidered blanket with a quote, in another, a colorful painting with family members painted as woodland creatures. All this is to say, if her design skills don’t make you reach for the tissues, her attention to sentimental detail most definitely will.
She has a family handshake with Ben and Helen.
Erin, Ben and Helen are three peas in a pod—and they have a handshake to prove it. Well, not technically a handshake, but an adorable pointer finger touch that they consider the equivalent.
“‘I need a family touch, mama daddy,’” she captioned the photo above. “(Our family ‘handshake’ at bedtime and when we leave for work that I hope we never stop doing.)”
She’s not one to shy away from wearing her heart on her sleeve.
Erin regularly takes to Instagram to highlight just how much she loves Ben. While the pair may seem like a couple of newlyweds, they’ve actually been married for over a decade and known each other even longer than that. They met in junior college and shortly after hanging out for the first time, they knew they were meant to be.
“Six days later we decided we would get married, and that was that,” she told PEOPLE.
She gained recognition through Instagram.
Erin has been using Instagram to showcase her style sense for years. And, after being featured in Southern Living for a home renovation she worked on, HGTV producer Lindsey Weidhorn found her on Instagram to make the connection. See, social media networking is a real thing.
But she’s not a huge fan of social media.
Even though she was discovered on Instagram, she’s not a fan of how the platform opens her up to being discovered—and scrutinized—by thousands of people.
“The more I learn about social media, the more it frightens me so I’m going to make an effort to spend less time here,” she wrote in one of her many anti-social media posts. “People weren’t built to know the opinions of thousands or even hundreds of their ‘friends.’ The real world is a much nicer place, honestly.”
She donates her clothes from the show.
Love Erin’s style sense on Home Town? Good news: You can actually purchase her clothes!
“I’ve donated lots of my clothes from seasons 1-4 of #HGTVHomeTown to @theremnantlaurel, a co-op shop with a purpose, so you can buy my gently worn wardrobe while helping women in need,” she shared on Instagram. “The Remnant is a shop that funds Dwell: a transitional housing community for women in Laurel who are coming out of rehab, abuse or homelessness and gives them the tools to return to society successfully. This ministry is part of season 5, and I can’t wait for you to learn more about it. Come shopping at downtown Laurel’s coolest new thrift store @theremnantlaurel!”
She loves overalls.
While Erin always gets dressed up for the big reveal at the end of each episode of Home Town, on any random day on set, you can likely find her in airy overalls.
“If you’ve never felt the cool breeze of an industrial shop fan filling up your overalls, making you look like those people who parachute indoors, you ain’t lived,” she captioned the photo above. “(PS - Steve Jobs was onto something wearing only black shirts and jeans. This has been my uniform since, oh, the first day of COVID quarantine and you’ll see that cooler weather will not stop me now. PPS - Ughhhh no this is not a pregnancy announcement. If that time comes, instagram will be the last to know. 😘)”
She’s just like us.
2020 was the most unprecedented year in our collective history—and simply being a celebrity doesn’t erase that. In fact, Erin shared that, like us, she’s had a hard time with the pandemic.
