When Chip Gaines brought his wife, Joanna Gaines, to Colorado’s Rocky Mountains for a walk-through of the 1960s dwelling they now call their vacation home, “I saw an investment in the future of our family here,” Joanna tells AD. “You could just tell this house was well loved.” As the couple perused the 3,662-square-foot lodge and its adjacent guest cottages, the mother of five began to imagine family getaways spent enjoying dinner around a large antique kitchen table, playing games by the fire, and waking up early to fly fish on the river out back.
The latest iteration of Chip and Joanna’s juggernaut home renovation show, Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House (the finale airs December 23 on HGTV and Magnolia network, and the series is available to stream on HBO Max and Discovery+), chronicles the renovation of the property—as well as some major changes for the family. “I’m in this weird season as a mother right now of learning to let go,” says Joanna, who can be seen sending their 19-year-old daughter Ella off to college on the show. “But what it taught me is, in some ways, design was almost like my therapy of creating an even more saturated, intentional space that feels like home.”
Before she left for school, Ella left her stamp on the new family getaway. For her TV design debut, she was given free rein over a nearly 375-square-foot cottage on the property, teaching her parents a thing or two about taking risks. With such a small space, Joanna says she and her husband might have opted for a light-colored interior, but Ella “wanted it moody.” The teenager used earthy green tones throughout the miniature lodge and transformed symmetrical closets into ceiling arches—Joanna’s favorite detail of Ella’s design—above the newly installed custom banquette and bookshelves. The bathroom’s burgundy and pale-blue floor tile is not something Chip and Joanna would have chosen, but after seeing the finished product, it inspired the Gaineses to be “braver,” Joanna says.
Still, the redesign of the entire property was quite the courageous endeavor. It was the first time Chip and Joanna flipped a home outside of the Waco, Texas, area, and the project was completed in the span of just six months. “That was the biggest challenge,” says Joanna, explaining that she and Chip only commuted to the Rockies about six times over the course of the renovation. They wanted to create additional bedroom space, expand the size of the main home’s kitchen, and bring in more natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows. Architectural obstacles like these make “my wheels start turning,” Joanna says, noting that she prefers problem-solving her way through a renovation over building from the ground up.
Joanna describes the European-inspired design as “mountain lodge meets cottage charm.” Chip and Joanna kept the home’s hardwood floors, antique brick, and original fireplaces. They added hand-hewn wooden beams to the walls of the main house to complement the preexisting ones on the ceiling—and, to match color, had an artist hand-paint the overhead oak to create a sense of uniformity. “Faux anything kind of scares me, especially when you’re using a lot of real wood,” Joanna admits, “but you don’t even notice.”
Because the home’s original kitchen was far too small for the family of seven, Joanna and Chip used what was once the main home’s living room, installing a range, vent hood, and double oven, plus custom cabinetry with iron hardware, a copper sink, and new brass fixtures. The addition of wall-size windows makes the cookbook author feel like she’s preparing dinner in a “snow globe” during the winter season, Joanna says. “That’s one of my favorite rooms.” And having a long wood table that seats 12 at its center “felt really significant and meaningful,” she adds. “Anytime I can gather my family around the table, that’s the most precious thing to me.”
Furnishing the property was very “personal,” says Joanna. “It was really thinking through every detail for our family.” The big guest cottage, with a newly installed stone fireplace, features plaid wallpaper to give it a more traditional feel for her boys (the couple also shares sons Drake, 20, Duke, 17, and Crew, 7, and daughter Emmie, 15). The warm green exterior on all three structures blends perfectly with its rustic surroundings. Adds Joanna: “This house feels very timeless to me.”
