Home Town’s Ben & Erin Napier Talks Ben’s Injury, “Biggest Renovation” Yet

The Big Picture

• Home Town Season 7 premiere features a special guest star, following Ben’s shoulder surgery recovery. This has affected his ability to work on renovations during this season.
• The pair talk about how they each balance each other out, design-wise, and how their favorite episode is the “origin story” renovation.
• Season 7 will cover one of their “biggest renovations” to date for the show’s 100th episode, set to air in February on HGTV and Max.

After first breaking out onto the scene in 2016 with the HGTV juggernaut, Home Town, home renovation experts Ben Napier and Erin Napier are back for their most heartfelt season ever while looking forward to “some of the best episodes” they have to offer. Attracting a whopping 32 million viewers on HGTV, Home Town returns to the network and Max with a fresh set of episodes that continues to spotlight the couple’s refreshing renovations in their small town of Laurel, Mississippi while navigating their busy family life. In an exclusive interview with Collider, the couple reveal their favorite renovations this season – including their “origin story” — and how Ben’s surgery impacted filming on Season 7 of the series.

During the conversation with Collider, the Napiers also shared how they undertook one of their “biggest renovations to date” with a 5,000-square-foot downtown home in Laurel. Noting how it’s a real “landmark” for the quaint town, the two admit it’s not a “traditional house” in the usual HGTV sense. With the show back for an additional 20 episodes, fans will no doubt have a lot to explore with the couple on “their best season ever,” but before the fun begins, the two treat viewers with a very special guest close to the pair’s heart in the season premiere – and no, it’s not Chris Stapleton again!

‘Home Town’ Season 7 Premieres Welcomes a Special Guest

In the Season 7 premiere of Home Town, Ben Napier is seen recovering from shoulder surgery and while it appears he might leave his wife Erin Napier to tackle all the renovations on her own, the two enlist the help of a very special guest star in their best friend, Jim Rasberry, who helps renovate a home for a Canadian family making a major change. It was a decision the two were most excited about as they told Collider.

With Erin admitting how bringing Jim on was “hilarious” as fans will see him bring a bit of comic relief to the situation thanks to his out-of-place attitude, Ben reveals it wasn’t all that bad. “The crazy thing is Jim has done renos — oops, I just spilled the beans,” he said as Erin reassured him it was OK. “But he is a much better financial advisor,” Ben adds.

How Ben Napier’s Injury Affected ‘Home Town’ Season 7

With Erin Napier taking to Instagram last spring about how her husband Ben Napier was recovering from a rotator cuff injury that found him needing to have bone spurs shaved off and cartilage trimmed, the woodworker and entrepreneur tells Collider he is feeling better, even if he hasn’t fully recovered. As he works to build his strength every day and jokes in the series that it was due to skateboarding and fighting off bears, Ben admits recovery has impacted how he interacts with renovations on the series, hence his bringing on Jim Raspberry and their other friend Josh Nowell for help.

“I got that full range of motion,” Ben said on a video call, gesturing with his arms over how far he could move them back and forth. “I was released from therapy by Erin’s brother — my physical therapist — and his only rules were, he said you’re free to do anything except lift something heavy in the gym and don’t do anything stupid at work, so I feel that’s pretty good.”

While fans might not see him lifting countertops and breaking down too many walls this season in comparison to previous demolitions, Ben still managed to get around as best he could to help restore some of their town’s most historical homes. Casual watchers might not notice the change in his usual routine, but die-hard fans of the couple will no doubt pay attention and find the instances of his shoulder recovery in full effect.

‘Home Town’ Stars Ben & Erin Napier Tease Their “Origin Story” Episode

As Erin Napier goes on to share how Season 7 of Home Town has “so much heart” and sits high among her favorites with Seasons 1 and 4, her husband Ben Napier chimes in that it’s these next set of episodes that will sincerely tug at the heartstrings of fans and give them another look at Laurel’s historical charm.

“This season, we do some heirloom houses that have been in the family for generations; we did our biggest residence [a landmark in Laurel],” Ben said. While little has been shared about the landmark, it will be the show’s 100th episode airing on February 4. Erin took to Instagram at the time of filming to share how they celebrated the milestone honor with every homeowner from the past seven years alongside their crew, producers, and all of HGTV.

However, aside from the esteemed honor of hitting 100 episodes, the two are also excited about their “origin story” renovation that Erin gushed over. “Maybe our favorite — or one of our favorites — is our origin story at our alma mater at [Jones College] we got to renovate a house on campus that was big,” she told Collider of the location where the two met and fell in love. Ben interjects that the episode allowed them to go down “memory lane” as they got to tackle a lot of things they used to do when they were kids.

How Ben and Erin Napier’s Design Ideas Balance Each Other Out

The husband-wife design duo has been working together for years and collaborating on various renovations, and across it all, the two have learned the significance of each other’s styles in their professional approach. Throughout all seven seasons, Ben Napier and Erin Napier’s partnership has expanded their design approaches in ways that wouldn’t have been possible without the influence of the other, and it’s all about balance.

“We understand the balance that we have in our relationship and how that affects design,” Ben said. “So, if you design a room to be overly masculine or overly feminine, it falls flat.” Erin chimes in that there needs to be a good mix of things to make it work before Ben continues that it’s the same with old and new things. “I would say that that’s something that we’ve learned. But it was before the show. We knew it going into, you know, making this show. We’ve learned it more since we became parents, like knowing that we have gifts,” he said.

“We both have gifts, but it takes both of us,” Erin said as her husband responded, “It takes both of us giving 150%!”

‘Home Town’ Is Drama-Free, According to Ben and Erin Napier

For those who are avid watchers of HGTV and watch home renovation shows like Good Bones or Help! I Wrecked My House with Jasmine Roth, there are times a restoration goes completely haywire and sparks a bit of drama across the renovation. But Ben Napier and Erin Napier admit there’s is nothing like that on Home Town. “We’re the most low drama show of all, all the drama that you see on our show is 100% real,” Erin said. “Like if there is, it’s going to be termites if there’s drama.”

“Sometimes there are things like, ‘Oh, the windows came in or the tile comes in, and it’s broken because it got broken in shipping and we can’t get anymore,” Ben said. “There’s that sort of stuff drama. It’s never planned. It’s never, you know, what is the word — manufactured?”

Home Town Season 7 premieres Sunday, January 7 on HGTV and Max.

Watch on Max