“Fixer Upper” catapulted Chip and Joanna Gaines to superstardom—but it also helped other Waco, Texas, craftsmen find success and fame.
Clint Harp, who served as the Gaineses trusted carpenter throughout their HGTV run, opens up on how he handled the sudden fame and how much money he made from the show.
Clint Harp on ‘Fixer Upper’
During his latest podcast episode with his wife, Kelly Harp, for their show “On Couch with Kelly and Clint Harp,” Clint revealed he was “never paid as an actor” for the hit series.
“Your life is kind of blowing up, and I don’t want to like overblow his like we don’t become Tom Cruise, obviously. But at the same time, you’re getting from where you’re at to like where you go, a huge level of exposure, but you’re not getting paid LA money,” Kelly said in a video shared via YouTube.
Clint responded, “I was never paid as an actor on “Fixer Upper,” and we were paid one season as, like a contractor, right?”
They went on to say that it became common for them to leave the house as a family and be recognized around town, or while on vacation.
“Like we don’t feel like— first of all, we weren’t even Chip and Jo. I mean, we were again, like they were going through a whole other stratosphere of stuff, but like it was a thing. It was definitely a thing,” Clint said. “So many people think that we are like hired actors who were invited to come out here or we tried out for the show…at least then we would have had a contract.”
The pair agreed that in the moment, the feeling was “do whatever you got to do to stay on the show [and] take whatever opportunity.”
Clint Harp Today
Following his time on “Fixer Upper,” Clint landed his own shows, “Woodwork” and “Against the Grain.” He later transitioned to Chip and Joanna’s network, “Magnolia Network,” with his show “Restoration Road.”
“I filmed for 5 years my own show and traveling the country and that was better,” he said of his experience filming “Restoration Road.”
Kelly agreed, “It was just you. It was not really our business. It was hard to travel, so there were other things, but we could compartmentalize, I think, in a way that made it really hard.”
In the years since “Restoration Road,” Clint shut down his woordworking company in Waco, Harp Design Co.
“Between being partners, being parents, managing HDC, Kelly getting a master’s in clinical psychology, me making a television show across the country, and running our sweet Airbnb…we have discovered our limits!” the couple announced in January 2023.
He has gone on to launch a successful real estate career in Central Texas.
“I’m really, I’m proud and I want other people who are going through similar things like this to feel proud of themselves for sticking in there and fighting through really difficult [situations]. That’s the prize is that you figured out how to keep going,” he said during the recent podcast episode.
