Joanna Gaines is giving fans a sneak peek at oldest daughter Ella’s bedroom at the family’s Waco farmhouse.
And the reason is both sweet and a little melancholy.
In a new Instagram post, the former HGTV star shows a beautiful video of 18-year-old daughter Ella’s bedroom at the Gaines family’s Waco, Texas farmhouse.
The room shows sloped ceilings with two skylights and a striking chandelier. The light-filled room is anchored by a bed covered in pink bedding. It has a mid-century modern console table at the end.
The bed is surrounded by lush green plants of all sizes. Joanna also takes viewers into Ella’s bathroom, which, like the bedroom, is filled with plants.
In the caption, Joanna Gaines explains, “When Ella went off to college, I became the caretaker of her plant babies. I hope these pretty plants like me as much as they liked her!🤞🧚😅”
Ella Gaines’ Empty Bedroom Speaks Volumes
Joanna’s sweet video of daughter Ella’s room reveals that not only does the college freshman have her mother’s love for plants, she also has Jo’s eye for design.
But the sweet video also conveys the sadness Joanna Gaines feels faced with Ella’s empty room.
The designer has been transparent all along – admitting that even though she had already gone through it with oldest son Drake leaving for college, Ella’s move across the country would be a major adjustment.
In a July interview with People, Joanna said, “Ella, our second kiddo, she’s graduating this year, so we’re going through that again with another kid leaving the nest and trying to stay emotionally stable.”
Chip asked Joanna, “Do you think this is going to be harder [than with Drake?]”
Joanna confessed, “Yes. I think there’s an emotional difference. With Ella, we love to go to antiques shops, plant shops and go get coffee — that’s our rhythm. I kind of feel like I’m losing a friend in my everyday life.”
“It feels like what’s coming this summer will be a tidal wave of emotions, and I am not going to brace; I’m going to stand there and take it with him,” Joanna says referring to husband Chip.
Joanna Focuses on Embracing Change
Drake Gaines attends the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas, That’s about an hour from the Gaines’ Waco farm. But Joanna reveals that Ella’s “heart was captured by a university even farther away than the one where my oldest, Drake, has settled.”
Some media outlets have reported that Ella is attending Parsons School of Design in New York City. But the Gaines have never revealed where she is attending school.
Joanna Gaines’ Instagram posts about her daughter’s departure focused more on the emotion. The picture showed suitcases and a white stuffed cow at the foot of the stairs at the family’s Waco, Texas farmhouse. The caption simply read, “Our little girl, all grown up. ✨🙏🏼🥹 #headedtocollege“
But in the latest edition of the Gaines’ Magnolia Journal, Jo admits, “Being in close proximity to my kids is the only way I’ve known to parent.”
Jo explained, “My confidence as a mom is deeply intertwined with physical presence. I know how to read their faces, I know what foods heal wounds. I know how to stay up late. To be here when they need me. I’ve had to refine how to show up for each of them, all being so different, but almost 20 years in, I started to feel like I finally had the hang of it… “
But all of that has changed as Drake and Ella moved out. ”I’m already wondering how to hold this—them—well from afar. What does embrace look like when, to me, it feels like my kids are a world away?,“ Joanna Gaines wrote.
“Again, I’ve found myself without the right answers. Only a comfort that all playbooks start as blank pages and the revelation that maybe my pixie dust wasn’t proximity after all, but instinct, and a love so relentless that it simply never gives up.”
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