Joanna Gaines is known for her farmhouse chic style, but according to the former HGTV star, creativity doesn’t come naturally to her. The Magnolia Network owner opened up about the early days of her career, sharing a surprising truth about her start.
Joanna Gaines on Creativity
Gaines detailed her journey from small-town house flipper to fan-favorite HGTV star and what it took to get to where she is today.
“I’m not fully creative. It didn’t come natural,” Gaines said in a YouTube video shared by the Magnolia Network on Thursday, May 28. “It’s something I had to fight for.”
According to the mother of five, her brain is an even split of creative and analytical.
“I had worked for my father’s business for 10 years. I was his bookkeeper,” she explained. “Like I sat in the back office and I crunched numbers and I loved it. There is something in me where I’m like half operational. I’m half
creative. And so that’s the constant tug and pull that’s happening in my brain.”
She continued, “The creative is like, oh, I want to go all out. I want to do plaster molding. I wanna, and then this side of my brain is like, but you can’t. So what can you do? So that middle place is my design. So it really does take a lot out of me to step into that creative space.”
Joanna Gaines’ Advice
The “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home” star made it look easy as she catapulted to fame when her hit show, “Fixer Upper,” premiered in 2014. However, the Waco, Texas, native doesn’t believe that some people are just gifted with design talent.
“I don’t buy the whole idea of like some people have a gift of design and most of us don’t,” she said. “I don’t believe that because I didn’t have the gift of design. The more I put myself to work, and I allowed myself to fail and try again, the more I became passionate about it and the more it became my own thing.”
The “Shark Tank” star offered an invaluable piece of to those attempting a design renovation: “Trust your gut.”
“The thing I always like to explain to people is when you come to me and say, ‘I don’t know what I want. I don’t know what I like.’ It’s not true,” Gaines added. “You make decisions all day long. You know what you like and don’t like. Now, you may not know specifically with design. But the more you practice and the more you trust your gut and the more you get out of your head, you can become an expert of telling your own story.”
She continued, “Home in on the feelings you’re wanting to create. Home in on the things that you love. It’s not just about studying and knowing and having the experience. I think when it comes to your own home, everyone has the gift of telling their own story. You just got to get out of your head and start relying on your heart and your gut.”
