Chip and Joanna Gaines Found Restoring ‘Musty, Old Castle’ Was a Reminder of ‘Beauty in Forgotten Places’
When Chip and Joanna Gaines first took on their Fixer Upper: The Castle restoration project, it was a little easier for him to see its potential beauty than it was for her. But eventually, it reminded them that there’s a charm in “forgotten places” and that there’s more to “imperfect and incomplete” things than what meets the eye.
Chip and Joanna Gaines bought a castle in Texas in 2019
Chip’s restoration dream came true when the Fixer Upper couple bought the historic Cottonland Castle in Waco, Texas. On the other hand, Joanna was slightly less keen on the idea when they first considered it. But they purchased it in 2019, renovated it, and opened it for hour-long guided tours.
After exploring the castle, Stephanie Allmon Merry wrote about the experience for Culture Map Dallas. “While many original features — including seven fireplaces — were restored, the castle has been fixed up as a home for the future, not a shrine to the past,” the writer noted. They added that “one-of-a-kind and collected antiques” mingle with pieces from the Magnolia Home collection.
“Chip and Joanna’s vision was that they really wanted to honor it with historical pieces but also make it more practical for the modern family that’s going to live here in the future,” a guide explained to Merry’s group at the beginning of the castle tour.
Furthermore, the latest installment of Chip and Joanna’s home renovation series, Fixer Upper: The Castle on the Magnolia Network, focuses on the restoration project.
Chip and Joanna Gaines revealed their castle restoration project reminded them of ‘beauty in forgotten places’
Chip and Joanna shared a message about the castle project on the Magnolia blog, writing, “For nearly 20 years, we imagined what it would be like to breathe new life into this abandoned, century-old castle in the heart of Waco, TX.”
The parents of five further explained, “Finally having the opportunity, we’ve been reminded that there’s great reward in restoring beauty in forgotten places — whether that’s beneath the surface of our own lives or inside the walls of a musty, old castle. And that kind of work is always worth the wait.”
Joanna Gaines had a ‘transformative’ change in perspective after finding beauty in a ‘musty, old’ castle
Joanna wrote about the lessons she learned from taking on the castle, musty and old as it was, in another note on their Magnolia blog, also published in the Magnolia Journal. She shared, “Almost every day, or even several times a day, I have to choose to look beyond the imperfect and incomplete toward a goal achieved or a dream realized.”
But she added, “This shift in perspective has also become transformative for me in every area of my life.”
“Resolving to look beyond the surface of things, for better or worse, past the messiness, the rough-around-the-edges parts of our lives, is how we get to discover our untapped potential, our own diamonds in the rough,” she explained.
On a related note, Joanna turned her castle inspiration into creation by designing a palette of 10 new paint colors for the Castle Collection by Magnolia Home.
