Jenny Marrs is an interior designer, a renovation expert, an author and a blogger who — along with her husband, Dave Marrs — hosts the HGTV original series Fixer to Fabulous. In the series, the couple restores and renovates vintage, classic and sometimes neglected homes in and around their adopted hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. As a renovation team, Dave is the builder and contractor, while Jenny's focus is on the design, decorating and details. As the Marrs' website states, "We believe a home should reflect the personality of the ones who live there. It should be a place where the people and things you love surround you. Perfection is never the goal. Beautiful spaces are most often imperfect and full of character. Just like the people who live in them."

History and Background

Jenny grew up in Orlando, Florida, and attended the University of Central Florida, where she earned a degree in advertising and public relations. She met Dave while the two of them, not long out of college, were both working for the Arkansas branch of the same company (Newell Brands' Rubbermaid), albeit in different departments. Dave's role with the company required him to travel frequently and, ultimately, to relocate — first to Chicago and then to Austin. So, for a while, Jenny and Dave's romance was a long-distance one.

When Dave eventually grew weary of the travel and pace of the corporate lifestyle, he decided to leave the company and move back to Northwest Arkansas to pursue a career in home-building and remodeling. The choice was a natural outgrowth of Dave's earlier background since, growing up in Colorado, he had worked with his father building log homes.

Jenny and Dave Set Down Roots

After the couple moved to Bentonville in 2004, Dave founded the construction company Marrs Developing. "When I said I'm going to start building again," Dave told About You magazine, "Jenny took a big leap of faith and said we'll try Arkansas for a couple of years."

Jenny fell in love with the region and the vintage and historic homes. "We were just going to be here for a couple of years and go back to Florida," added Jenny. "I think, like a lot of people here, we came for a stint and realized how great a place it is. This is home." A couple of years became 20 and counting. The couple still calls Bentonville home. They were married in April 2005.

Life in Arkansas

After the founding of Marrs Developing, Jenny continued in her corporate job but always held an interest in the design aspects of the renovations. Initially, the focus of the company was on new construction, but with the downturn in home building beginning in the early 2000s, the focus shifted more to restoring older homes.

Now, Jenny's interest was piqued. Rescuing and renovating historic fixer-upper homes in a way that preserves their history and integrity was something right in line with her creative leanings. Add it to a love for small-town lifestyle, historic homes and community building and the die was cast. As of 2024, the Marrs had restored more than 300 homes throughout Northwest Arkansas.

Jenny on Fixer to Fabulous

There's a bit of irony in the fact that Jenny and Dave now find themselves among HGTV's most beloved stars. In fact, they'd never given any thought to displaying their work and accomplishments on television. They had to be recruited — and convinced. They were approached by HGTV and pitched the idea for a series after network executives caught wind of the couple's reputation for restoring old homes in the small towns of Northwest Arkansas. In fact, as Jenny told the Australian outlet Nine.com.au, she actually deleted the first email she got from HGTV because she thought it was a joke. "We thought it was spam," said Jenny. "I was like, 'Oh, sure!' … delete!"

Once they realized the proposal was real, Jenny and Dave were still hesitant. Their humble and down-to-earth demeanor made them reticent television personalities, but they were heartened by assurances from the production company that they couple could simply "be themselves" on the show. Moreover, they had a fear their vibrant but rural region might possibly be depicted on television in a non-flattering way. Dave told Arkansas Democrat Gazette: "I was just worried. I was thinking, 'Small town? They're going to try and portray it as this backwoods thing.'"

The Marrs are now active members of the HGTV family. In addition to Fixer to Fabulous and its four-part spinoff, Fixer to Fabulous: Welcome Inn, they've appeared in HGTV's competition series Rock the Block, as well as Home Town Takeover and Bargain Block. Their most recent project is yet another spinoff of their original series: Fixer to Fabulous: Italiano, in which they renovate a centuries-old Italian villa for friends who want to create a Tuscan vacation rental.

Jenny's Design Style

Dave and Jenny have a knack for taking ordinary — or even distressed — properties and transforming them into vibrant, stylized forever homes that, above all, reflect their clients' tastes, personalities and needs. A large portion of this endeavor rests on Jenny's thoughtful design approach and her signature rustic-modern style.

As Jenny explained in an interview with About You, "We love having projects on our own where we have our own style, but when we work with clients it's so important to make sure it's their style. I want it to be for them and reflect who they are." In terms of her own design preferences, she continued, "For now … our style has become more minimalist. I'm constantly feeling this need for simplicity. I really love natural light when possible, natural elements like natural stone and wood. Trying to make things feel very calming is important [as is the idea that] any home we design is comfortable and cozy."

Jenny finds inspiration when working on charming and historic older homes. "The downtown homes [we've renovated] have so much character and quirkiness that you don't find as often in new homes," she said. "When we build new homes, we try to incorporate old things because they're important to us."

Jenny typically leans toward traditional and rustic underpinnings but is not averse to integrating some modern or industrial elements as well. As their website states, "A home needs to express the intentions of its inhabitants. [Your home] should be beautiful — not based on how the latest trends define beauty, but as a reflection of who you are."

How Many Kids Does Jenny Have?

Jenny and Dave are parents of five kids: twin boys Nathan and Ben, girls Sylvie and Charlotte, and the youngest, Luke, born in 2019. Sylvie is the Marrs' adopted daughter, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa.

The Marrs had always been interested in adoption and, in 2012, began looking at adoption programs in Russia and Ethiopia. Eventually, they came across Sylvie's profile and, as the couple told People, knew "this was our girl." Though it was a long and complicated process that took more than a year and a half, Sylvie was officially welcomed into the Marrs family in August 2013.

Want to read more about the Marrs' family lives and activities? You can find those documented on Jenny's personal blog, Blessings and Raindrops.

The Marrs' Century-Old Home

As you might expect, the Marrs' home is by no means ordinary. The family lives in a restored farmhouse that was built in 1906. The home was located just off the main downtown square in Bentonville, vacant and slated for demolition. When the owners contacted Marrs Developing about tearing it down, Jenny and Dave could scarcely bring themselves to imagine demolishing it. "We just couldn't," said Jenny. "It was too beautiful."

Instead, they pitched a radical idea to the owners: "What if you gave the house to us, and we'll pay to have it moved?" Coincidentally, the Marrs owned a parcel of land nearby. They split the house into three sections and had it relocated to their property, reassembled and renovated. Originally, they intended it as a country getaway, but the more work they put into it, the more they realized it could be the perfect home in an ideal location for raising their family. Once they spent time on the property, Jenny knew it was destined to be their forever home. "My affection for the old home was undeniable — it exuded character and hospitable charm," Jenny wrote on her blog.

The house and land is now home to the entire family — which also includes a small menagerie of dogs, cats, cows, chickens, sheep, a donkey, llamas and alpacas.

Extracurricular Pursuits: Marrs Mercantile, Welcome Inn and More

Aside from running a remodeling company, starring in Fixer to Fabulous and wrangling and caring for five kids (who are all under the age of 15), the Marrs — believe it or not — have a number of other irons in the fire.

Marrs Mercantile

In 2023, the couple founded Marrs Mercantile, an upscale boutique located in downtown Centerton, just outside of Bentonville. The specialty shop is housed in a custom restored bank building built in 1905. The restored exterior now features gas lamps, a patio and pergola, and a play garden for kids. Inside, patrons will find a carefully curated collection of locally sourced home goods and items from regional artisans — as well as products featured on Fixer to Fabulous. As the couple details on the mercantile's website: "For years we've dreamt of creating a unique place to serve our Northwest Arkansas community. We saw the potential in a 100+ year-old building that originally housed the Centerton Bank. We knew the building needed to be saved and transformed into something amazing."

“We’re really focused on highlighting local artists and having them in our store," said Jenny. "We want to make this a community-wide mercantile. We want to have people that live here and work here in our store.”

The Marrs Collection

In addition to their small-town boutique, the Marrs expanded their brand nationally, launching an exclusive line of home goods in partnership with Walmart. The Marrs Collection with Better Homes and Gardens includes both indoor and outdoor decorative products and furnishings "inspired by Dave and Jenny's elevated, livable style." The line features furniture, rugs, throw pillows, storage items, candles, kitchenware, outdoor furnishings and more.

Jenny's Book: House + Love = Home

Jenny authored a coffee table-esque book based on her signature style and personal philosophy. It features photography of their farmhouse home, family and the spaces they've renovated — all interwoven with essays by Jenny on design, life on the Marrs' farm, the couple's personal journey and their commitment to live life intentionally. As Jenny said, "Our company motto is the simplest of equations: House + Love = Home." As it happens, that also makes for a great book title!

Welcome Inn

In 2022, Dave and Jenny undertook another new venture: the renovation of a large and very special vintage home in Rogers, Arkansas. Built in the 1870s, the house features an amazing facade with four massive front columns and a two-story front porch. Inside are three bedrooms, each with en suite bath and living spaces.

The initial plan was to restore the dilapidated manse and transform it into an inn, but a variety of logistical and real estate hurdles led the original plans to be scaled back. The end result is The Welcome Inn, a beautiful property filled with Jenny's signature design style and Dave's custom builds. And if you're so inclined, you can book a stay on Airbnb now.

The entire renovation process of was documented in HGTV's four-part limited series, Fixer to Fabulous: Welcome Inn.

Bentonville Berry Farm

Veering somewhat outside their core calling, the Marrs also founded and run The Berry Farm — a local "U-pick" farm in Bentonville that provides the local community and families with fresh, organic produce that's grown without added chemicals or contaminants. The farm also provides community training in sustainable agriculture and incorporates a renovated barn that serves as a beautiful event space for the local citizens. In a related endeavor, the Marrs coordinate the annual Bentonville Berry Festival Festival, the profits of which go to operating a farm-training program, as well as benefiting at-risk children and families in Zimbabwe and Belize.

In partnership with the international charitable foundation HelpOneNow, part of the farm's mission is to provide resources and education for orphaned children in at-risk communities across the globe, teaching them about methods of sustainable community farming, as well as other skills such as livestock agriculture, business management, textiles and technology.

Keep Up With Jenny

Can't get enough of Jenny? You're in luck. Read more on Jenny's website, the Marrs' website and Jenny's blog. Follow the couple on Instagram @jennymarrs and @dave.marrs. And keep checking back on HGTV.com for Fixer to Fabulous news, series updates, photo galleries, videos and more.