So our favorite small-town heroes, Ben and Erin Napier, are back for a new season helping residents and newcomers in their beloved home town of Laurel find and create their perfect homes — and all with that classic Home Town Southern aesthetic. Great news, right? We think so. We’ve been waiting for months for a fresh helping of Home Town. But the season premiere is only part of the story. 

Family Matters

Back in October we brought you the news of a forthcoming new addition to the Napier household. And just this week, the big news broke. On Wednesday morning Erin and Ben welcomed their baby girl, Helen, to the world. Read more about Baby Helen’s arrival here.

“She showed up two weeks early,” said Erin, “but I think it’s better that way because I got a great night’s sleep before rushing to the hospital. I know as we got closer to the big day I would’ve been too anxious to sleep. Her dark blonde hair surprised everyone betting on Ben’s red beard.”

What a great way to start 2018. Once again, we offer Erin and Ben (and now Helen) our most heartfelt congratulations.

Banquette Dreams, Porch Swings and a Cure for Homesickness

Now, where were we? Oh yes, about that season premiere. In Home Town’s first new episode, Ben and Erin help Laurel newcomers Mackenzie and Jim in their transition from their Virginia home to their new home in southern Mississippi. The couple has moved several times and are eager to put down roots and regain a sense of place and permanence. They’re looking for a house with vintage charm and Mackenzie longs especially for a great kitchen that will serve as the heart of the home and evoke memories of her family and the house she grew up in.

In particular, Mackenzie would love for the kitchen to include one very specific feature – a banquette bench seat. That element is something that she feels a strong affinity with as a touchstone that will bring back warm memories of her childhood. Fortunately, Ben, with his creative woodworking prowess, is exactly the person who can make that happen. Ben creates a special custom design for the banquette and coordinates the materials to tie in with new butcher block countertops being installed in the kitchen.

And Ben’s woodworking chops come in handy in another special feature as well. The 1920s Craftsman style home that Jim and Mackenzie settle upon, with its traditional front porch, virtually cries out for a porch swing. Not content with just your average porch swing, Ben gets inspired to create something unique that’s still in keeping with the period aesthetic of the home. He makes use of reclaimed tongue-and-groove pine lumber, salvaged from one of the walls demoed in the home interior, to fashion a set of custom made chair swings – two individual chairs suspended side-by side – rather than the traditional bench style swing. The 24-inch-wide chairs, with curved seats, are reminiscent of Adirondack chairs but in the guise of a swing.

Erin and best friend Mallorie have a project of their own in the remodeled living room. Beautiful built-in bookshelves, flanking a cased opening between the living room and adjacent space, get modified slightly to give them a look more appropriate to a Craftsman style home. Then Erin lines the back of the shelves with patterned wallpaper, applied with meticulous detail and symmetry, for a striking and beautiful effect. “I'm in love with this chinoiserie wallpaper,” said Erin, “It's blue and white. It'll be crisp. It'll be pattern in an unexpected place and, once we get the books and things on the shelves, then it'll just be, like, a barely-there accent.”

It's just one of the many elements that are indicative of the kind of caring, smart instincts and attention to detail that go into renovations that Erin and Ben undertake.

And all that’s just for starters. There are nine more episodes, and plenty of surprises, on deck for Season 2 in the coming weeks.

One more thing to watch for in the premiere episode. Think “Big Ben” Napier is afraid of bats? Tune in to find out. The Home Town episode titled “Banquette Dreams” premieres Monday, January 8 at 9pm/8c.