Ben & Erin Napier Comment on ‘Design Fails’

“We have to tread lightly.”

HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier stopped by “The Jennifer Hudson Show” on Tuesday, April 18 to promote the upcoming season of “Home Town Takeover” (which premieres this Sunday, April 23 at 8 p.m. Eastern on HGTV), and while there Hudson asked them whether they come across design fails while working on houses for their show “Home Town”, which Erin said they see “Every single day.”

“The difference between ‘Home Town’ and other shows,” Ben continued, “is that we know the people who did it.”

Since Erin has lived in Laurel, Mississippi (where “Home Town” is set) her whole life, the couple knows nearly every homeowner in the town, so they’ve developed some tactics to frame discussions around design fails in a more positive light to avoid awkward conversations, as Erin knows she will run into the homeowners again while out on the town.

“You don’t go in there and say ‘Look how ugly and stupid this is,'” Erin said, to which Ben added, “So we say, ‘Oh, this is an interesting choice! These people’s design preferences are different from yours.'”

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Jennifer Hudson Has Ben & Erin Napier Talk About ‘Design Fails’

Erin shared her philosophy about design with Hudson, saying, “I don’t think there is necessarily a ‘design fail’, I think there’s interesting choices.”

Hudson then shows the Napiers a few photos of “interesting choices” made in people’s homes that she and her producers found, and asked the couple to “discuss”.

The first “design fail” that the Napiers tried to justify was a bathroom that had the floor and side of the bathtub fully covered in pink carpet. Erin called the choice “cozy for your feet” while Ben said that “Carpet in a bathroom used to be a trend, and my parent’s house had carpet in the bathroom.”

“And because it was not the choice that was right for them,” Erin added judiciously, “We took that out.”

The next bathroom Hudson showed the couple doubled as a kitchen, with a full sink and oven inches away from the toilet and bathtub. Erin’s immediate reaction was disbelief, as she shouted out, “Wow! This is a deep fake, there’s no way that’s real.”

Ben tried to frame it as a positive, saying, “We all love having fresh bacon in the bathtub,” with Erin noting that somebody could get burned with grease if they tried frying bacon and taking a bath at the same time.

The final bathroom fail Hudson showed was of the right half of a toilet against the wall, with it’s flushing handle sticking out the side.

Erin said “They converted it into a urinal,” before calling it a “half half-bath”.

The final “design fail” Hudson showed the couple was a staircase that got cut off by the addition of a wall, leaving the bottom corner of the staircase exposed and leading right up into the corner of two walls. Ben quickly noticed the art in the background, a Thomas Kinkade, while Erin thought of a use for the unused section of the staircase, saying it would be a good place to leave children’s shoes.

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‘Home Town Takeover’ Returns April 23

Ben and Erin are being joined by fellow HGTV power couple Jenny and Dave Marrs for season 2 of “Home Town Takeover” which brings the stars to Fort Morgan, Colorado, to help jump-start the town’s revitalization with renovation projects for businesses and homes throughout the community.

The Napiers and Marrses aren’t the only familiar faces coming to Colorado, however, as they will be joined by guest stars including Jonathan Knight, Ty Pennington, Jasmine Roth, and Page Turner, to name a few.

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