How Chip and Joanna Gaines turned a tiny shop and real-estate company into a Magnolia empire

“Fixer Upper” rocketed Chip and Joanna Gaines into stardom, and it became one of HGTV’s most successful series of all time.

The first season premiered in May 2013, and the original series aired through 2017.

Although “Fixer Upper” ended, Chip and Joanna have returned for different versions of the show in more recent years on their own network (more on that in a bit). “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home” aired in 2021, and the couple also returned to the small screen with specials like “Fixer Upper: The Castle” in 2022 and “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse” in 2024.

In October 2025, they announced the latest iteration of the series, “Fixer Upper: Mountain House,” which is set to premiere in December.

The Gaineses founded Magnolia Realty in 2003 in Waco, Texas.

Chip used to own the company with John L. Lewis and Richard L. Clark, who later sued Chip for over $1 million. Lewis and Clark said that Chip pressured them into selling their shares of the company for just $2,500 each in May of 2013, just before it was announced that the Gaineses would star in “Fixer Upper.” 

A judge dismissed the lawsuit and sealed the records of the case, including Chip’s deposition on the matter, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Magnolia Realty has since expanded to five other markets in Texas, as stated on the company’s website.

Despite its success today, the company likely wasn’t worth much before the couple rose to fame. Chip had to go to county jail just after their first son, Drake, was born in 2005 because he and Joanna had accrued $2,500 in unpaid tickets for allowing their dogs to roam around unleashed. Joanna had to scrape together money for his $800 bail.

“I think for me, the best lesson is always having a nest egg on the side,” Joanna told Business Insider of the incident.

The Little Shop on Bosque was the original Magnolia Market, and Joanna opened it in 2003 after getting encouragement from Chip, according to the Magnolia website. 

As the Gaineses wrote on their website, the shop closed in 2014 before reopening in 2018 as a destination for “slightly damaged and last chance items at a discount” from the Magnolia line.

The Magnolia Market at the Silos, a large complex dedicated to businesses owned by Chip and Joanna, is the modern iteration of the Gaineses’ Little Shop on Bosque. It opened in Waco in 2015.

The store focuses on selling home goods, and it is updated seasonally by Joanna and her team.

“Jo curates the full product assortment at Magnolia Market and on magnolia.com to reflect the colors, textures, and beauty of each season,” the Gaineses’ website says of the store.

Tourism in Waco has boomed since the Gaineses opened the Silos. According to the Waco tourism site, 564,000 people visited the city in 2013, and the city had over 2 million annual visitors by 2019. That number dipped after the pandemic, but it returned to more than 1.8 million by 2024.

Silos Baking Co. opened in 2016 on the Silos grounds, offering cookies, cupcakes, and more. You can also order some of its products online for delivery.

Silos visitors can also buy food from Magnolia-owned brands at food trucks that come to the property.

The Magnolia Journal, released quarterly, is essentially Chip and Joanna’s version of O, The Oprah Magazine or Martha Stewart, and it typically features a photo of Joanna on the cover.

As the Magnolia website states, the Journal includes recipes, advice, and stories centered on a seasonal theme.

Joanna has also used the Journal as a way to speak directly to her fans. For instance, she wrote an essay in the fall 2021 issue titled “A Time For Forward Motion,” which addressed the negativity the Gaineses sometimes experience online. The essay was also published on the Magnolia blog.

Target first announced its partnership with the Gaineses for Hearth & Hand in 2017.

The home line, which includes both decor and furniture, is now a familiar sight at Targets around the country.

The Gaineses’ partnership with the retailer is still going strong as of 2025, with the couple most recently releasing a Hearth & Hand holiday collection. The collection is also available on the Magnolia website.

Magnolia Press opened in 2018, and it offers an array of coffees, teas, and pastries. Chip and Joanna wrote on their website that they wanted to open a coffee shop as a place for people to take a break from the hustle and bustle of life.

“A coffee shop can be a welcome retreat in the midst of a busy day, providing a moment of comfort and familiarity,” they wrote on the Magnolia Press landing page. “We wanted to create a place where guests could experience just that— a cozy and inspiring shop where life resounds and community is created.”

Magnolia Table was previously known as the Elite Café, a popular Waco breakfast spot. After it closed in 2016, the Gaineses bought it and turned it into Magnolia Table.

The new space is decorated with photos of Elite Café, and the Gaineses kept the original sign from the restaurant.

Since Magnolia Table opened in 2018, it has served a variety of breakfast and lunch fare, featuring a menu that includes everything from homemade biscuits to avocado toast. The restaurant also began serving dinner in September 2024, offering elevated versions of recipes you’ll find in Joanna’s cookbooks.

Magnolia Table also features a dedicated takeaway window to accommodate guests who wish to take their food to go, according to the Magnolia website.

The Gaineses expanded the Silos in October of 2020, opening an array of specialty boutiques.

Those shops have evolved in the past five years, and as of November 2025, the Silos is home to Magnolia Market, the furniture store Magnolia Home, and six specialty shops:

• The Souvenir Shop, which sells Magnolia merchandise
• No. 16, a men’s apparel and accessories boutique
• The Art of Entertaining, a home decor store focused on tableware
• Weekend, which sells jewelry and accessories
• Homebody, a bath and body store
• The Holiday Shop, a curated collection of holiday merchandise

The items sold in the stores can be purchased online through Magnolia’s website.

Chip and Joanna own two rental properties in Waco, Texas: Hillcrest Estate and Hillcrest Cottage. 

Visitors must rent the entire homes, according to the Magnolia site, and the properties’ nightly rates aren’t cheap. The Hillcrest Estate has an average nightly cost of $1,090.

Chip and Joanna worked with AJ Capital Partners to transform a 100-year-old building in downtown Waco into Hotel 1928, a boutique hotel with thirty-three rooms.

They documented the transformation of the property in “Fixer Upper: The Hotel,” which showed Joanna leaning into a more retro, moody aesthetic than she often used in her interior design.

The hotel is also home to a rooftop restaurant, Bertie’s; a larger restaurant with southern dishes, The Brasseries; and a coffee and pastry shop, The Café at Hotel 2928.

The hotel is frequently completely booked, and its prices range from around $400 for a basic room to over $2,000 per night for its largest suite.

The Gaineses have written 11 books between them, all of which became New York Times bestsellers.

Together, Chip and Joanna published “The Magnolia Story,” which gave readers a deeper look into their lives.

Chip independently wrote “No Pain, No Gaines” and “Capital Gaines,” two memoirs about his life and business ventures. 

Joanna’s eight books include the design book “Homebody: Exclusive Edition”; three cookbooks, “Magnolia Table,” “Magnolia Table, Volume 2,” and “Magnolia Table, Volume 3;” a memoir, “The Stories We Tell;” and three picture books, “The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be,” “We are the Gardeners,” which she wrote with the help of her children, and “The Wonder You See.”

After their successful work with HGTV, the Gaineses announced that they would be launching their own network.

Magnolia Network first launched on Discovery+ and the Magnolia app in 2021. It then debuted on cable TV in January 2022 with a full slate of shows, though its initial launch was slightly rocky.

One Magnolia original series, “Home Work,” was temporarily pulled from its lineup after homeowners alleged that the hosts, Candis and Andy Meredith, went tens of thousands of dollars over budget, damaged their homes, and didn’t complete renovations in some cases. The Merediths denied the allegations, and Magnolia began airing the show at the end of January 2022.

Despite the controversy, Magnolia’s cable debut was largely a success, with 3 million people tuning into the channel on the day of its launch. 

As of 2025, the Magnolia Network is home to over 30 original series, including “Fixer Upper.”

Joanna partnered up with Target to sell Magnolia Table’s new collection of frozen pastries.

The line, which ranges in price from $9.99 to $11.99, includes three types of cookies, banana bread, cinnamon rolls, and a frozen version of Jo’s Buttermilk Biscuits, a beloved staple at Magnolia Table and in her cookbooks.

Some of the items in the collection were tastier than others, as Business Insider found in its review of the line.