Erin and Ben Napier are showing off their newly renovated country home!
The Home Town hosts gave Southern Living a look into the house they've been lovingly restoring in the magazine's November cover story.
Not far from the HGTV star's primary residence in the town of Laurel, Mississippi, their new weekend retreat had been hiding in plain sight.
Erin says she drove past the dream home, which she says has "literally everything" on her list, "countless" times without ever seeing it due to it being set back from the country road. But when Ben sent her the listing for the property last spring, she was smitten.
"I was in love immediately — and that scared me to death," she tells Southern Living. "I thought, 'We don't need another house… but maybe we do.'"
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(681x1099:683x1101)/Napiers-Southern-Living-101022-01-2000-689090c727404d1cb1611145089efa31.jpg "See Inside Erin and Ben Napier's New Country House: 'I Was in Love Immediately' (1)")
The parents of 4-year-old Helen and 1-year-old Mae wanted their kids to experience the country upbringing they both had, which wasn't possible in downtown Laurel.
"My playtime consisted of climbing a lot of trees and digging for arrowheads in the woods," Erin, who grew up on a chicken farm, tells the magazine. "That's not something our girls can do in town."
The stars wanted a place they could take the girls to garden, fish and run around outside. "I want their bathwater to be dirty at the end of the day, so it means they weren't just playing on screens," Erin says.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(651x1059:653x1061)/Napiers-Southern-Living-101022-02-2000-9a40245b5b9c4106afe0185170dc6022.jpg "See Inside Erin and Ben Napier's New Country House: 'I Was in Love Immediately' (2)")
Inside the home, Ben's study or "analog room," as he calls it, is a screen-free nook.
"I've got my typewriter, record player, transistor radio and books," Ben says. "I come here in the mornings to drink my coffee and type notes to Erin and Helen."
And while the house isn't far from their primary place physically, its Tudor-style architecture transports the couple thousands of miles from home.
"One reason we had to get this house was its very British look," Erin says. "It feels as though you've crossed the ocean and you're not in Mississippi anymore. It's like a vacation for us."
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(919x710:921x712)/Napiers-Southern-Living-101022-04-2000-4112eb30d35b4bf58f48834cb32ec73a.jpg "See Inside Erin and Ben Napier's New Country House: 'I Was in Love Immediately' (3)")
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When it came to designing the kitchen, which Erin says is the family's "favorite place" in the home, the couple even drew inspiration from a famous British television series.
"It's all new, but I wanted it to feel like it could be from Downton Abbey — a classic and casual English style that's utilitarian but kind of elegant," Erin explains.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(899x658:901x660)/Napiers-Southern-Living-101022-03-2000-df99a598ba6046c2baa2740eb1bc5b2a.jpg "See Inside Erin and Ben Napier's New Country House: 'I Was in Love Immediately' (4)")
The picturesque country escape, a hub for "special occasions and holidays," also features lots of small touches from family and friends, including a refurbished couch gifted to them by Erin's mother and a biscuit painting that hung in Erin's grandmother's house — which she says is "the thing I love most in the kitchen."
In an upcoming episode of Home Town, which returns in early December, the Napiers will share even more of their historic home and how they restored it.
Read the full story and see more of the Napiers' home in this month's issue of Southern Living and on southernliving.com
