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Erin Napier on the new 'Home Town' season and the 1 place fans flock to her for advice 

She and husband Ben Napier also opened up about the new “super personal” season of “Home Town” and what it was like being featured in an HGTV original holiday film.

Having renovated dozens of homes over the years, Erin and Ben Napier are no strangers to home improvement stores — and it’s their expertise that fellow shoppers are looking for. 

“If we go to a home improvement store, it is game on,” Erin tells TODAY.com in a phone interview. “Ladies will be like grabbing paint swatches and coming to me. ‘Erin, I know you’re busy, but could you just look at these swatches and tell me which one would you pick for a bedroom?’ I get so tickled by that.” 

Ben and Erin Napier share the kitchen of their newly renovated country home.
Ben and Erin Napier share the kitchen of their newly renovated country home.HGTV

Fans who aren’t lucky enough to run into them at the store can catch more of the Laurel, Mississippi, couple’s design tips during Season Seven of “Home Town,” which airs Sundays on HGTV and the streaming platform Discovery+. 

“We have two really personal projects,” the mother of two notes about the current season. The premiere episode featured the transformation of the married HGTV stars’ 1930s farmhouse they bought outside of town to better accommodate their family including daughters, Helen, 4, and Mae, 18 months

“We call it our weekend getaway because we don’t really have time to travel outside of work,” Ben shared. “Helen is starting school — we’re in a period of life where we’re going to be around Laurel a lot.”

The famous woodworker revealed he worked around the clock to create custom pieces for their 4,000-square-foot home — which boasts six bedrooms and four bathrooms — and that the filming process felt like something they had never done before because he and Erin “were so hands-on with every single detail, every decision that was made.” 

The season will also feature the renovation of a second family project — their new fragrance shop, Laurel Mercantile Scent Library.  

“We got to take this building that was from the turn of the century and restore it back to its Art Deco glamor,” Erin stated. “It’s gorgeous.”

Decorated like a library and filled with sprays, candles and more, each product is designed by Erin and inspired by a time in her life. 

“I think of my mom’s house always smelling like an apple cobbler around this time of year, and I made a candle at the Scent Library that is called 'Mama’s House' because it left such a mark on me that that’s what home should smell like around the holidays.”

As for the holidays, in addition to spending time with their families and enjoying downtown Laurel’s festivities, Erin and Ben can be found making their scripted, holiday-feature debut in the HGTV original film, “A Christmas Open House,” which will air on HGTV Dec. 7 and is now available to stream on Discovery+. 

“We got to pretend that we were actors, and we’re basically playing ourselves but by different names,” Erin shared. 

The film centers on Atlanta property stager Melissa Norwood (played by Katie Stevens) as she teams up with her previous high school fling, real estate agent David Phelps (Victor Rasuk) to sell her mom’s home before the holidays. As the couple undertakes some renovations prior to listing the home, Phelps reaches out to his friends Henry and Sarah Wright (Ben and Erin Napier) to create custom pieces for the house. 

“It was really cool to see how a movie is made versus how we make our show,” Erin says. “I think the craziest part was that it only took three days. An episode of ‘Home Town’ takes seven weeks because we have to renovate a house,” Ben adds.  

Erin got to showcase her design skills by creating two props for the movie — business cards for Phelps' budding business and a signature watercolor of the renovated house at the end. 

As for if they would like to do more film-based work, “I mean, it was fun,” Ben recalls. “They’re not making many movies in Laurel, Mississippi, so unless that becomes a thing,” Erin said. “Who knows? We didn’t think we would ever film for a movie in Laurel as it was,” she added.