HGTV’s Erin Napier Reveals the Iconic TV Character Who Sparked Her Creativity

HGTV star Erin Napier shows off her design talents on “Home Town,” but what first sparked her creativity? She said she owes it all to Barney, the purple dinosaur, who kicked off her lifelong joy of “playing pretend.”

Erin Napier Credits Childhood TV Character for Her Creativity

During the July 18 episode of “The Heirloom Podcast,” Napier credited a TV character with igniting her early creativity as a child.

While discussing her creativity on HGTV’s “Home Town,” she explained, “Well, this is going to sound silly, but I actually owe it to Barney the purple dinosaur.”

She continued, “It’s not that juicy, but I loved Barney when I was little. Barney’s whole message was your imagination can take you anywhere.”

Napier recalled that if she was bored as a kid, she would tap into her imagination, such as having a friend over and pretending they were on an airplane. “Like, when I was bored, I would use my imagination to be not bored,” she explained.

That creativity has also served Napier in her career, with the show “Home Town” featuring her town of Laurel, Mississippi. “I felt like if our city is a little bit boring, let’s imagine it in a different way,” she shared. “And focus on that. Tell yourself a story. And then if other people want to hear the story, all the better, because then more people join in.”

Erin Napier Leans Into ‘Playing Pretend’

Napier also shared that a more recent TV show and its characters are an inspiration for her to tell stories with her design. She’s also able to draw people into the process by communicating her vision.

Napier noted, “A lot of it was playing pretend. I loved the show ‘Gilmore Girls.’ Everybody likes that. It just feels easy and comforting to watch. And what we love about it is there’s eccentric people around our main characters. There’s pretty architecture. There’s people enjoying the seasons.”

She continued, “And so I just try to focus on those same things. Who are the eccentric characters in my world? What’s the beautiful architecture in my world?”

Napier shared that her philosophy of “doing it for myself” really took off.

“All of this was a practice and being content and happy and blooming where you’re planted. All of it,” the “Home Town” star explained. “And then if other people participated in it, all the better.”