Ella Gaines Enters The Spotlight For New Chip & Joanna Show (And Fans Are Going Wild)

Chip and Joanna Gaines have been pretty adamant about keeping their kids away from the spotlight. They've always stressed that they want to give them as normal of a life as possible and admitted that putting them on TV probably wasn't their best parenting idea. "We were kind of naive and dumb, really, to be like, 'Let's have the kids be involved,'" Chip acknowledged in a March 2023 interview with the Kennebec Cabin Company. It was when their kids started getting recognized in public that they realized just how exposed their family had become. "As the kids got into fourth and fifth seasons and they're getting a little bit older in age, ... they're getting recognized out in the wild," Chip explained. "I'm like, 'I don't know that I want my kids to be visible in that way unless they want to be visible like that.'" 

Well, it seems at least one of their children does. On October 28, the home renovation experts gave fans a first look at their new show, "Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House," and it features their eldest daughter, 19-year-old Ella Rose Gaines. The series follows the couple as they "Turn [a] 1960s home in the heart of the Rockies into a cozy family retreat." And they tapped Ella to help design the little cottage. "I'm accepting the challenge," Ella said in the teaser, which racked up thousands of views and reactions within hours of being posted.

Many were thrilled to see Ella join the family business. "Welcome to Colorado!" one user enthused. "We are very proud of our beautiful colorful state. I'm really excited for this one. Congratulations to your daughter for entering the design world." Another exclaimed, "Omg I can't freaking WAIT! And Ella designing!!!!! It's a new era." A third user added, "I can't wait to see what Ella brings."

Perhaps they always knew that Ella Rose Gaines would one day follow in their footsteps and embrace the family trade. "Ella is like me," Joanna Gaines shared in a previous interview with People when Ella was just 12. "I think she'll follow in my footsteps and have her hand in a lot of things," gushed the Magnolia Network star. "Right now she wants to cook, be a lead designer, and have a donut truck." 

At 19, Ella is already getting hands-on experience in the family business. During an April 2025 episode of the "Business of Home" podcast, Joanna revealed that her eldest daughter had spent the last summer interning with her as she and Chip took a break from Magnolia to reassess and think about their next steps. "One of my favorite moments that was so pivotal for me as a mother, but also as a business owner, was my daughter, my oldest daughter, was in on a lot of these conversations before our break in June, that I was having with the team," the proud mom said. "She wanted to intern, basically. She was interning with me. So she'd be in these meetings where I was like, 'Y'all, I need vision.'"

And Ella proved herself to be a natural. "She was listening, and she was interested." In fact, she just jumped right in, pitching ideas and brainstorming projects with her mother, sometimes long after the workday had ended. "She was writing things as I was saying, 'Okay, if we do this, if we do that...'" recalled Joanna. She took the work very seriously, even when Ella could have been enjoying the summer off, proving she's eager to learn and is ready to step up.