Ben & Erin Napier’s New House Features an ‘Analog Room’

Ben and Erin Napier


HGTV/Discovery+

Ben and Erin Napier filming their Christmas movie in August 2022

Fans of the hit HGTV show “Home Town” know stars Ben and Erin Napier are thoroughly old-school. They love old cars and pickup trucks, old music, old buildings, and anything that helps them harken back to simpler times. So it should be no surprise that the country home they’ve renovated includes a study for Ben — or “analog room” — that feels like a step back in time for visitors.


Ben Napier Says There Are No Phones Allowed in the ‘Analog Room’

Ben Napier's new study

Larsen & Talbert/Southern Living & HGTV/Discovery+Ben Napier’s new study is featured in the November 2022 issue of Southern Living, on newsstands now

HGTV viewers will see the renovation of the Napiers’ new country home, a 1930 Tudor located on the outskirts of Laurel, Mississippi, when “Home Town” returns on December 4, 2022.

But Southern Living magazine has given fans an exclusive first peek at the family’s home in its November issue on newsstands now. The issue includes a look at Ben’s cozy new study, which he and Erin shared details about with editor-in-chief Sid Evans on the November 1 edition of Southern Living’s Biscuits & Jam podcast.

“It’s my analog room,” Ben said, meaning that it feels like a room from another time, with no modern technology in it. “I have a record player. There are books. The gun cabinet is in there.”

He continued, “I have a little transistor radio. I have my typewriter. And on the way out every morning to work, it’s where I leave my watches in there. Every morning, I go in there, I read my Bible, I drink coffee, and I type notes. I type letters to people on my typewriter. I don’t always put on the record player, but I’ve got a decent collection of vinyl.”

Erin then interjected that the previous night, her husband had “disappeared” close to the girls’ bedtime, but she heard Tom Petty playing on a record player, so she knew where to find Ben.

“You were just, like, hanging out on your leather sofa,” she said.

Ben quipped, “Being cool.”

Erin agreed, calling it “the most chill room in the house.”

“If you want to sit down and write a note or write a letter or read,” Ben said, adding that he loves that it’s “cut off” from the busy, noisy modern world.

“I don’t like bringing my phone in there,” he said. “I don’t like anybody else, you know, coming in there on their phone or anything. It’s just a nice spot.”

Ben also has an obscure Western movie poster framed on the wall. But it’s a movie poster for a movie that never existed. The poster is for “Nebraska Jim” featuring Rick Dalton and directed by Sergio Corbucci. Though Corbucci was a real Italian filmmaker in the 1960s, the movie and featured actor were both imaginary entities in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” according to The New York Times.


So Where Do The Napiers Do Their Computer Work & Zoom Calls?

Erin Napier's desk

Brooke Davis-Jefcoat / Southern LivingThe Napiers’ bookshelves and desk in their primary bedroom, as seen in the November 2022 issue of Southern Living magazine

While the analog room serves as a phone-free and screen-free zone, Ben and Erin do have a good spot for those moments when they need to use technology to conduct business at home. They have a partner’s desk in their primary bedroom, which has room for two chairs and features drawers on both sides.

The Napiers told Southern Living that it’s a great spot for drinking coffee, sketching home designs, and doing Zoom interviews and meetings. Built-in shelves with antique books and old mementos, with a sliding ladder for reaching high spots, provide a perfect backdrop for video calls. The desk looks out, through a wall of doors and windows, on the Napiers’ renovated porch.

But Ben and Erin try to keep work at home to a minimum. They’ve set up strict “work hours” at their shops and with their film crews so that they can be home with their girls uninterrupted in the evenings.

On the Biscuits & Jam podcast, they said they’re striving to give their daughters a “low-tech childhood.” One of the reasons they wanted a home with sprawling acres to roam was because they want their girls to be able to play outside all day.

“The girls stay filthy,” Erin said. “They don’t know about screens. they’ve never had an iPhone or a tablet or anything like that. We grew up outside, covered in mosquito bites, climbing magnolia trees, digging in the dirt and that’s what I want for them.”

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