Joanna Gaines’ son Drake may be away at college, but he still has pieces of home at his dorm — or at least his mom’s famed sense of style when it comes to decorating.
The Magnolia Network founder’s eldest son with husband Chip Gaines is currently a sophomore at Baylor University, and while his accommodations may pale in comparison to his beloved family home and farm, his mom helped out in the decorating department to get it as close as possible.
In addition to the college student, the former HGTV star and her husband, who she married in 2003, are also parents to Ella Rose, who just turned 18, Duke, who also recently celebrated his 16th birthday, Emmie Kay, 14, and Crew, six.
During an appearance on the Today Show on Tuesday, October 22 alongside Chip, Joanna explained to hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie how she helped Drake set up his college apartment, but also how he took matters into his own hands.
She shared that she usually goes the day before moving in, this year for the second time, and “[I] spend all this time, I plan, I do it.”
However, she then revealed: “Then the day that I leave, he’ll send pictures to his siblings and then they’ll show me,” how he has already added his own personal touches, including colorful string lights.
© Joanna Gaines / Today Show“It’s all about lighting. So he wanted more lighting. He bought some lights on Amazon and strung them throughout his whole apartment, now it looks like a club,” Joanna added, as the hosts joked it “that was not a Joanna project,” and that he “thought it was a fixer upper,” referring to the couple’s former HGTV show.
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Joanna has previously opened up about how her firstborn leaving for college impacted her, in a personal essay for her magazine Magnolia Journal ahead of his departure.
© Instagram“In the grand scheme of heartbreaking things, this one comes with a lot of gratitude and excitement,” she wrote at the time, though noted: “Still, my first child is moving away, and our family dynamic will change because of it, and that can feel like a loss of its own.”
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© Instagram“I catch glimpses now of what that life will look like and wonder if — or how many times — that might bring me to the floor,” she confessed.
Still, in spite of the emotional change, luckily for the Gaines family, Drake didn’t move away too far, as he is enrolled at Baylor, which is in Waco, Texas, where Joanna and Chip have both their main home and business.
