Things You Didn't Know About Joanna Gaines

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Joanna Gaines has shown the world for years now that it's possible for a woman to truly have it all. For one, she and her husband starred in HGTV's Fixer Upper, a phenomenally successful television show that ran for five seasons and left all of us wanting to demo our own kitchens. And she didn't sacrifice her dream of having a family along the way, either, as the couple now have a total of five children — good thing they have lots of room in their gorgeous 1890s farmhouse to spread out! Top it off with the fact that she's a best-selling author with multiple business ventures bearing the signature Magnolia brand stamp, and you can see just how remarkable and savvy she is in all aspects of life.

Despite the fact that Gaines seems like an open book, there are quite a few things you might not know about her just by watching the show. So, what are her secrets? And how does she get it all done? Here's what you don't know about Joanna Gaines.

With a huge family to tend to and multiple business ventures to juggle, how does Gaines get everything done? Turns out that part of her secret is that she wakes up every morning at 5:30 a.m., according to HGTV. Then, while her husband tends to all of the animals, Gaines prepares a hot breakfast for the fam (such as pancakes, biscuits and gravy, or eggs and toast) after getting dressed and waking up the kids. By 8:15 a.m. she's out the door to work with a cup of coffee in hand, which she takes with lots of cream and no sugar.

Gaines also manages to squeeze some self-care into her routine by getting it done the night before. "At night I shower and dry my hair, so in the morning I only have to curl it," she revealed. That explains why she always looks so composed and together — we're seriously impressed!

It's obvious on Fixer Upper that Gaines is a wildly creative person with an excellent eye for decor and detail. That's part of what makes her such a genius when it comes to making previously garish rooms into aesthetically appealing, sun-drenched masterpieces. And although she's clearly good at what she does, she's truly a baker at heart, which has informed her work as a flipper. "I've designed a lot of kitchens inspired by bakeries I've seen when I travel," she mused in an interview with Today. Girl just loves a good bakery!

So when Gaines opened a bakery at the Magnolia Silos a few years ago, it was a big deal for her. "I've dreamed about having a bakery since I opened the Little Shop on Bosque Boulevard in 2003," she continued. And if you stop by, she recommends the Cup o' Jo cupcake, which is chocolate with chocolate espresso icing. Yum!

According to E! News, the Gaines have a net worth of $5 million, so they'll likely never have to worry about paying the bills on time again. But the couple wasn't born with silver spoons in their mouth. In fact, they were at one point, as Joanna Gaines put it, "broke." "I remember when we first got married the only money we had was what was in Chip's pocket," she revealed in an interview with People magazine — and that cash had to pay for everything. "If I needed to go grocery shopping it's whatever was in his pocket. That's how we paid the bills." Hard to believe that they were once barely scraping by!

And while Chip was already in the business of flipping houses when they got married in 2003, Joanna's dad wasn't very enthused about his line of work. "Her dad spent the first two years of our marriage asking me if I was going to get a job," he recalled. "I was like, 'I have a job and I like it.'" You know Pops is happy about it now!

Believe it or not, despite her insanely sophisticated design skills, Gaines had zero interior design background when she started flipping houses with her husband. In fact, her background was in another area entirely. "I was actually a communications major and had never done design," she shared in an interview with Glamour. But despite her inexperience, she had a natural knack for the work, and she quickly began to take the lead. We all know what happened next!

Even though she's clearly blessed with natural ability, Gaines admits that there was a bit of a learning curve in the beginning. Notably, she said that their first home together lacked refinement. "I was experimenting with my design style at the time and every room had a different theme," she revealed in an interview with PopSugar. She added that the living room had a nautical theme, the kitchen was French-style with mustard-yellow walls, and the den embraced all things cowboy. That's ... a lot.

Gaines also learned the importance of testing paint colors early on as well, according to HGTV. Clearly she's evolved, for sure!

Gaines and her husband have some pretty incredible chemistry on camera. But it's just a reality show, right? Surely they can't really like each other that much, especially since they spend so much time together. Wrong! 

The reality is actually more heartwarming than you would expect watching the show. "One pretty amazing thing we learned early on was that the more time we spent together, the better our relationship was," the couple penned in their book The Magnolia Story. "I think a lot of couples feel the need to get away from each other now and then, to take little breaks, and they come back after a girls' weekend or a guys' fishing trip or something all refreshed and happy to reconnect because they missed each other. We were just the opposite, and still are." That's just not how they roll, as they work better together than apart. They're legit the yin to the other's yang, and they clearly wouldn't have it any other way.

Over the years, Joanna Gaines has been involved in many different ventures, from spearheading several incarnations of her businesses to raising five children with her husband, to starring on Fixer Upper. But the road to success was not without its bumps, as she had to close some doors in order for other ones to open. For example, she had to temporarily shutter one of her shops to focus on being a mom — which was not an easy decision for her to make, according to an interview she gave to Baylor University, her Alma mater. 

But Gaines never felt like she was making decisions alone, or wandering without a compass or a map. Rather, she has relied heavily on her spirituality for comfort and guidance at every turn. "I can look back now at the pattern in my life and really believe God has a purpose for me," she reflected.