Galey Alix: What To Know About The Host Of HGTV's New Series Home In A Heartbeat
HGTV has provided a launching pad for a small army of home-renovation superstars, ranging from "Property Brothers" siblings Drew and Jonathan Scott to Magnolia Network moguls Chip and Joanna Gaines. In recent years, HGTV has been looking to social media to find its next generation of on-air personalities, a gambit that's resulted in such series as Jenn Todryk's "No Demo Reno."
The same holds true for Galey Alix, star of HGTV's new series "Home in a Heartbeat," which made its debut on the network in April 2023. "Your favorite do-it-all viral content creator Galey Alix — who inspires millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram — is passionate about changing people's lives by transforming their spaces, and in the new HGTV series 'Home in a Heartbeat with Galey Alix' she'll do just that," HGTV decalred in a press release about the series, explaining that Alix completes each reno over the course of a single weekend. Alix also announced news of the show to her 1.5 million Instagram followers, a group that includes such celebs as Bebe Rexha and Machine Gun Kelly. "Saving homes saved me & now I get to do it in a bigger way thanks to you," she wrote.
As the release pointed out, Alix may be a superstar on social media, but she's still something of an unknown to HGTV viewers. With that in mind, keep on reading for a deep dive into the life of Galey Alix.
She puts a lot of effort into her Home in a Heartbeat renos
For the eight renovations Galey Alix undertook for the first season of "Home in a Heartbeat," she worked under ridiculously tight timelines. Completing a full renovation within a weekend is no mean feat, requiring a mind-boggling degree of preparation and attention to detail. "To pull off these projects in a weekend, my team and I spend months planning, ordering and building," Galey revealed in an HGTV press release. "These families mean everything to us. It takes a lot of late nights, talent and grit, but it's all worth it to give these families their 'Home in a Heartbeat.'"
This was certainly the case in the series premiere, which shows Galey helping a family redesign their home in the wake of losing a loved one. That particular reno, noted the release, featured a complete overhaul of the living and dining room into a whole new space, with a focus on functionality. "My process is pretty unique," Galey explained in an interview with HGTV. "People reach out to me on social media, they hand me their credit card and their keys, and I move in for the weekend without ever telling them what I'm doing."
Speaking with home furnishings retailer Wayfair after winning one of the company's 2020 Tastemaker Awards, Alix opened up about how she would characterize her designs. "I would describe my style as cozy, coastal (inspired by Florida, of course!), and functional," she shared.
Galey Alix shifted from Wall Street to social media superstar
While Galey Alix is best known for her design work, designing is actually just her side hustle. "Monday through Friday I'm an executive at one of the largest investment firms on Wall Street, but on the weekends I'm a DIY designer," Alix confirmed to HGTV. According to a profile in Forbes, she holds a full-time job at investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.
Several years earlier, Alix thought she was living her best life. "I had this handsome fiancé, a successful career on Wall Street, a beautiful home and cute dogs and, you know, life is perfect," she told Forbes. "But deep down, I was dying with my eyes wide open." Alix had an epiphany, realizing she'd been battling an eating disorder and depression, which she revealed to her then-fiancé'. His less-than-sympathetic response ended that relationship. She sought help from a therapist and nutritionist, and she emerged after several months with a new lease on life.
Meanwhile, videos she'd previously posted of her DIY home-reno efforts went viral, resulting in people she'd never met imploring her to work her magic in their homes. This led to another epiphany. "Instead of staying home and feeling sorry for myself this weekend, I should say yes to one of these kind strangers and see if that makes for a better weekend," she told Forbes. "What do I have to lose?" The result: a new design business and the start of a new chapter.
She is no stranger to hard work
As an investment banker on weekdays and DIY design dynamo on the weekends, Galey Alix keeps her two gigs completely separate. In fact, Galey Alix is actually a nom de plume, which she uses for social media, television, and her design business.
When she's on the clock for her job as vice president and regional director with Goldman Sachs asset management, she goes by her full name, Galey Alix Gravenstein. Despite her highfalutin job, Galey is hardly one of those to-the-manor-born types. As she told Fort Lauderdale Magazine, when her initial plan of going to law school fell through, she wound up taking an entry-level gig at a call center, earning a mere $26,000 per year. While working that job, she researched the stock market, diving deep to teach herself about every aspect before attaining the licenses she'd need. With those in hand, she eventually landed a job at Goldman Sachs.
Her strategy was simple but effective: hard work. She showed up earlier, worked later, skipped lunches, and completely immersed herself in this new world. "I hustled, I hustled, I hustled," she said. "They saw that there was a different kind of hustle in me and if I needed to know something, I'd figure it out."
Galey Alix appeared on a few shows before having her own series
While HGTV's "Home in a Heartbeat" may be Galey Alix's first television show, it's certainly not her first experience with television. In March 2022, Alix made an appearance on the "Rachael Ray Show," where she laid out the unorthodox concept underpinning of her design business, Galey Alix Design. "I set up a somewhat unique business model where people give me their credit cards and trust me for one weekend, and they move out, and I move in, and they come home Sunday to a completely renovated home," she explained. "They don't have to make any decisions about what color wallpaper, or what style couch, or how to rearrange their kitchen, but they have to be able to trust me blindly," Alix added.
That wasn't her only talk show appearance. Back in December 2020, she appeared on "Tamron Hall," where the host admitted she was blown away by the fact that Alix's clients forked over their credit cards and let her take over their homes, with no idea what the new design will look like. "It's a lot of trust," Alix agreed, noting that her other job in the world of finance afforded her clients an extra level of trust they may not have otherwise extended. "I think people feel comfortable trusting me with their finances, and making prudent decisions, and so they know I'm going to be very budget-aware and sensitive, and I try to stretch dollars."
She has a surprising connection to Bachelor Nation
In addition to starring in HGTV's "Home in a Heartbeat," working for a Wall Street investment bank, running a successful design business, and managing a social media empire, Galey Alix has another claim to fame. As E! News reported back in June 2022, she had recently begun dating Dale Moss, a contestant on the 16th season of "The Bachelorette." Moss, of course, wasn't just any old contestant — he received the final rose and popped the question to Bachelorette Claire Crawley in the season finale. As is often the case in Bachelor Nation, though, that engagement ended before the couple made it to the altar.
In February 2023, Moss commented on his relationship with Alix, telling Us Weekly, "I'm currently in an amazing relationship with [Galey Alix and] it's almost a year now." According to Moss, Alix had heard him on a podcast and got in touch with him via social media. "[She] said, 'Hey, you know, I just love the way you think, and I love how you present yourself and who you are and what you stand for,'" Moss recalled. "And we ended up connecting. Went on a date and then we've talked every day since. [She's] my best friend for sure."
As of this writing, Moss and Alix were decidedly still an item. "Unapologetically us," wrote Moss in the caption of a photo of himself and Alix that he posted on Instagram.
Galey Alix has her own online design store
As part and parcel of Galey Alix's design business, she also sells a variety of products via her website, Galey Alix Design. In addition to a rundown of the various projects she's undertaken for clients, Alix offers both home decor and apparel. For those looking to get a taste of Alix's design flair, you can purchase items like stylish pillowcases, wall art pieces made from driftwood, picture frames, and blankets, in addition to candles, vases, mirrors, and more.
In terms of apparel, Alix sets t-shirts and her own signature baseball caps — which, as her social media fans are well aware, she is almost always wearing. Those caps feature her company's logo — the letters G and A fashioned into a heart with a pointed arrow pushing through them. The shirts also feature the logo, and are available in Cement Washed and Distressed Black.
Home renovations are beneficial for Galey Alix's mental health
When Galey Alix began to act on homeowners' requests to redesign their homes, with her own social media as her calling card, she wasn't just helping her clients. As she explained to Forbes, taking on design projects for others has helped to quell her own demons and focus her inherent perfectionism on something external rather than on herself. "It allows me to take the weight off of trying to pick myself apart and make myself perfect. Today, I put all the energy I was putting into tearing myself apart into picking a room apart because that I can get perfect," she explained.
"Saving their homes is actually what saved me," she explained. "It made me feel like I had something to live for again. ... It's like my pain found its purpose and its purpose is to help others. And now I've got a healthy outlet for the creativity I've always had burning inside me but never unlocked."
As grateful as Alix's clients are for her stunning design work, improving their homes and, by extension, their lives, she's even more grateful for those who give her the opportunity to do it. "Every time somebody trusts you with their home and their life savings, you can't help but feel like you're worthy," she told Fort Lauderdale Magazine. "I have never done anything so rewarding in my life."
Home in a Heartbeat is basically an extension of Galey Alix's Instagram feed
Galey Alix is active on Instagram, where she can be seen performing acrobatic handstands while her latest design project serves as the alluring backdrop. She's also a force on TikTok, where she has 2.8 million followers and has amassed a whopping 26.3 million views, as of this writing.
Since the design projects she displays on social media are the result of her weekend sideline, it shouldn't be surprising that the format of "Home in a Heartbeat" follows the same process, with each project taking place within three days, from start to finish. In addition, the process that unfolds in real life is mirrored in the TV show: Prospective clients contact her via Instagram and then Alix pays a visit to the home, where she asks plenty of questions. "And then I don't tell them a single thing and I get their credit card and that's it," she told Fort Lauderdale Magazine. "I don't really talk to them again, and they wait and they wait."
Another key element that carries over from social media to the HGTV series is her total aversion to using three colors in her designs: red, orange, and yellow. She feels these shades are not relaxing. "I implore you to look deep down into my Instagram and see if I ever use [those three colors]," Galey added.
Her philosophy shapes her HGTV series
Galey Alix has admittedly always been a powerhouse. "I am an overachiever by default," she told Fort Lauderdale Magazine, explaining that her perfectionist, tenacious traits led her to become very accustomed to success. It wasn't until she found herself dumped by her fiancé, and experienced him marrying someone else in the Connecticut dream house that she'd redesigned, that she truly felt the sting of failure. It should have crushed her; instead, it inspired her. "I think failure is a beautiful thing," she explained. "Without failure you don't get to see yourself be strong and pick yourself back up again."
That failure, she said, opened the door to her design business, which led her to HGTV. Not surprisingly, the philosophy she embraced deeply informs "Home in a Heartbeat." "I actually turned it into the biggest victory of my life," she says of how coming to that crossroads changed everything. "I look back and I think that wasn't a failure; that was my biggest success, that was my rebirth. I think the only failure in life is failure to try."
Understandably, completing a complete renovation over the course of a weekend is daunting — both mentally and physically — even though she makes it look easy. "I don't regret the physical toll these weekend installs take on me," she told Forbes. "I love it all, but I want to make sure I'm not downplaying how difficult pulling this off is."