GUEST COLUMN: Home Renovation In Entertainment

Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/DsCsI1RNRTk

Home Renovation In Entertainment

by Devin Caldwell

Home renovation is big business, and not only in the construction and real estate industry. The fascination with home improvement has led to it being the central theme in TV shows and movies. Discover, Inc even created an entire TV channel around it.

The popularity of the topic of home renovation, as highlighted by HomeGuideMyrtleBeach.com, has its roots in human psychology. It appeals to the human need to dream, aspire, and hope that something better is just around the corner. It is also a metaphor for making important changes in other areas of life. People fix up their homes because they want them to look pretty, but they also do it because they want a fresh start. Renovating a room, or even watching someone else do it on TV, gives people the hope that they can make even bigger changes in other, less concrete, areas of their lives.

If you have somehow missed the home reno craze and don't quite believe it's as big as it is, take a look at just a sampling of the ways that the media has grappled on to this trend. Fair warning though, if you start watching some of these resources, you might get bitten by the remodel bug yourself.

The Channel That Home Renovation Built

HGTV was launched in 1994 and has been inspiring people throughout the world to be bold with paint, install crown molding, update their kitchens and check out getting pool loans to make their backyard a personal oasis for 28 years. How popular is it? Nearly 83% of all households in the United States who have a TV, pay to watch HGTV. 

The channel has a rotating slate of shows, most of which center on a home renovation theme. Two of the most popular shows the channel has ever produced are Fixer-Upper and Hometown. The shows have many similarities. Both focus on a husband and wife team of designers and builders working in a mostly rural location who remodel older homes. The shows emphasize the nostalgic beauty of classic homes and allow viewers to become invested in the stories of the clients and the remodeling team. Their popularity is rooted in the satisfaction of the transformation of the homes and the feel-good aspect of seeing good, hard working people get the home of their dreams.

The Romance of Remodeling

Hallmark and Lifetime TV have long been the go-to channels for family-oriented romance movies. Millions of viewers turn to these channels during the holiday season to watch their light-hearted and romantic Christmas movies. If you doubt the emotional appeal of the renovation movement, all you have to do is look at the long list of movies on the Hallmark or Lifetime channel that use home renovation as a premise for their characters' stories.

Christmas Lodge is an older Hallmark movie but one of its most popular. It tells the story of a woman on a mission to raise funds to renovate an old Christmas lodge that she spent all of her Christmas holidays at as a child. For her, the lodge represents a time when her family was happy and cohesive. Along the way, she falls in love with the lodge owner and they marry and run the lodge together.

Other home renovation-themed films on these popular channels include Flip That Romance, The Holiday Fix-Up, and Love in Design. Each movie uses the renovation of old and often historic properties as the premise for the film. There is even a mystery, crime-solving series called Fixer-Upper Mysteries in which an expert home renovator becomes involved in criminal investigations with a handsome investigative reporter.

Conclusion 

The surge in the popularity of renovation-themed TV entertainment is about more than just the results of the remodel. Having the home of their dreams is a common desire for people around the world. This trend allows viewers to live vicariously through these shows and imagine themselves living in their perfect home and living the best version of their life.