EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea Houska on her ‘rewarding’ return to TV with ‘Down Home Fab’

HGTV

Former Teen Mom stars Chelsea Houska and Cole DeBoer landed their own makeover show on HGTV called Down Home Fab.

Former Teen Mom star Chelsea Houska and her husband Cole DeBoer are excited for the premiere of their new show Down Home Fab, which premieres Jan. 16 on HGTV.

The couple took more than two years off from reality TV and left Teen Mom in November 2020 after spending about 10 years at MTV. Houska and DeBoer caught the attention of millions of fans when they launched an Instagram page. Down Home DeBoersto document their self-build process. From there, Houska jokingly sent a message to HGTV on Instagram that it would be fun to document the build with them, and the message was relayed to the network’s higher-ups, Houska Heavy said in a phone interview.

HGTV approved six hour-long episodes featuring Houska and DeBoer renovating homes in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Houska and DeBoer may have started out with a series focused on drama, but Down Home Fab is about modernizing people’s homes.

“It feels so rewarding. I’m so proud of the show and being a part of it and I want to share it everywhere and I’m not hesitant or nervous about anything,” Houska told Heavy. “I’m just proud.”

“It was fun just being myself,” added DeBoer.

Houska has an eye for design and DeBoer is in charge of the renovation. “Chelsea’s bold vision will elevate any design plan, while Cole will serve as a hands-on project manager and jack of all trades,” her bio reads HGTV website says.

Filming again felt “natural”.

Though Houska and DeBoer took a break from the cameras, they felt comfortable when they started filming with HGTV.

“It seemed natural,” Houska told Heavy.

However, there was a bit of nervousness on the first day.

“I was scared because it was our first day on a very different network. We do something completely different, but after that everything was fine,” explained Houska. “I mean, I’m very comfortable in front of the cameras so it wasn’t a big deal for me, but Cole is a little bit more shy.”

“When you spend those long days and hours with these people, you get really close, so the awkwardness quickly goes away,” she added.

DeBoer felt more at home on HGTV.

“I think being able to be myself has helped me more,” he told Heavy. “Being able to just be silly and work and feel more normal when I wasn’t paying as much attention to the cameras as I probably would have done in the past.”

Houska got her start on television as a single mother. She welcomed her first daughter, 13-year-old Aubree, with her high school friend Adam Lind. Houska met DeBoer when Aubree was 5 years old and they have been together ever since. The couple married in 2016 and welcomed three children together: 5-year-old Watson, 4-year-old Layne and 1-year-old Walker June.

Houska and DeBoer hope to come across as “relatable.”

Teen Mom fans have known Houska and DeBoer for more than a decade, but millions of viewers on HGTV will be meeting them for the first time.

“I hope people can relate to us,” Houska told Heavy. “At the end of the day we are a couple with four children. And we’re just trying to build a family business. I know there are a lot of working families out there that can relate to that and we’re trying to find a balance between all of that too.”

“I want to be relatable and real, and we’re silly and funny, too,” DeBoer added.

As for their future in television, Houska and DeBoer said they would like to be on a competitive reality show. Houska said something like HGTV “Rock the Block” could be “so funny”.

“I love shows like this,” she told Heavy. “I would be so nervous, but I would love it.”

“I mean, I like competition, bring it on,” DeBoer added.

So will there be a second season of Down Home Fab?

“We really hope so,” said Houska.

“We can only hope,” DeBoer added.

To catch Houska and DeBoer’s return to television, don’t miss “Down Home Fab” when it premieres on Monday, January 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET on HGTV. It can be streamed the same day via Discovery+.