Photo: Manny Carabel/Getty
Erin Napieris opening up about what makes a home truly special.
TheHome Townstar’s third book,HEIRLOOM ROOMS: Soulful Stories of Homewill be released October 3, 2023, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. It explores the true meaning of home through a collection of personal essays and nostalgic photographs.
Each essay Napier, 37, pens tells the story behind a room in her beloved Laurel, Miss. house that she shares with her husbandBen Napier, 39, and their two daughters, Helen, 5, and Mae, 19 months.
Erin’s book also highlights the unique spaces of her family and friends and includes prompts for readers to jot down what memories their own home evokes.
“I wanted to write essays about our own home wherein every room is its own chapter about a particular time in our life together and I invited friends to be contributors and do the same,” she tells PEOPLE. “I hope readers will find the stories and photos beautiful for their relatability, and that it makes them reframe the way they think of their own homes.”
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The book focuses on how the imperfections of a house ultimately make it beautiful, which is one of the reasons why Erin was inspired to start writing in the first place.
She continues: “The styling can be an outward reflection of who we are and what we love—but really, our houses are the backdrops of our lives and celebrations and failures, of growing families.”
Erin also dives into the history behind her home and how she’s had her eye on it since she was a child.
BeforeHEIRLOOM ROOMS, Erin released her first children’s book,The Lantern House,which made theNew York Times' best sellers list shortly after its release in May 2022.
The heartwarming picture book is written from the perspective of a home as it watches families who live there grow up and move on over the years.
“The reality about our houses is, they go on after we’ve left them, and imagine if houses could talk, what would they tell us about the things that they’ve seen. That’s fascinating to me,” Napier toldPEOPLEin 2022. “Something I think about a lot is that the house I’m sitting in right now will outlive me. Isn’t that crazy?”
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She included a sad moment in the book in which the house sits dark and empty. The house imagines its possible future caretakers, including a trapeze artist, which Erin revealed was a nod to her daughter Helen.
“The trapeze artist’s house is Helen’s. If she could do anything, this house would look like a circus tent and she would be the star trapeze artist,” she explained.
Erin and Ben also previously published an autobiography,Make Something Good Today,in 2018.
source: people.com
