In the fall issue of her lifestyle and home magazine, Magnolia Journal, Joanna Gaines offers an exclusive look into her newly renovated rose cottage.
Chip and Joanna Gaines have documented the renovations they’ve made to their 40-acre property in Waco, Texas, since moving there in 2012. Their latest project focused on revitalizing the rose garden, a spot where Joanna finds peace and comfort.
She mentioned that the garden and a potting shed were among the first things they built after moving in. However, after 12 years, the space had gradually turned into storage, leading them to restore it.
“I want to preserve all that we’ve planted, cultivated, and reaped each season—to capture the wonder that captured us,” the Fixer Upper star wrote. “Recently, I decided to return to that decade-old rose garden and shed and give it a new purpose. I wanted it to serve as a dedicated place to do what my family and I have been doing for years: to press flowers as a way to pause, document, and savor what we’ve grown together.”
After renovating, the newly transformed potting shed has become a beautiful cottage oasis, which Joanna now calls her “rose cottage.” The cottage is now larger than before and features a roof inspired by architecture they admired during a family trip to South Korea.
The interior is painted in a “moody” dark green, featuring beautiful wood countertops, black and white tiled flooring, and farmhouse-style furniture throughout. Natural light fills the entire space, thanks to the added windows that bring in the brightness it needs.
Although it was initially designed as a potting shed for the Gaines family, Joanna now uses the newly renovated space as a place to press flowers.
“At the heart of the revitalized rose cottage, I wanted an herbarium,” Joanna said. “Usually found in botanical gardens, museums, and arboretums, an herbarium is a collection of dried, pressed plants mounted on sheets of paper. They’re documented to the utmost scientific detail and organized and archived using a specific system so people can easily retrieve, identify, and study the findings—from decades or even hundreds of years back.”
She explains that over the years, she has purchased many antique books and often discovered pressed flowers inside them. She loved the idea so much that her family began creating their own pressed flower book, something she hopes to pass down to her children and eventually to their kids.
Joanna concludes, “Our herbarium slowly, gently invites me to create something that will outlive me—an act of service that brings joy now and hopefully will bring joy again to whoever may experience it in the future.”
