Your mom would know: HGTV star Chip Gaines to send home decor to Kentucky mother

After a playful social media exchange between a Rockcastle County sports coach and television star Chip Gaines, a Kentucky mother is getting a whole set of home decor goodies.

Chip Gaines, the famous HGTV home designer along with his wife, Joanna Gaines, took to X — formerly known as Twitter — on Wednesday to defend his beloved Baylor University Men’s Basketball team amid rumors head coach Scott Drew would come to the Kentucky program. Chip Gaines is a 1998 alumni of Baylor University with a degree in communications. His wife also attended the Texas university.

But Thursday morning, speculation about Drew was quickly shutdown after he did not accept UK’s offer to be its head basketball coach.

The couple are the stars of the HGTV show “Fixer Upper” which attracted a national audience of more than 24 million viewers during Season 2 of their show, which first aired in 2015.

The University of Kentucky had been in discussions with recruiting Baylor Coach Scott Drew to the men’s basketball program amid the departure of longtime Coach John Calipari. Gaines had been active on social media sites lightheartedly sparring with Kentucky fans about the possible move by Drew.

Kentucky fans and Gaines began a back and forth exchange with Gaines — one of whom is a Rockcastle County Middle School baseball coach and assistant high school football coach.

Named “Coach T” on X, Tyler Holman shared a Barstool Kentucky Sports photo of Gaines, and questioned — somewhat colorfully — who the home designer was.

Gaines himself replied.

“Do you kiss your mom with that mouth,” Gaines responded. “Ask her who I am, she’ll know.”

Sure enough, “Coach T” shared a text exchange with his mother, who did in fact know Gaines.

She referred to him in the text exchange as “the one with the beautiful wife” who can “decorate anything and make it beautiful.”

Gaines responded with a gloat of “I told you so,” followed by a gesture to send the mother “all things Magnolia.”

Magnolia is the Gaine’s home decor business which was founded in 2003. The business’ manifesto is to help create a space inside everyone’s home that is restorative people for the day, and prepare them for tomorrow.

Holman truly had no idea who Gaines was, that he would respond and much less that his mother would end up with new decor.

The tweet exchange, “spread like wildfire,” he said.

An avid UK fan and alumni, Holman said Gaines’ assistant did reach out to him to get his mother’s contact and address information. Whatever ends up coming her way, he said, is part of her Mother’s Day gifts. She is “pumped” for the goodies to arrive, he said.

Holman plans to send a UK swag box back to the Gaines family to continue the fun banter, which he said is what college sports is all about.

“That is what makes college sports what it is, the ability to interact with other teams’ fans,” Holman told the Herald-Leader. “But that being said, you have to be able to interact in a positive way.”