Chelsea DeBoer Says Leaving 'Teen Mom' for HGTV Show Feels Like 'Huge Weight' Was Lifted (Exclusive)

Chelsea and Cole DeBoer are excited to shed their Teen Mom identifiers in favor of being known as the new HGTV stars. The real-life couple rose to fame on MTV's Teen Mom 2, but now they are transitioning into the world of home renovation on their new show, Down Home Fab. 

Chelsea -- who was known by her maiden name, Chelsea Houska, on 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom 2 -- tells ET's Deidre Behar that she never planned to transition to another reality series after leaving Teen Mom 2 in 2020. 

"There was no plan at all. I fully left Teen Mom thinking that's probably it," Chelsea, 31, tells ET. "But I was OK with that also. I just felt like that's fine. So the fact that this happened after closing that door, it's been a wild ride." 

She admits that her decision to leave the MTV series was "scary" at the time after more than a decade in the franchise. But now that she's no longer highlighting her personal life on TV, the mother of four says it's the "hugest weight" that's been "lifted off my shoulders."

"I feel so proud of the show and to share the show," she adds of Down Home Fab. "There was times where I'd be so nervous about Teen Mom airing because I'd feel guilty -- Did I share too much? Did I share something that should have been kept personal to my kids? And I just don't feel that at all [with this show]. You still do get to see a little bit with the kids, but I feel like it's very lighthearted."

Cole explains of the differences in the shows, "You get to see our family, but it's not us sitting down having a conversation about what's going on."

Instead they will be focusing on home renovation with their own personal style -- a term they've coined as "South Dakota Glam." 

"It's almost like a mixture of me and Cole. Cole brings the rustic vibes. He's an outdoorsman. And I love a good glam moment," Chelsea explains. "I like all the makeup, the cute clothes and stuff. Our style is a lot of cowhides and antlers, but mixed with big gold light fixtures and stuff like that."

As for how she managed to transition away from a show about the trials and tribulations of her personal life, to a show about her passion for the family business, Chelsea attributes her father, Randy Houska's, advice to her early on.

"My dad always said to take the high road. He gave me advice, it always pays off to be a good person," she shares. "There was times where I definitely did not want to take the high road and I wanted to get down and dirty. But I just always remembered what he said and I was a good person, and I do think that paid off." 

She does keep in touch with co-stars Leah Messer and Kailyn Lowry and says there's "no one that I have bad feelings with" from the cast. 

"They've been so supportive, commenting or sending private messages and I just think that's so sweet because we did go through that together," she says of her former co-stars. "And we are still very supportive of one another." 

And though they'll be keeping their family in the background of their new HGTV series, Chelsea and Cole admit that they're not opposed to having more kids down the line. 

"The door is not closed, but the door is also not open," Chelsea says. 

"It's cracked," Cole quips, jokingly adding, "Down the line [more kids are] just free employees." 

Down Home Fab premieres on HGTV Monday, Jan. 16 at 9 p.m. ET. 

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'Down Home Fab': Chelsea DeBoer Returns to TV in New HGTV Show

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