Twenty-four years after its last hospital renovation, Erin and Ben Napier return to the maternity ward where she gave birth to her two daughters, In this latest episode, the couple spearheads an unforgettable project to modernize the ward and create a welcoming atmosphere at the South Central Regional Medical Center (SCRMC) in Laurel, Mississippi, in the tenth season of HGTV’s hit series Home Town.
If you missed the episode, which aired on Sunday, March 8th, you can still catch it on Max or Amazon Prime. The dynamic couple who has been renovating the homes of new and longtime residents in their small rural town in the American South had only devoted a single episode—back in the 8th season—to a commercial renovation project. At that time, they brought their tools and renovation savvy to the SCRMC, Laurel’s local hospital.
This year, the hardworking couple felt it was time to revisit the beloved maternity ward and outfit it with some of the most functional features and outstanding biophilic design elements to make both expectant mothers and their families feel right at home. Naturally, they reached out to Sky Factory to discuss incorporating two of our latest nature illusions.
Illusions of Nature Add a Breath of Southern Charm
“It was thanks to Stanley Coco, SCRMC’s facility director,” says Jeff Johnson, one of Sky Factory’s veteran Sky Designers, “that we got the call in the summer of 2025 from Nicole Kendrick, the producer of HGTV’s hit series Home Town. That’s when we learned that the new season of the popular show was looking for showcase technology for the maternity ward episode. We took pen to paper so-to-speak and looked at some locations and how we could create a virtual opening that would bring that welcome connection to the natural outdoors,” added Jeff.
“Right off the bat we knew IRIS should be part of the conversation,” added Skye Witherspoon, Sky Factory’s CEO. “IRIS, our Circadian SkyCeiling, is our 2nd generation tunable sky illusion. The photographic Open Sky Compositions we select to bring the sunrise-to-sunset arcs to life with the IRIS illumination system are selected for their compositional attributes. Our artists have assembled a collection that really come to life with our patented lighting system,” he said.
IRIS uses two algorithms, the first called PRiSM modulates correlated color temperature (CCT) across the overhead scene while the second algorithm called DiAL modulates brightness values in a way that mimics how cloud cover filters sunlight. This system became Sky Factory’s most celebrated innovation, earning Architectural Products magazine’s Product Innovation Award (PIA), Architizer’s Popular A+ Award in two categories (Health & Wellness and Recessed & Mounted Lighting), as well as a GOOD Design Award in Lighting, an awards program sponsored by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum and the European Center for Architecture, Art Design, and Urban Planning.
With IRIS a shoo-in for an evidence-based design (EBD) virtual skylight for the maternity ward suite where Erin and Ben’s daughters spent their first nights, the task fell on the creative team to identify other suitable spaces for environment design enhancements.
“We wanted to bring in a wall application, too,” noted Jeff. “We had just launched OpenView, our 2nd generation Luminous Virtual Window, which employs high resolution focus stacking photography to achieve an amazing depth of field,” Skye added.
Stanley Coco, in conjunction with Nicole, the show’s producer, also wanted a virtual window for the maternity ward’s waiting room. After much discussion about the placement, dimensions, and constraints, Sky Factory’s engineering team fashioned a custom-tailored window to satisfy the requirements of the space.
The team flew down to Laurel, MS, for a couple of days in mid-October for the actual installation and gameplan what segments would be filmed with the show’s production crew.
“I have a couple of friends who have done some TV shows and had heard about the tight filming schedule and strict environment, but it was a whole other experience to run into a couple unexpected wrinkles, have to improvise on the spot, under pressure, and finish in time for the camera crew to hit to ground running,” added Clint, part of Sky Factory’s engineering crew on site.
“It was arduous work, but the lunch the hospital provided during the break was so delicious,” he added, “in fact, I’m still waiting to hear back on the recipe for that pie!”
The episode filming went according to schedule, and the South Central Regional Medical Center got its second marquee appearance on Ben and Erin’s fabled Home Town. “We were glad to be part of Laurel’s famous renovations,” said Skye, “and we certainly hope that all the new expectant mothers to be will enjoy the therapeutic features of our installations in the new maternity ward.”
Sky Factory is the only designer of evidence-based, virtual skylights that also provides continuing education courses on the benefits of biophilic design. Our family of Luminous SkyCeilings, OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows, and Digital Cinema applications are biophilic designed products that provide research-verified, architectural solutions for a range of healthcare and commercial spaces. To find out how Sky Factory can bring the healing presence of nature to your organization, contact us today.
