Attending the Fall Home Show in Toronto is a rewarding experience for homeowners, building contractors, and trendsetters in search of the latest conveniences. Held at the Enercare Centre in Exhibition Place in September each year, the much-anticipated exhibition is the largest home show in Canada (2nd only to the National Home Show in Toronto every spring). The event is filled with economic optimism and a positive energy which inspires attendees to live better, more organized, and more efficient lives.
Visitors to the Fall Home Show are engaged. They actively interact with vendors, trading their names and email addresses for free gifts and a chance to win a prize. The whole place was really busy on Saturday, and the show was so crammed with people it was difficult to move through the narrow aisles. Business owners were frequently too busy speaking with potential customers to deal with me, and I had to wait to conduct my interviews and shoot my video clips.
Below is the six-minute movie I made on Saturday, returning to shoot more on Sunday which is why some folks refer to the show in the past tense while others are filled with hopeful anticipation. I talked with eighteen or more home show vendors but only ten interviews made the final cut. Sorry if we spoke and your business doesn’t appear on this reel. Next time!
Is the Fall Home Show in Toronto Worth the Money?
Yes, because tickets to attend the Fall Home Show are relatively cheap – $15 for adults. Once inside, each vendor bequeaths gifts which are mostly candies and bottled water, but there were also also tools (plastic buckets, measuring tapes, mini-levels) and clothes, and some items were premium quality and useful.
Tickets to the Home Show only cost $15. Seniors only pay $13 and teenagers pay $12. Children are free. There were also special offers, such as a $10 Friday Night Special (after 4:00 PM on September 26th) which included free parking, or the $25 GO Transit combo ticket. Vendors pay approximately $1800 for every ten square feet of floor space they rent for three days.
The food at the Fall Home Show was expensive. Burgers were $20 each and fries were $10 extra. Rueben sandwiches, corned beef on rye bread with some sauerkraut were selling for $19 each, and if you wanted a drink of water, the food vendors were charging $4.60 per bottle. It was too much, and if someone had appeared with $5 pizza slices they would have cleaned house.
Kitchen remodelers early on Sunday morning at the 2025 Fall Home Show.
Numerous home builders and renovation contractors offered me a seamless home remodeling solution, which means they’d hold my hand and help reshape my house into the home of my dreams. They’d take my ideas, my sketches and diagrams and have their own professional architects and engineers turn them into proper building plans. They’d manage my building project from start to finish which makes it easy for me, but honestly, that’s also the best possible scenario for them.
If you know anything about residential construction, you’d know it’s rife with kickbacks. Managing a job from start to finish means being able to accept thousands of dollars in semi-legal bribes from various subcontractors who want to work. I’ve no doubt the builders who come to the Home Show like to capture leads in the dream stage and then farm-out the resulting gigs to hungry tradespeople and specialty service providers.
Mortgage Brokers are On-Hand to Help Finance Dream Homes
Salespeople explained how this is the best time for a major renovation, and with the right financing, I could afford any style of house on the market. There are also lots of ways to borrow money and treat houses as life-giving capital investments and retirement savings plans, and so it follows there were a great many financiers at the show.
Arghavan Rastegari and Hasti Kiamehr are mortgage brokers, but Arghavan styles herself as a Life & Living Benefit Advisor, and that’s because she focuses on safeguarding her clients’ financial well-being, primarily by optimizing their mortgage investments. Years ago, she attended and graduated from the Real Estate & Mortgage Institute of Canada and before that, she completed her post secondary education at Durham College. Since then, she has amassed lots of knowledge and experience which make her a valued financial advisor. Her interpersonal skills are excellent. She’s a good listener which likely helps when she goes to work delivering finance solutions perfectly tailored to meet the needs of the prospects she meets each year at the Fall Home Show.
On Saturday, the biggest and most excited crowd milled about the ADUs, and also the various sunroom installations and especially those businesses showcasing smart glass and clever window blinds. Smart windows are revolutionizing the solarium, completely changing the look of this popular home addition because window tint can now be adjusted daily, programmed in advance, or made to respond in real time to the heat and sunlight passing through the glass. It’s visually amazing and makes a nifty tradeshow demonstration but is not something which can be easily photographed.
The sunroom showroom at the Fall Home Show
ADUs Dominated the 2025 Fall Home Show, Again
It was the same thing last year, and the year before that. There always seems to be a lot of people occupying the ADUs, Accessory Dwelling Units. These little houses are finished inside and out, and some were even surrounded by Astroturf to signal how they can exist on an otherwise empty lawn. ADUs are secondary, self-contained housing units on the same property as a primary residence. It’s like having a modern guest house or a tiny home in your backyard. They’re complete living spaces with their own cooking, sleeping, and sanitary facilities. ADUs can be attached, detached, or built above an existing structure and are known by various other names, such as laneway houses, garden suites, or in-law suites.
Borderless Homes presented a complete modular ADU at booth 213. The unit they erected was always busy, even on Sunday, and there were large signs advertising its price as being Only $55,000. But when I checked their website, I found the cheapest unit was $75,000, and so maybe the lower price was a Fall Home Show special.
The ADU process is not instantaneous, as some believe; it takes about seven months minimum from ordering to delivery, plumbing, electrical and basic inspections.
Laneway and Garden Suites are Accessory Dwelling Units
The main difference is between the various ADU models is access; a laneway suite faces and has direct access to a public laneway, while a garden suite may be situated a backyard with no laneway access, and is accessed through a side path. Both are designed to increase housing density and provide options for multigenerational living or rental income. The vendor was also keen to show ADUs styled as art studios, music rooms, and creative workshops.
Neem Connect is a Canadian digital platform and free app that connects construction professionals (contractors, suppliers, manufacturers) with customers (builders, homeowners) for various construction-related services, products, and projects. The platform aims to build trust and transparency by offering verified listings, authentic reviews, and a streamlined process for finding reliable professionals, comparing quotes, and buying or selling construction materials.
YiXin Construction Inc. offered VR Experiences
YiXin Construction Inc. was founded by Niko Chen in 2016. He’s an architect and entrepreneur with a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from McMaster University. Following his passion for creating functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces, Niko furthered his education in both architectural design and interior design. This diverse educational foundation has since enabled him to approach projects with a more holistic perspective, seamlessly integrating structural integrity with innovative design solutions.
YiXin Construction Inc was one of the only builders at the Fall Home Show offering Virtual Reality (VR) tours to consumers. In this manner, they exhibited new homes and remodeling options. The immersive, 3D experience allowed potential buyers to virtually walk through unbuilt properties and explore customization options, such as finishes and furniture placement. The technology bridges the gap between traditional 2D renderings and the final physical space, providing a realistic preview that helps buyers visualize the scale and aesthetic feel of their potential new home. Benefits include increased buyer confidence, reduced confusion, the ability to easily order materials and feel good about making changes before construction begins.
Who Cares About Sico Paint’s Colour of the Year ?
Home builders and decorators care about Sico Paint’s Color of the Year because it reflects global culture and design trends, inspiring homeowners and designers to create dynamic and inviting spaces. This official color guides the market by capturing current moods and helping consumers make intentional design choices which align with today’s aesthetics.
The selected color for 2026 is Boreal Forest green. The colour provides practical design inspiration, offering palettes and ideas for everything from accent walls to exterior doors. Sico’s colors often draw from nature to bring restorative energy and emotional impact into living spaces, evoking feelings such as comfort or tranquility. By choosing a color that resonates with contemporary trends, Sico and its parent company PPG position themselves as leaders in design innovation. The only downside is that by choosing this year’s colour, your rooms could appear dated and need repainting in the future, which is good for Sico.
David Bochner, the owner of Exterior by Design was on hand to talk stucco and stone.
David Bochner of Exterior by Design is an expert on modern home finishes and how to best use stucco and stone. Similar to glass, stucco is another medium which has seen a lot of improvement in recent years. In case you don’t know, stucco is a sand, lime and water which is used to make a decorative finish on exterior walls. In the last ten years, stucco has seen terrific advancements in both material composition and application technology.
Here in the Province of Ontario, we have very cold winters and hot summers and the resulting expansion and contraction can crack cement. Modern stucco incorporates polymers which increase its flexibility and crack resistance, making it more durable for Canadian climates. Additionally, new additives like perlite improve thermal insulation, helping buildings improve their overall energy efficiency to reduce utility costs. Moisture management has also been tackled with integrated systems such as air and moisture barriers, drainage mats, and advanced finishes which protect against water intrusion.
Wineracking Depo debuted at 2025 Fall Home Show
John Garcia from the Wineracking Depo.
John Garcia was exhibiting at the Fall Home Show for the first time and was impressed. He appears in my video praising the show, reflecting on what is already a positive experience.
Wineracking Depot offers wine coolers (equipment, not beverages) and refrigerated cabinets which create the perfect conditions to age wine, or simply preserve vintages at the optimal temperature to enjoy with meals.
John owns a commercial woodshop on Rutherford Road South in Brampton in which a half-a-dozen employees manufacture modular wine racks from California Redwood and other exotic timbers. Modular means the wooden racks come in an array of standardized shapes and sizes which are like puzzle pieces to be fit into new cellars. He also sells the wine cellar cooling units, as I mentioned earlier, and other cellar supplies.
Tablescapes and Jane Lockhart at 2025 Fall Home Show
Jane Lockhart’s Tablescape at the 2025 Fall Home Show in Toronto.
In addition to speaking on the main stage, Jane Lockhart was invited to create a Tablescape at the 2025 Fall Home Show, and her installation radiated the warmth and richness of autumn. I found her design on Sunday morning when nobody was around because the show was so crowded on Saturday, I didn’t notice or recognize the stand-alone display as artwork.
Jane’s design featured a harmonious blend of natural and organic elements with carefully curated tableware. Her selections embraced the season’s glow with a burnt orange velvet tablecloth and plates with black and gold accents. The bushy centrepieces celebrate the fall harvest, creating a festive environment for family and friends.
This tablescape not only reflects the abundance of autumn but also showcases Jane Lockhart’s skill at making welcoming spaces to capture the spirit of togetherness. This expression of autumn was created by Jane and exhibited to provide inspiration to visitors and remind them of the importance of seeing and possibly hosting their extended family during the holidays, in their dream house.
The Fall Home Show in Toronto is a real life repository of good information and useful resources for anyone looking to embark on a home renovation project, discover the latest trends, or gather new ideas to refresh their living environments. The 2025 Fall Home Show was a vibrant gathering of innovation and expertise.
Rob Campbell is a digital marketing professional and trivia quiz master who worked in the Toronto film business for many years.
