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Living Luxe Design Show 2025: It’s all about creating an immersive experience
So, you’ve got people to come to your booth at a design show and to look at your products, but how do you stimulate their senses and stir their imagination?
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It’s a challenge Amanda Aerin, luxury designer and host of CTV Life Channel’s Find My Country Home, seems to relish.
Says Aerin before hosting me on tour of the JennAir booth that she had created for the Living Luxe Design Show 2025 which ran April 22-25 at Toronto’s Congress Centre, it all starts with getting plugged into the way people are thinking.
“What I found is that once we came out of the pandemic, everyone was excited about home entertaining,” she says. “They appreciate a more intimate experience, and they very much appreciate appliances that look beautiful but also integrate into a design.”
At the show, JennAir featured its extensive line of refrigerators, cooktops, ranges and dishwashers, but the last thing she wanted is for the booth to look like an appliance showroom, opting “to do something completely different instead.
The starting point for her creation was what she called a “gothic arch idea” with pillars and columns throughout the booth made from Styrofoam that had been painted in a dark grey to emulate the look of stone, which she envisioned as a great way to add balance to all the appliances and cabinetry woodwork inside.
Our tour started in the wine lounge. “Wine storage a really nice way to beautify an area, and looking at the JennAir wine column units, nobody would ever know there’s a refrigeration unit inside,” says Aerin. And because the wine units are columnar in shape and quite high, it takes up less space then a wine wall or room.
Up next, it’s on to the servery or hosting space area, including its cabinetry with fine wood detail and a gorgeous porcelain countertop, perfect for entertaining, adding to the overall rich look while also being functional.
As for the kitchen area, the appliances themselves are quite sleek and nice to look at but adding in a leather panel brings it warmth and able to blend into any interior. A large kitchen island has a unique five-sided shape, which Aerin says is needed to do double duty, “it’s got to be a showpiece and functional at the same time.”
And finally, she points out a row of three dishwashers, that normally would be running as silently as possible, but for the purpose of the show, play opera music when you open the door.
“We are really trying to help people envision kitchens differently, to think about using materials and their spaces differently, says Aerin, as it’s not just about functionality anymore, every single appliance needs to blend into a design.
Other exhibitors were also keen to deliver on the design experience. Reka Kevsehi co-founder of Vogt Industries says: “Being part of the Living Luxe show has been an incredible opportunity for us to connect with design-savvy homeowners and industry leaders.
“The atmosphere felt like a boutique-style event — where fashion meets design — blending the two worlds into one uniquely inspiring experience,” she says.
As the driving force behind Vogt, a proudly Canadian, family-owned brand known for its kitchen and bathroom fixtures, Kevsehi believes shows are a great way to not just showcase products, but to tell a story.
Just 15 years ago, she launched Vogt, with only five sink models, selling them directly from the back of her car. Since then, the company has steadily expanded its product lines to include stainless steel, quartz composite and ceramic sinks. plus a wide range of kitchen fixtures, including faucets, pot fillers, soap dispensers, and water filter taps. In the bathroom category, Vogt now features nine full collections in a variety of finishes with matching accessories.
Most notably, and turning heads at this year’s show, was its line of brightly coloured faucet parts and accessories, which can easily be changed up for whatever a mood a person may be in. “The faucet line integrates colour but also gives you the option to change that colour,” says Kevsehi.
“People may not want to commit to a colour, because a year from now, you might not want it, so you change it, all you need is an Alan key. That’s what designers love about it.”
Jennifer Lipkowitz, the show’s founder and organizer, says “immersive experiences” are the future of industry shows, and not just for home decor, but other luxury items like cars, fashion, lifestyle, artwork, architecture which were also on display at the show.
A key addition to this year’s show was an art gallery, “because we wanted to have something new,” says Lipkowitz.
The approach seems to be working. Last year, the show totaled 60,000 sq. ft. last year, this year it almost doubled to 100,000 sq. ft.
Lipkowitz says the goal is to grow but in a way that it stays elevated. “We want people to experience the show. Here, we want to inspire people.”
Planning is now underway for the fourth edition of the show to be held at the Toronto Congress Centre in April 2026.
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