10 Things We Like About IDS 2026

 by Allan Tong 

       January in Toronto means the annual Interior Design Show and freezing temperatures. One of these is fun. The former takes place January 22-25 at the north end of the MTCC (Metro Toronto Convention Centre) downtown in a vast space that houses more than 250 exhibitors of anything to do with home furnishing. 

    We're talking sofa, sinks, beds, wall units, flooring, lights, bathtubs, chairs and more, with an eye to the future. The Next Great Design. Exhibitors include Miele, Roche Bobois, Teknion, Cosentino, Anatolia and House of Rohl. If you want to redesign your living room, this is the place. A futuristic bathroom? Voila. If you want to hear the latest trends, catch the panels that jam the schedule from January 23-25. Meanwhile, professionals have 25 sessions about the design industry to choose in the conference program.

     So, what did we like this year? 

 

 

1) The Opening Night Party: Let's stat with the opening bash. About 6,000 souls jammed the convention floor to check out the exhibits as dance music pulsating and bartenders poured. The $67-72 ticket included wine, some beer and, if you're lucky, champagne that were offered by various exhibitors. The show itself tabled some snacks. Recent opening parties were light on food and drink, but there was a noticeable uptick this year with even pizza offered, and vast tables of red, white and rose spread out. Neither were seen in past years. This is good. However, partygoers had to arrive before 9:00 pm (the party ran from 7:00 to 11:00 pm) to enjoy of these freebies.

 

 

2 & 3) Jade Sofa & Brutalist End Table: Potocco gives us Hanne Willmann's sofa (above), part of the Jade collection of sofas and tables. I like the eye-catching organic shape. This sofa is part of a modular collection of nine units. You could add to it this Brutalist End Table, designed by Alain van Havre, made by Ethnicraft. The contrast is striking, but works.

4) Peaks Sofa: Speaking of contrast, Moooi presents the Peaks Sofa by Yves Béhar (below). Its angular, modular design stands above the rest. Some may be put off, while others will be enchanted by this gathering of dual-foam triangles that fold up or down. I like the versality: shift and shape these triangles as you like. The sofa is crafted in weatherproof Vetta fabric, so it can be used inside or out.

 

5) Orly Lights: Something unusual, and playing on the organic shape of the jade Sofa are these custom lights by this Toronto designer. Call them glowing teardrops or giant earrings, these look cool. Are they suitable for every home? No, but if you want something funky and different, these will literally lighten your space.

 

 

6) Disk: Designed by Sacha Lakic and made by Roche Bobois, Disk is a graphic shelving unit, inspired by the colour palette of Pedro Almodóvar's films, Volver and The Room Next Door and modeled after stained glass. Beautiful.

 

7) Molo: Presented by Alumcomplete, Molo is an example of the custom units that this Montreal company designs. As a bibliophile, I like the sleek look of this piece, the smooth, sliding doors and the near-invisible glass doors that can show off a book collection or sculptures or house audio components or all the above.

8) Creations Oasis: What can I say? I'm drawn to organic forms this year at IDS like these benches that evoke ocean waves.

 

 

9) Mooi: File under WTF? This room, including sofas, wallpaper and flooring evoked memories of a bad acid trip and I recoiled in horror. So, why the hell did I go back to this exhibit? There is something perversely attractive here. Oddly enough, the makers of this room also gave us the Peaks Sofa (described above).

 

 

10) Keynote speakers: A highlight every year is the vast schedule of keynote speeches and panels, mostly eying the future of design, and many offering tips for various parts of the home. This year, there's an accent on AI and its impact on the design industry. It's easy to catch these speakers at the centre of the MTCC floor. Enjoy!