About Style at Home

Style at Home

Style at Home is a Canadian home décor and lifestyle magazine published in Toronto, aimed at readers who want attainable, stylish ideas for decorating, renovating and entertaining. Founded in 1997, it has spent nearly three decades as one of Canada's leading shelter titles, moving through the country's two largest magazine publishers — first Transcontinental Media, then TVA Group — while building a brand that spans print, digital and a consumer show. Its editorial formula pairs real Canadian homes with practical decorating advice, seasonal entertaining ideas and shoppable product coverage.

Overview

The magazine's core promise is accessible style: professionally photographed homes and rooms that readers can realistically recreate, paired with step-by-step decorating guidance, DIY projects, colour and paint advice, small-space solutions and budget-conscious makeovers. Content is organized around the rhythms of home life — seasonal decorating, holiday entertaining, spring refreshes, outdoor living — alongside evergreen service journalism on topics such as kitchen and bath renovations, furniture arrangement and lighting.

Beyond the print edition, the brand has historically extended into digital content at styleathome.com and a consumer show, both launched under founding editor Gail Johnston Habs, giving the title touchpoints with readers beyond the newsstand and mailbox. Published monthly and based in Toronto, the magazine carried the ISSN 1206-5870 and reported total circulation of 233,878 as of June 2013, according to Alliance for Audited Media figures cited in its reference material — a scale that made it one of Canada's largest-circulation shelter titles. Its editorial voice, as described in its own subscription materials, is authoritative but friendly: design trends, decorating projects, renovation solutions and entertaining ideas presented as practical solutions rather than mere inspiration, distinguished by elegant photography and carefully designed pages.

History

Style at Home was established in 1997 by Telemedia, with Gail Johnston Habs as its founding editor. Habs had worked on Telemedia-owned titles including Select Homes and Foods and Canadian Select Homes before taking the helm of the new magazine, and she would remain with it for more than a decade.

In January 2000, Transcontinental Media purchased Telemedia's consumer magazine business in a deal covering 11 titles — including Canadian Living, Style at Home and the now-defunct Homemakers/Madame au Foyer — for a reported $150 million. The acquisition made Transcontinental the country's largest consumer magazine publisher, and Habs moved with Style at Home to its new corporate home. During her tenure she oversaw the launch of the styleathome.com website in September 2003 and the launch of the Style at Home consumer show. She retired in May 2009 after 25 years in the Canadian magazine industry.

The next ownership change came in the mid-2010s. Facing pressure on advertising revenue as advertisers split spending across platforms, Transcontinental decided to exit consumer magazine publishing and focus on its local newspaper and printing operations. On November 17, 2014, it announced the sale of 15 magazines — including Style at Home, Canadian Living, Coup de pouce, Elle Canada, Décormag and The Hockey News — to TVA Group, the Quebecor-owned broadcaster and publisher, in an all-cash transaction valued at $55.5 million. The deal closed on April 13, 2015, after approval from the Competition Bureau, with some 300 Transcontinental employees joining TVA Group. Transcontinental retained the printing contract for the consumer magazines through 2022.

Content

Style at Home's editorial content centres on decorating and home living. Signature coverage includes tours of real Canadian homes, room-by-room decorating ideas, before-and-after makeovers, trend reports on colour, pattern and furniture, and seasonal features tied to holidays and the changing year. Service journalism — paint colour guides, small-space strategies, renovation planning, product roundups — gives readers actionable takeaways, while entertaining content covers table settings, party planning and holiday hosting.

The magazine has traditionally balanced aspiration with attainability, positioning itself between high-end design books and mass-market shelter content: the homes are polished but the projects are pitched at readers willing to do the work themselves. Special issues and themed packages, along with the consumer show, have extended the brand's authority into live events and experiential content. A typical issue mixes real-home features with hands-on service content: room transformations, step-by-step projects, finishing touches, shopping coverage pitched at good value, and affordable style ideas. Seasonal packages — fall colour stories, holiday entertaining, spring refreshes — anchor the editorial calendar, while recurring departments cover style news, product roundups and renovation planning. The formula is aimed squarely at women who take a hands-on approach to decorating, revamping and styling their homes, offering them ideas they can execute themselves rather than simply admire.

Coverage & Audience

Style at Home is a national Canadian title published in English, with its readership concentrated among homeowners and décor enthusiasts, predominantly women, interested in interior design, DIY and entertaining. Its content reflects Canadian retail realities — sourcing from Canadian stores, featuring Canadian designers and homes, and addressing the particularities of Canadian housing, from condos to suburban family homes.

Under TVA Group's ownership, the title sits within a portfolio of leading Canadian magazine brands, giving it shared resources in audience development and advertising sales while competing for attention with both domestic rivals and international shelter titles.

Ownership

Style at Home was founded by Telemedia in 1997, acquired by Transcontinental Media in January 2000 as part of the 11-title Telemedia deal, and sold to TVA Group in the $55.5 million transaction that closed in April 2015. TVA Group, a subsidiary of Quebecor, operates the magazine through its TVA Publications division alongside sister titles including Canadian Living, Coup de pouce, Elle Canada and Elle Québec. Habs's retirement in May 2009 closed a 25-year career in the Canadian magazine industry; a contemporary trade-press report noted the correction that Style at Home had been launched by Telemedia in 1997 rather than by Transcontinental in 2000, underscoring how closely the title's identity was tied to its founding editor. She was succeeded by editors including Erin McLaughlin, named editor-in-chief under Transcontinental, while reference sources list Véronique Leblanc as the current editor-in-chief. Under TVA Group the magazine sits within TVA Publications, the magazine division whose portfolio includes many of the country's best-known French- and English-language consumer brands.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, styleathome.com, launched in September 2003 and serves as the brand's digital hub for decorating ideas, home tours, DIY projects and product coverage, extending the print editorial mission into searchable, shareable online content. The Style at Home consumer show, also launched under the founding editor, brought the brand into live events. The title remains available through digital magazine platforms, where recent issues — such as the Summer 2026 edition, Volume 29, Number 2 — continue the monthly cadence with features on colour trends, room guides and seasonal decorating. The magazine's French-language counterpart in the shelter space, Décormag, was a sister title under both Transcontinental and TVA Group ownership, appearing alongside Style at Home in the 15-magazine TVA transaction. The persistence of the print edition into its 29th volume, nearly three decades after the 1997 launch, makes Style at Home one of the longer-running shelter magazines in the Canadian market, having survived the consolidation that absorbed both its original and its second publishers. As with many legacy print brands, the digital operation has had to adapt to the shift of home-décor discovery toward social platforms and video, competing for the decorating audience alongside influencers, retailers' own content studios and international shelter brands.