Sarah Richardson is Canadian design television’s defining figure: host, co-creator, and co-producer of nine HGTV series totalling more than 350 episodes, and principal of Sarah Richardson Design Inc., the Toronto firm she founded in 1998. If you’ve watched a Canadian design show in the last two decades, you’ve almost certainly watched hers.
That’s the short answer. The longer one covers a Gemini Award, a 19-year creative partnership that produced two of the country’s best design practices, an off-grid build, a Whistler chalet, five books, and a licensing portfolio that runs from Kravet fabric to flooring. She tops nearly every list of Canada’s most searched interior designers for a reason: nobody else has the same combination of broadcast reach and built work.
How Did Sarah Richardson Become Canadian Design TV’s Defining Figure?
She built the category one series at a time. Richardson started in 1994-95 as a prop stylist and set decorator, landed her first HGTV series, Room Service, in 2000, and went on to host and co-produce nine series and 350-plus episodes, per her official bio. No other Canadian designer comes close to that run.
The full list reads like a programming schedule: Room Service, Design Inc., Sarah’s House, Sarah’s Cottage, Sarah’s Rental Cottage, Sarah 101, Real Potential, Sarah Off the Grid, and Sarah’s Mountain Escape. Crucially, she wasn’t just on-camera talent. As co-creator and co-producer, she owned the format, which is why every series carries the same fingerprint: real budgets, real timelines, and rooms that hold up years later.
The later shows raised the stakes from renovation to full-scale construction. Sarah Off the Grid documented an off-grid family build in Creemore, Ontario, with Tommy Smythe joining for the second season. Then came Sarah’s Mountain Escape, which premiered October 19, 2022 on HGTV Canada and followed Haus Heidi, a 5,000-square-foot Whistler chalet that House & Home called her most expensive project to date. The chalet now operates as a luxury rental, so you can sleep inside the finale.
The hardware kept pace with the ratings. Richardson is a Gemini Award winner and was named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2007, a business honour that rarely goes to designers. Her catalogue now airs on Home Network, the Corus rebrand of HGTV Canada, where new viewers keep finding shows that first aired before some of them owned homes.
What Is Sarah Richardson Design?
Sarah Richardson Design Inc. is the Toronto interior design firm Richardson founded in 1998, two years before her first series aired. The studio handles residential projects for clients across Canada, the United States, and Europe, per the firm’s official bio. The television work grew out of the practice, not the other way around.
That sequence matters. Plenty of TV designers retrofit a firm onto their fame; Richardson ran client projects for years before a camera showed up. It’s why the on-screen work never reads as set dressing. The houses in Sarah’s House and Sarah Off the Grid were genuine builds with genuine budgets, and the firm’s signature, a layered, light-handed take on classic rooms with colour doing the heavy lifting, stayed consistent across both.
Nearly three decades in, the firm remains the centre of the operation. The shows, books, and product lines all trace back to a Toronto studio that still takes clients.
Are Sarah Richardson and Tommy Smythe Still Working Together?
No, and the split was a graduation, not a falling out. Tommy Smythe spent 19 years at Sarah Richardson Design, appearing on-screen across Design Inc., Sarah’s House, and Sarah Off the Grid, before leaving in early 2020 to found his own Toronto studio, TOM Design Collective, as reported by the Globe and Mail.
For most of those 19 years, Richardson and Smythe were the defining double act of Canadian design television. Her editor’s eye and his encyclopaedic antiques knowledge played off each other so well that the chemistry became part of the format. When viewers search “sarah richardson tommy smythe” today, they’re usually asking whether the band got back together. It didn’t, but both acts are thriving.
Smythe launched TOM Design Collective with Kate Stuart and Lindsay Mens, and the studio has grown to roughly 18 people. In 2025, House & Home named him its Designer of the Year. That’s the real story here: one partnership produced two of the strongest practices in the country, and it speaks well of both that neither has said an unkind word about the other. The Toronto design scene is full of these lineages; our guide to Toronto designers to watch tracks where the next ones are forming.
How Big Is the Sarah Richardson Product Empire?
Bigger than most people realize. Richardson’s current licensing portfolio spans fabric, wallcoverings, furniture, and flooring, headlined by a Palliser partnership covering four collections and more than 300 pieces, per Woodworking Network. Add five books with Simon & Schuster and a YouTube channel with roughly 170,000 subscribers, and the post-broadcast business is its own studio.
The textile work runs through Kravet, where her Affinity and Harmony fabric collections and Signature wallcoverings are current lines. The furniture deal is the historic one: when Winnipeg manufacturer Palliser signed her, it was the first outside-designer partnership in the company’s 75-year history, producing the Vista, Annex, Shore, and Boulevard collections. Fuzion Flooring and A-Street Prints wallpaper round out the current roster. Para Paints, the partnership longtime viewers remember from the HGTV years, is a past chapter rather than an active line.
The books arrived in two waves. Sarah Style (November 2014) and At Home: Sarah Style (November 2015) came first, followed by the three-volume Collected series: Vol. 1 in April 2020, Vol. 2 in October 2020, and Vol. 3 in April 2021, all with Simon & Schuster.
Since 2019, the most interesting move has been digital. Rather than wait on a network greenlight, Richardson built her own channel: Design Life on YouTube, now at about 170,000 subscribers. In 2024 it carried Sarah’s Island Rescue, a cottage-renovation series that would have been a broadcast season a decade ago. She’s also launched a cabinetry-fronts collection with Toronto’s Allstyle, built for the IKEA cabinet platform, and in February 2026 added a tissue-box line with sustainable paper brand Bonterra. From a 5,000-square-foot chalet to a tissue box, the range says everything about how completely she owns the category.
FAQ: Sarah Richardson
Who is Sarah Richardson?
Sarah Richardson is a Toronto interior designer and television host, widely considered Canadian design TV’s defining figure. She has hosted, co-created, and co-produced nine HGTV series and more than 350 episodes, won a Gemini Award, and has run her firm, Sarah Richardson Design Inc., since 1998.
What shows did Sarah Richardson host?
Richardson’s nine series are Room Service, Design Inc., Sarah’s House, Sarah’s Cottage, Sarah’s Rental Cottage, Sarah 101, Real Potential, Sarah Off the Grid, and Sarah’s Mountain Escape. The most recent, Sarah’s Mountain Escape, premiered in October 2022, and her catalogue now airs on Home Network.
Are Sarah Richardson and Tommy Smythe still working together?
No. After 19 years at Sarah Richardson Design and on-screen roles across Design Inc., Sarah’s House, and Sarah Off the Grid, Smythe left in early 2020 to found TOM Design Collective in Toronto. House & Home named him its 2025 Designer of the Year.
Where can you buy Sarah Richardson’s collections?
Her current lines include Affinity and Harmony fabrics and Signature wallcoverings through Kravet, four furniture collections (Vista, Annex, Shore, and Boulevard) through Palliser, plus Fuzion Flooring and A-Street Prints wallpaper. Newer launches include Allstyle cabinetry fronts for the IKEA platform and a 2026 Bonterra tissue-box line.
