Dream of a Lifetime: Classic Parisian but with a contemporary twist

This year’s lottery dream home is Parisian-inspired with a contemporary twist. The arched alcove housing the Thermador gas range is the focal point in the chef’s kitchen, which features a prep kitchen in behind.  Photo by Gordon King Photography 

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A sculptural staircase that makes a statement as soon as you enter, a Parisien-inspired chef’s kitchen with adjacent prep kitchen, an elevator, an L-shaped fireplace in the primary suite that hugs the soaker tub and visually separates it from the bedroom, an elegant wine room, and a two-storey solarium in the basement: These are just some of the special features you’ll find in the 2026 Minto dream home. 

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The luxury home is the pièce de résistance in the annual CHEO Dream of a Lifetime lottery and makes up the bulk of the $3.6 million grand prize. Now in its 36^th year, the lottery is a key fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, raising more than $120 million since its inception, with over $11 million of that raised last year alone. 

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Classic styling in the living room includes a faux fireplace for architectural interest. Photo by Gordon King Photography 

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“Our inspiration was the timeless elegance of a Parisian apartment, but we wanted to do that through a contemporary lens,” says designer Tanner Vine, who is returning for a third year to direct the home’s interior look. 

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Called the Beaumont, the layout is a reimagining of Minto’s Juno floor plan, with both designed by product development manager Lindsay Kennedy. At 5,340 square feet (including the finished basement), the home is the third largest in the lottery’s history — behind only last year’s home and the one showcased in 2013 — and comes with four bedroom and 4.5 bathrooms. 

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For the first time, the lottery home is located in Minto’s Brookline development in north Kanata. “We really wanted to bring it back to the west end,” Kennedy says. It’s also where Minto had a lot available that’s worthy of the dream home — a 43-foot pie-shaped one backing onto a ravine and just down the street from the six-acre Invention Park. 

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The sculptural staircase makes a statement as soon as you walk in the front door. Photo by Gordon King Photography 

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“It’s designed for entertaining,” says Steve Read, who is president and CEO of the CHEO Foundation, which runs the lottery. “It’s actually a home I think people can relate to; they can see themselves living here.” 

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The fully furnished home comes with a ton of extras, including $100,000 in cash, a Mercedes SUV, $5,000 in gas, house cleaning for a year, 25 years of car washes, $5,000 in groceries, plus moving and legal services — “all the things that we want to make sure people have for a turnkey experience when they move in,” says Read. 

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The lottery itself is the largest ever with more than 9,000 in prizes valued at a total of more than $5.3 million. This year’s lottery runs until Dec. 18 and includes other prizes such as a guaranteed $1 million payout in a 50/50 draw, cars, trips, gift cards, Senators tickets, bonus lottery tickets and more. 

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The design of the home is all about balance — between classic Parisian and contemporary and between masculine and feminine. 

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The stunning primary suite boasts an L-shaped water vapour fireplace that wraps around the ensuite’s soaker tub and serves to delineate the two spaces. Photo by Gordon King Photography 

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“We’ve created this kind of play on softness and strength throughout the house,” Vine says. “So, even though there’s this traditional and modern component, we’ve also really played with that. The fabrics, the curved corners, the architectural details, those feel very feminine to us. But then the stones, the dark woods, the contemporary architectural forms, those feel a bit more masculine. We like that play in balance.”