Ottawa Home and Remodelling Show Celebrity & Speaker Appearances

BRYAN BAEUMLER CELEBRITY CONTRACTOR

Bryan doesn’t believe he’s put in an honest day’s work unless he gets his hands dirty. A natural-born teacher, the Gemini-award winning host has been educating and entertaining viewers across Canada and in 23 different Countries Worldwide since 2007 on the hit shows Disaster DIY, Canada’s Handyman Challenge, Leave it to Bryan, House of Bryan, Bryan Inc. and Island of Bryan. Bryan’s quick wit and easy-going personality have made him a huge hit with viewers on all of his home renovation shows.

Learning valuable tricks of the trade from his father, a meticulous aircraft engineer, Bryan spent his childhood summers building his family’s cottage from the ground up. After earning a degree in Political Science and studying Business, Bryan was headed towards a career of practicing law. Realizing he’d rather be renovating than being chained to a desk, his innate passion for building took over and he attended construction courses at George Brown College, officially traded in his tie for a tool belt and founded Baeumler Quality Construction.

A few kids and number of hit TV shows later, Bryan continues to tackle home renovation projects, be the spokesperson for numerous products and expand his growing businesses to include Baeumler Productions, Baeumler Approved and Baeumler Custom Cabinetry among others. Currently filming season 2 of Island of Bryan with wife Sarah, viewers watched season 1 in record numbers, while they restored a small abandoned resort on South Andros Island in the Bahamas! In Island of Bryan, we follow the story of this radical life event for the Baeumlers, from a dream of creating and running a luxury boutique resort in paradise, to the reality of leaving their friends, family and life behind to take on their most challenging build yet. For more information about Bryan, visit bryanbaeumler.com.

Anita Murray All Things Home

Christopher Mulholland Amsted Design-Build

Kathy McEwan Kathymcewan.com

Sue Pitchforth Décor Therapy Plus

Sue’s approach to design is refreshing, unique and inexpensive, yet yields luxurious results. Believing the home is an expression of your life and personality, Sue says most people usually have a lot of what they need, they just don’t know it. “You would be surprised, how every home has the best stories and items in their basements or closets”.

She is passionate about creating spaces where homeowners surround themselves with things they love and that reflect who they are. Her workshops and seminars are extremely popular, inspiring thousands of homeowners around Ontario.

Sue is thrilled to be back on the Sleep Country Main Stage sharing her love of design with the audience.

Bettina Vollmerhausen The Ottawa Tool Library

Bettina Vollmerhausen is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Ottawa Tool Library, a not-for-profit social enterprise supporting the sharing of resources in Ottawa. She has honed her skills as a community connector with a keen interest in sustainability, social innovation, and meaningful experiences. The Ottawa Tool Library is a place for people to borrow tools instead of books, learn new skills, and meet community. Aside from making tools available to the community of DIYers, she is an avid knitter and fiber artist who loves to create with her hands and has a particular interest in sharing skills and passing on knowledge as she believes that continuous learning makes life interesting.

Karen Vejprava The Habitat for Humanity ReStore

Paul Kealey EKOBUILT

Founder & President of EkoBuilt

Paul Kealey's passion for sustainable home building has guided a nearly two decade long career that started after receiving a B.Sc. from St. FX, being a high school teacher, and founding 2 sustainable home companies. Driven to live in a healthy home led Paul initially to log home construction followed by furthering education at the sustainable building and passive house institutes.

From the start, Paul was building on his growing knowledge of healthy / sustainable home building techniques the vision led him to create 2 sustainable home companies, both driven by the mission to make sustainable homes affordable and accessible to everyone.

Paul is the co-founder of EkoBuilt, a sustainable homes company focused on passive house and net zero buildings. He is also the co-founder of KT Log Homes, that builds homes using natural and authentic log and timber-frame materials.

Lifelong learning is one of Paul's passions, leading him to continually add to his tremendous body of experienced-based knowledge on the building science of passive home and sustainable buildings. Paul's short, educational videos have become a hallmark for EkoBuilt in recent years, as he shares the principles and impact of passive house, and its real health, financial and environmental benefits. To learn more visit ekobuilt.com.

At the Ottawa Home Show, Paul delivers fascinating insight into how Sustainable Homes are affordable, healthier, and more financially sensible for everyone. As energy costs soar, climate change threatens our survival, natural disasters and illnesses increase-a better, healthier home is the best gift we can give to ourselves and our future generations

Emma Terrell The Urban Botanist

Emma Terrell AKA the Urban Botanist

Emma Terrell is the creator and owner of The Urban Botanist. An international speaker featured in BBC news, Emma is an empowering citizen scientist who advocates for the natural world. She is the host of The Urban Botanist's Living Wilder series, and Lee Valley Tools YouTube channel. Always bringing a fresh, inspired, and engaging perspective to the hobby of horticulture, Emma encourages people to grow their green thumbs through her eye opening and creative plant based workshops. She has spent the last 6 years combining her education and passion with greenery to bring together The Urban Botanist! Designing and creating stunning interior feature walls using nothing but green, her designs will have you wanting to bring greenery into all of our indoor living spaces. Her mission is to encourage people to engage with nature through ecofriendly products, sustainability hacks, education, biophilic design, and more!

Sascha Lafleur & Josee Sigouin West of Main

Sascha Lafleur
Co-Founder and Principal Designer, West of Main

Sascha has had a passion for design for as long as she can remember. She attributes her creative flare and abundance of artistic energy to the early influence of her artisan-rich family.

After studying and working in interior design in Montreal, she went on to found West of Main with the dream of creating intentional spaces that aligned with her "relaxed elegance" style. Over a decade later, West of Main has become an international award-winning design firm recognized for building, remodelling, and furnishing custom homes with timeless designs inspired by travel and global craftsmanship.

Josée Sigouin
Senior Designer & Design Manager, West of Main

From a young age, Josée has been creative and interested in interiors and home improvement. This early passion led her to complete her studies in interior design and has since worked in residential design on an international scale. She has fond memories of the numerous projects she led in South America!

Her appreciation for collected and globally influenced designs, impeccable attention to detail, and 10+ years of experience has made Josée an invaluable leader at West of Main over the past 5 years.

2023 Speakers & Celebrities