The 2026 Salt Lake Parade of Homes has just ended. If you’ve never had the chance to walk through, it’s a good opportunity to walk a slew of brand new homes that have all been beautifully staged and have generous open hours for viewing. You get to see what our local builders are producing, what the latest interior design trends are, or you might actually be looking to buy as a number of them are built for sale. For myself, I enjoy walking the homes for inspiration and to get to know the builders behind the meticulous craftsmanship that is on display.
First off, hat’s off to all the builders who endured the long hard days and tight deadlines to make sure everything got done in time to open for the show. All projects have deadlines, but when your project is a Parade home, there is NO flexibility and everything MUST be done. With any other project, you might choose to delay landscaping, the basement, or the bonus room over the garage. You don’t get that luxury here. Everything must be COMPLETE. Although, we occasionally saw a cheeky sign that said ‘do not enter’ on a door that we suspect may have hidden as yet unfinished rooms. We’ll let it slide, for there is so much else to see.
As much as I enjoyed the Parade, I do have my criticisms. Not of individual homes, design choices, or craftsmanship. This is the wrong forum for that. However, reach out to me privately and I’m happy to discuss. I have a particular design pet peeve I see in almost every new home – no matter the budget – that would be just so easy to correct in the planning stage. But, what I’d really love to see are more homes that represent adaptive re-use and renovation work. Almost every single home was a brand new build, which after the 20th one starts to feel stale no matter how hard the Architect, Owner, and Contractor team worked on it.
So, let’s talk about Home #2. This home, originally built in 1932, underwent extensive upgrades throughout, while retaining the original character. Citizen Builders outdid themselves. The new features dovetail perfectly with the old aesthetic. The builder pointed out to me that he had painstakingly color matched wood features in the Study to extend the bookcases across the walls, and no one will ever be able to tell where the new bookcase begins and the original one ends. There is a playful discourse between the cozier original areas of the home which have smaller windows, and the sunroom at the rear where windows had been enlarged, and an operable glass wall added to bring in as much natural light as possible. This creates tension between the areas of the home that will allow the residents to move between the different parts of the home as their day or their mood changes. The Owners will surely feel at home now that construction is complete and they are moving in properly.
In terms of further criticisms of the Parade’s character, I’d like to see more variety of other types of projects. New builds and renovations are just two types. Thankfully, house #11 exemplified something entirely different. The home itself was rather modest in design and construction, but I can’t help but highlight it’s mission. Built by Homeaid Utah, and operated by Salt Lake County Youth Services through a program called Milestone Transitional Living Program, the home will allow unhoused young adults the opportunity to have semi-permanent assistive housing as they begin their adult lives, helping them to get on their feet in a system that has otherwise failed them. Their goal is to “make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring”. They do this by offering housing and support to young adults in that most important transitional time of their lives from 18-21. It’s a laudable goal we can surely all get behind. This new home adds to a stock that is expanding across the valley with units in Millcreek, West Valley City, and Sandy. Since 2012, the program has served 350 young adults with an 87% long term housing retention rate! They are looking to build more homes, house more young adults, and contribute to ending homelessness in Salt Lake. Learn more at slco.to/milestone.
If you regret that you didn’t make it out to this Parade, or just didn’t visit as many homes as you would have liked the Park City Showcase of Homes starts August 28th so you don’t have long to wait to dive back into grand homes and beautiful design.