Ikea Pits Designers Against Each Other to Create Dream Kitchens

Scott McGillivray and Debra Salmoni face off in new YouTube series

May the best kitchen win. Two of Canada’s top TV personalities in the home improvement space—Scott McGillivray and Debra Salmoni—build dream kitchens in Ikea Kitchen Showroom Showdown. Each competitor seeks to win bragging rights and a Golden Allen Key trophy in a new YouTube competition series produced by Ikea Canada.

This isn’t the first time the brand has invested in short-form content on the platform. In 2020, the company launched Swede Space, a series that offered budget-friendly solutions to home design dilemmas. Affordability is also top-of-mind on this new show. “With the cost of living rising, many Canadians are pressing pause on renovation plans. Our goal is to show that with Ikea, creating a beautiful, functional kitchen is still within reach,” says Jonelle Ricketts, the brand’s head of marketing.

Below, Ricketts delves into the thinking behind the Showroom Showdown.

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MUSE: Why did you choose to produce this series for YouTube?

Jonelle Ricketts: With Canadians increasingly turning to YouTube for home inspiration and learning, it’s the perfect environment to reach viewers where they’re already discovering ideas and solutions.

You could have made one long episode, but you broke up the content into five shorter episodes. What are the benefits of going short form?

We broke it into a series rather than one long episode because Canadians prefer bite-sized content that they can watch all at once or in short bursts. This provides flexibility and supports varied attention spans.

Debra Salmoni’s dream kitchen design

What parameters did you set for the designers?

Our creative direction was guided by a simple insight: the kitchen remains the heart of the home for many Canadians, yet today’s economic pressures are causing people to delay the upgrades they truly want. We want to show that with Ikea, creating a kitchen that fits your style, needs and budget is still achievable. 

What did you think of the kitchens Scott and Debra were able to create?

Each of them leaned into a completely different style, all while keeping our three criteria front and center—organization, functionality and overall design impact. What I loved most is how they brought our life-at-home insights into their designs, making sure the solutions addressed the real challenges Canadians are facing in their kitchens today.

Scott McGillivray’s dream kitchen design

McGillivray Group produced the series. What kind of expertise and skill did Scott’s company, which does TV and branded content, bring to this project?

Working with the MacGillivray Group was a fantastic experience. As a full-service content and production company, they can truly handle projects of any size—from early concepting and strategic development to creative execution, production and post-production. Their team brought our ideas to life with skill and creativity, and they were incredibly flexible and responsive at every stage. Most importantly, they were genuine partners: collaborative, solutions-focused and a fun team to work with day in and day out.

Here’s a blooper reel:

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