How to Get Featured in Western Living Magazine

What Is Western Living

Western Living is Canada's largest regional shelter and design magazine, with a readership of approximately 110,000 across print and digital. Published eight times per year, it covers architecture, interior design, food, and travel with a firm editorial focus on Western Canada.

The magazine has been in publication for decades and remains the benchmark for design coverage in British Columbia, Alberta, and the prairies. A feature in Western Living signals to the regional market that your work has been editorially vetted and found worthy of attention. For architects and designers building their reputation in Western Canada, there is no closer equivalent to a stamp of credibility.

What They Feature

Western Living gravitates toward projects that celebrate the character of Western Canadian living. Modern homes that respond to landscape and climate, coastal cabins that balance ruggedness with refinement, and inspiring interiors that reflect how people actually live in this part of the world.

The editorial lens is not exclusively high-end. They feature everything from compact urban renovations to expansive mountain retreats. What unites the projects they publish is a strong sense of place and a design story worth telling.

Projects that feel inseparable from where they are in Western Canada have the strongest editorial appeal. Give the editors a story worth telling.

How to Submit

Western Living accepts editorial submissions by email. Send your project to mail@westernliving.ca with a concise description and a selection of high-quality photographs.

Keep the email professional and brief. Lead with the strongest image. Include the project location, the design team, the completion date, and a short paragraph on what makes the project distinctive.

What Makes a Project Stand Out

Sense of place. The project should feel rooted in its geography. A Whistler ski chalet that engages with the mountain landscape. A Sunshine Coast cabin where the architecture frames the ocean.

Strong visual storytelling. The editors are building a magazine. They need images that work on a printed page, that create a visual rhythm across a multi-page spread.

A clear design narrative. The best submissions have a story. Give the editors something to write about beyond the square footage.

Photography Standards for Print

Resolution: Images must be a minimum of 300 DPI at print size, typically 3000 pixels or more on the shortest side.

Style: The magazine favours editorial-quality photography with natural light, restrained processing, and compositions that let the architecture speak.

Variety: A strong submission includes 15 to 25 images covering exteriors, main living areas, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, details, and context views.

Format: Send high-resolution JPEGs or provide a download link (Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar).

Western Living Designers of the Year Awards

Beyond editorial features, Western Living runs one of the most prestigious design award programs in Western Canada: the Designers of the Year Awards.

Early bird entry deadline: April 1, 2026. Awards ceremony: September 10, 2026, in Vancouver. Entry fee: $150 per submission.

The program includes the Arthur Erickson Memorial Award, specifically recognizing emerging designers. Named after one of Canada's most celebrated architects, this award carries significant prestige for younger practitioners.

Exclusivity Considerations

Western Living does not have a strict exclusivity requirement but editors strongly prefer projects that have not been widely published elsewhere. The practical strategy is to pitch Western Living early, before sharing the project broadly on social media or submitting to other publications.

How to Prepare Your Project

The Role of Photography in Getting Published

Editors at Western Living review hundreds of submissions annually. The first filter is always visual. Before they read your project description, before they consider the design narrative, they look at the photographs. If the images do not immediately communicate quality, the submission is passed over regardless of the design merit.

Professional architectural photography planned specifically for editorial submission is the single most effective investment you can make toward getting your work published.