HGTV Smart Home near Orlando revealed

HGTV’s latest big sweepstakes house is in Central Florida — and this one leans hard into the “vacation at home” pitch. The network has revealed HGTV Smart Home 2026 in Apopka, just outside Orlando, and opened entries for the annual giveaway. The basic idea is familiar if you’ve seen these before: one winner gets the fully furnished house, the fixtures, the decor, and extra cash. But the details matter here, because HGTV is selling not just a house, but a very specific Florida lifestyle. ### What is the house, exactly? It’s a newly built 3-bedroom, 3.5-bath home with about 2,850 square feet, styled as a modern coastal retreat. HGTV places it in the Orlando area on its own pages, while the prize rules name Apopka as the actual location. Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt are attached to the project, and HGTV describes the whole thing as a resort-inspired escape rather than a pure gadget demo house. ### Why call it a “Smart Home”? Turns out the “smart” part is less sci-fi and more polished convenience. HGTV highlights integrated features and flexible spaces — like a lounge wall with four TVs that can run separately or combine into one giant screen, plus storage-heavy rooms designed to make daily life smoother. There’s also a second-floor laundry many homes love to show off. ### What’s the big Florida hook? The backyard is doing a lot of the selling. HGTV built this one around outdoor living, with a resort-style pool, swim-up bar, outdoor kitchen, covered patio, putting green, and a movie-night setup. Basically, the pitch is that you’re close to Orlando, but the house itself is supposed to feel like the destination. ### What does the winner actually get? The full grand-prize package is worth about $1,388,796. That includes the Apopka home itself — valued at $1,288,796 in the rules — plus $100,000 in cash. HGTV’s homepage rounds that into a “$1.3 million grand-prize package.” There’s also a cash alternative in the rules, which matters because they. ### How do entries work? The sweepstakes opened on April 21, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern and runs until June 19, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Eligible entrants have to be legal U.S. residents, including D.C. and territories, and at least 21 years old. You can enter once per day on HGTV’s site and once per day on Food Network’s site — so two entries a day if you do both. ### Why Apopka? Apopka gives HGTV the Orlando halo without putting the house in the middle of the tourist core. That means theme-park proximity, warm-weather branding, and a lot of visual payoff for outdoor design. It also fits a broader pattern — Florida keeps showing up in HGTV’s marquee home giveaways, which makes this feel less like a one-off and more like a tested formula. ### Is this really about design, or about sweepstakes TV? It’s both. The house is content first — photos, tours, room reveals, behind-the-scenes build coverage — and sweepstakes second. HGTV stretches one property across months of programming and web traffic, then turns that attention into daily repeat visits from people entering the contest. The home has little reveal moments. ### So what’s the bottom line? This year’s Smart Home is basically HGTV’s most polished version of the Florida fantasy — sun, pool, tech, and just enough proximity to Orlando to make the location do marketing work on its own. The real news is simple: the house is now public, the sweepstakes is live, and HGTV is once again betting that “win a furnished Florida home” is still one of the easiest dreams on television to sell.