Hilary Swank Designed Her Living Room to Perfectly Frame the Mountain Outside Her Window

In 2020, actress Hilary Swank and her husband Philip Schneider finally completed their dream build — a sustainable home built into the southwest mountains of Colorado. Swank and Schneider reused many of the materials that came from their 2018 groundbreaking and viewed their surroundings as direct inspiration for where to take the design.

“Growing up in a trailer park the way that I did, one of the very important things to me is light. I have to be in light,” Swank told Architectural Digest. “The windows were custom made for the house. That was another expense that we really went for because we wanted to see the view uninterrupted. It’s our artwork.”

So aligning the gable roof and massive window in their living room with the mountain in the distance was certainly no accident. 

The floor-to-ceiling windows were also necessary, according to Swank, to prevent the place from feeling like a traditional log cabin. “We wanted it to be light and livable,” she said, and that included an indoor-outdoor space that can be used during all four seasons thanks to the fireplace in the far corner.

And fireplace are also a running theme in the house. Swank and Schneider installed a main fireplace in the center that separates their dining area and living space, as well as a smaller fireplace in the kitchen, and another fireplace in the primary bathroom.

“So happy to be a part of @archdigest this month featuring the dream home we built — something I have worked towards for 3 decades,” Swank wrote in a November 16 Instagram post. “It’s such a gift and I am so very grateful. We had such incredible artisans to help make this dream come true.”

Though the home is impressive in terms of design and architecture, it still feels homey and lived-in, which is exactly what Swank wanted. Expecting twins next year, her dream home will soon become her family home filled with rescue dogs, kids, and so much love.