Hilary Swank's Colorado Mountain House Is Her 'Happiest Place' — See Inside!

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Julie Soefer for Architectural Digest

Hilary Swank’s Colorado mountain home is her “happiest place.”

“I have been looking for land since I was in my mid-20s,” the Oscar-winning actress, 48, toldarchdigest.comin a feature published Tuesday. “I find nature to be my happiest place, and animals are my other happiest place. And to be with both of them iseverythingto me.”

She added that once she and her husband,Philip Schneider, discovered the land in 2016, they didn’t want to call anywhere else home and officially broke ground two years later, moving in in August 2020.

“We found this 168-acre piece of land that was just magical,” said theThe Huntstar. “It just called to us and we couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was great that we were in the middle of nature. We can’t see our neighbors, no one for miles—we just had [it all] right there.”

Julie Soefer for Architectural Digest

A bonus is that she and Schneider’s five rescue dogs can run around the property and enjoy it as much as the couple. Their family will be expanding even more as she revealed last month that she ispregnant with twins.

From having the ability to grow their own food, to the large windows that offer a peek of nature’s stunning backdrop, Swank’s home is everything she could want.

“We felt it was really important to use the materials of the land and to be as sustainable as possible,” Swank said of the home. “[We got into] the ground, and [found] all this rock. I mean, people pay thousands of dollars for this rock. And we thought, Hey, let’s utilize this.”

Added Swank: “They took each rock and they put it on a stump of wood and they [chiseled] it to fit to the next rock, and the next rock, and the next rock. Having their energy in that rock as the foundation of the house is a really beautiful feeling.”

The home also offers sustainability through its outdoor garden, which sits inside of a grow dome.

“We were thinking, how do we make a garden on this land and really live off of it?” Swank said. “We found that a grow dome was the best way to grow your fruits and vegetables because it’s a self-sustaining little ecosystem.”

The actress also revealed how her childhood served as inspiration for her home’s expansive windows.

“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 said. “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.

She added, “We watch the sunrise and it’s downright magical. But I think it is sunset in the summer—when all the windows are open and you really have that in and out of nature feel—[that] is magic.”

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The lighting is also special in the rear of the home as it touts one of the property’s many fireplaces and a courtyard, something designer Mark Zeff, who has lended his eye to four of Swank’s homes, tells archdigest.com is rare for an estate in the mountains.

The kitchen and formal dining room also have their own fireplaces, while the main fireplace is in the living room area.

“We didn’t want it to feel like a log cabin,” Swank shared. “We wanted it to be light and livable.”

Echoing a similar sentiment, Zeff said, “In a way, it was about creating a prairie house that used materials that sort of camouflaged it into the land. So when you look at the house from three miles away, you [don’t] go, ‘Oh, my God, there’s this big thing coming out of the ground.'”

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Along with the lighting, Swank also brought a piece of her childhood to her home via the wood it features.

“I love all the wood,” she said. “It’s reclaimed barn wood and comes from Washington State, which is where I’m from. It brings a part of that home to this home.”

Read the full feature and see more photos onarchdigest.com.

source: people.com