When he first arrived in Los Angeles to study architecture at SCI-Arc, Fredrik Nilsson had every intention of returning to his native Sweden once he’d earned his degree. Having lived in L.A. for the 20-odd years since, he’s become a devoted Angeleno. “I love it here,” he says.

Accordingly, there was no question where Fredrik, head of Studio Nilsson, and his wife, TV writer and author Keshni Kashyap, would look when they decided to buy a home.

They were renting in Echo Park and had a baby on the way when they decided to put down more permanent roots. They’d only found pricey homes that had already been flipped when they drove past a dilapidated cottage for sale on a tiny lot not far from their rental. “It was an odd little property, but it was on a little hillock with incredible views,” Fredrik recalls.

They saw it as an opportunity to build a home from scratch—but at just under 2,500 square feet, the sloping lot would require some ingenuity. Fortunately, Fredrik, who had experience designing multifamily properties, believed he had the right formula for the site’s limitations.

By laying out the living room, dining room, and kitchen in an open plan on the second floor and setting the bedrooms on the ground floor, he sought to create an “urban tree house” with a feeling of mys, Sweden’s answer to the concept of hygge. “It’s about making your home a cozy, calm place,” Fredrik says.

Rather than designing a uniform, boxlike structure, the architect cantilevered the upper level out from the ground floor—a move that made the most of the compact footprint while creating a practical overhang above the entry.

To give the home texture as well as warmth, he clad the exterior in raw, oiled cedar. “I like stucco, but it wasn’t right for this home,” he says. “We didn’t want it to feel too precious or pristine.”

That sensibility continues inside, where leftover cedar makes up the slats screening the skylit stair that ascends from the ground floor up to the rooftop deck.

The spaces are notably airy and luminous—thanks in part to the nine-foot-tall ceilings downstairs and the 10-foot-high expanses upstairs. Generously proportioned windows and a covered deck off the kitchen invite the outdoors in.

The furnishings are a blend of Fredrik’s Swedish heritage, Keshni’s Indian background, and what Fredrik calls the “Bohemian experimentalism” of L.A.’s Eastside. “I knew it was going to be ‘Swedish forward’ given that Fredrik’s a Swede from Sweden,” Keshni explains. “But I grew up in a big family steeped in Indian culture. I wanted something warm and welcoming.”

In the main room, Carl Malmsten dining chairs that Fredrik’s grandmother purchased in the 1960s and a Yngve Ekström lounge chair and ottoman mix comfortably with a pair of traditional Indian stools from the couple’s wedding.

Providing a counterpoint to the knotty, white oak floors are vintage Persian rugs that Keshni grew up with, along with clean-lined, modern lighting by their friend and neighbor Brendan Ravenhill.

To ensure the landscape reflected their desire for a tranquil oasis in the city, the couple reached out to another friend and neighbor: David Godshall, cofounder of the landscape design studio Terremoto. The Terremoto team responded with a lush mix of native and drought-tolerant plantings that include ironwood and shoestring acacia trees, Mexican marigolds, aromatic sages, and gray-blue wild rye grass.

“We asked David to plant in such a way that there’s greenery right outside the windows, so although you’re in the bedrooms, you feel the garden is right there,” says Fredrik.

The “odd little property” has become the perfect family home. Passersby linger to take in the scent of the jasmine that winds through the fence, the couple’s daughter and her classmates hang out in the living room or outside, and on summer evenings everyone heads to the roof deck to grill and watch the fireworks from nearby Dodger Stadium.

“Though I consciously brought my Swedishness to the home, I didn’t want it to be a testament to how you build in Sweden,” Fredrik says. “This is L.A., after all.”

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record and Interior Designer: Fredrik Nilsson, Studio Nilsson / @studionilsson

General Contractor: Mario Alatriste, Casa Vieja Contractors

Structural Engineer: Luis Vasquez

Landscape Design: Terremoto / @terremoto_landscape

Photography: Caitlin Atkinson / @caitlinatkinson_photography

Styling: Emily Bowser / @emilyedithbowser

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In Echo Park, an “Odd Little Property” Turns Into an “Urban Tree House”