We love Hilary Swank’s movies almost as much as we love her gorgeous, sleek and modern pad in the middle of Luxe Manhattan. Watch the video above to see inside her beautiful home!

Read this excerpt from the article about Swank’s home featured in Elle Decor, by Celia Barbour:

“When she’s not in Hollywood, actress Hilary Swank heads to a spare, serene apartment overlooking downtown New York where the views take center stage.

As a girl, Hilary Swank could see the whole world from her bedroom—at least in her mind’s eye. Living in a trailer park with her mother, she devoured books, which she checked out by the armload from the bookmobile that made the rounds of her Bellingham, Washington, neighborhood. By 15, an age when the average girl’s most fervent fantasy is to kiss some silly pop star, Swank had envisioned a rich and important life for herself.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that this lauded actress (she was one of the youngest women ever to win two Best Actress Academy Awards) is content to inhabit a New York apartment that is modest in size and chicly understated in its decor. For Swank, a home needn’t be as extravagant as a dream. “I feel comforted in smaller spaces,” she says. “They’re more nurturing.”

Her tranquil 1,400-square-foot New York City nest also has practical benefits. It came in handy, for example, during the filming of New Year’s Eve, a sprawling ensemble project directed by Garry Marshall, opening December 9, in which Swank plays Claire Morgan, the woman in charge of making sure the Times Square ball drops on time. (Other cast members include Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Sarah Jessica Parker.) “It’s a funny movie with a lot of heart,” says Swank, whose character is afraid of heights—unlike the famously daredevil actress, who has played both a boxer and Amelia Earhart. “It’s about second chances and forgiving yourself and life as a journey.”

For Swank, whose primary residence is a rambling villa on the West Coast that she shares with her boyfriend and his son, retreating to her Manhattan hideaway doesn’t mean shutting out the world. “I feel like I’m in a tree overlooking the city,” she says. Though her building is situated close to the Hudson River, her view takes in only a thin slice of that mighty waterway; mostly, she gazes out on the intriguing rooftop tableaux of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, and Queens beyond. “I have started collecting art,” says Swank, “but there’s no piece of art that can compete with the cityscape. I love New York.”

To help her craft an interior worthy of the view, she hired designer Mark Zeff, with whom she’d worked previously on a New York brownstone and her California house. The two have a natural sympathy. “Hilary is very intense and also very pure,” says Zeff. “She knows what she likes. She doesn’t live in fantasy. I wanted to create a place that would give her a sense of grace and harmony.”

His options were limited, however, as Swank didn’t want any demolition or reconfiguration of the apartment, which is in a new building on the site of a former printing plant. Walls had to stay where they were; kitchen and bathrooms remained largely as is.” Click here to read the rest of the article.

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