A Creative Couple’s Lovingly Revamped Seattle Condo Lists for $420K

When is a one-bedroom condo more than its modest floor plan? When its owners—in this case, architect Hank Butitta and artist Nell Nordlie—have customized the space with built-in furniture, hidden storage, artisan lighting, and pops of colorful patterned tile. It’s also telling that Hank and Nell, even as they plan their new home, are reluctant to leave.

"Hank teases me, because I said I’m going to live here the rest of my life in this tiny condo in Fremont," Nell says. "I love it so much."

Back in Minneapolis, before the couple got together and relocated to Seattle in 2016, Hank converted a school bus into a tiny house for his master’s thesis at the University of Minnesota—and the experience provided useful lessons.

"That was my intro to ‘How do you make the most out of small spaces,’" Hank says. "There’s actually kind of a progression from the bus to this project, where we self-renovated a bland and compact condo into a midcentury-inspired urban retreat filled with art and furniture that we designed and built specifically for the space."

The 512-square-foot condo is located on the second floor of a 10-unit, late-1980s residential building in Seattle’s bohemian, if gentrifying, Fremont district. There’s a view out to nearby Lake Union through the trees, and an even better vantage point from the building’s shared rooftop patio. "It’s just kind of tucked in the perfect spot," Hank says.

Before they decided to make an offer on the condo six years ago, its lack of storage space gave the couple pause. So they went through a design exercise to make sure it could work for them. "We did a SketchUp model of how everything was going to lay out, so we’d know if we could fit everything we need to survive in this small space," says Hank.