Inside the Happy, Pink-Toned Forever Home of Million Dollar Listing ’s Fredrik Eklund
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Beverly Hills has more than its fair share of pristine luxury homes awash in every shade of white and gray. And although he’s sold plenty of them, it might surprise fans of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing that real estate agent and star Fredrik Eklund’s own place is the polar opposite. “We love happy, bright colors, we just didn’t know how far we wanted to take it,” says the Swede, who with his artist husband, Derek Kaplan, and their four-year-old twins, Milla and Freddy, recently moved into the exuberant Beverly Hills house he describes as their “forever home.”
In it, not a single wall, appliance, fabric, or piece of furniture comes close to being run-of-the-mill or remotely dull. But nothing is outrageous or different just for the sake of it. “I knew from the beginning that I wanted to push the envelope a little bit, Derek and I fully agreed on that,” Eklund says, adding that, surprisingly, after 10 years of marriage the pair agreed on everything about this home. They both sought a balance between soothing and joyful. “We didn’t really care what anybody else thinks,” Eklund says. “To say it doesn’t have to be right for anybody else, it just has to be right for us—that gave us freedom.”
The result, thanks in large part to his frequent collaborator, interior designer Paris Forino , is vibrant yet somehow subtle, striking but quite soft. There are no standard neutrals to be found, a departure from the pair’s former Tribeca loft, which Eklund describes as “very gray, you know, sleek, modern.” And there is almost no white—different, again, from a previous “white and boring” house—save the exterior siding, ubiquitous buoyant Apparatus Cloud chandeliers , and a gracefully curving sofa.
Instead, Eklund and Forino’s version of a neutral is a pale blush pink, and it is present around the six-bedroom home. Rainbows appear across a bookcase, on a doormat, and in the slightly trippy dichroic glass dining table—a risky, bold combo of a Bendheim top and a William Earle bottom that Eklund feels “really paid off. It’s almost like a piece of art.” His abiding love of color originated with his grandparents who in their home in Sweden had lots of interesting, vivid furniture that Eklund describes as “nothing expensive, but really good taste.” As a boy he ate oranges on a crimson table that is now beside his living room sofa, legs refinished. “We shipped it over, and I kept saying to Paris, ‘You have to incorporate it,’” Eklund agent says. “It worked perfectly; I feel like my grandmother is present somehow.”
There’s not one room Eklund is most smitten with because, for him, it’s the big picture. “I walked in at, like, 10 a on a Saturday morning, it was Christmastime,” he says, “and I fell in love with the layout. It was flawless—for us.” He immediately put in an offer. During the pandemic they refreshed and renovated the house, whose bones Forino calls “immaculate. It’s just such a beautiful family home, the volumes are perfect”—especially lofty for a tall Scandinavian family.
During the renovation, extra special care was paid to lighting because Kaplan—Eklund’s husband—didn’t want to see a single light bulb. “When we lived in New York for 20 years, we used to come stay at Hotel Bel-Air and go to Soho House,” Eklund says. “To me, the romantic image I have of why to live in California is exactly that indoor-outdoor sort of twilight fireplace glow.” To that end, the entire scheme, featuring new fireplaces and plenty of Apparatus lighting, is programmed on a timer for a magical level of luminescence each evening.
Forino, a frequent, decade-long collaborator on many of Eklund’s most successful New York projects, worked easily with the pair, who she says are extremely decisive. “It went very quickly, which is a good thing, because if it’s a very labored process the vision gets lost,” Forino says. Eklund admits only now that he was slightly worried about his office when reviewing Forino’s hand drawings and renderings. “It’s so hard to get colors right, and I felt the drape fabric was going to be too green or mustardy, and that the blues with the pink would be like oil and vinegar.”
Indeed, the room is by no means a typical businessman’s office. There’s bright orange leather trim on the pink carpet, a painting of a boy with a nosebleed (by Eklund’s brother, an artist in Sweden), a sorbet-hued table, and a glass Patricia Urquiola desk with orange accents. “But in the end,” the reality star says, “it has this amazing soft glow, and everything about it just feels like a cloud.”
Also rather dreamy is the primary bathroom, which decisively contrasts the overwhelmingly sleek, shiny, masculine ones Eklund regularly sees in $30–50-million-dollar California spec homes (by mostly male developers, he adds). His vision was clear and specific: “Us being these two tall, six-foot-five guys with a [light] pink bathroom. Paris executed so incredibly well on it.” His business partner in New York disagreed with the choice, claiming it was dated. But the realtor wasn’t dissuaded. “I always make a joke that I’m a marble-sexual, because I love beautiful stone,” Eklund says and laughs. “And pink, by the way, was [a] masculine color in the ‘20s and ‘30s… Now I’m reclaiming it!”
Throughout the home—in the couple’s primary bedroom just as much as the rooms for the four-year-old twins and the saturated copper, blue, and blush kitchen—the design creates a sense of euphoria. “I’m very, very happy, I’m happy,” Eklund says. “I sleep better, I wake up a little earlier. And at night time I’m in heaven under the trees in the backyard. I feel really zen.” Forino’s sublime and sophisticated use of color is like a shot of dopamine, an instant mood booster. And even though the Bravo star is away much of each day, he loves that “it’s a happy house. You know,” Eklund says, “when you leave from here, you kind of want to go back.”
The entry to the pink-infused home.
The divine sitting room—with a mirror by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis over a graphic new fireplace, plus sumptuous Carl Hansen leather chairs and Stahl + Band tables—is one of Forino’s favorite spaces. “Oh, and with the Apparatus sconces it’s so pretty,” Eklund says. Along with blush pink, rich shades of yellow are woven throughout the home.
A delightful copper, blue, and pink kitchen is the heart of Eklund’s happy home. “This setting here, talking, seeing the kids, cooking, smelling, hearing their laughter—it’s really beautiful, it’s a real home,” the reality TV star says. “When you say color, sometimes people think of, like, maximum, very crazy. And that’s not what we wanted,” Eklund says. “Everything is soft.”
“I love the kitchen, and I love my blue stove,” Eklund says. He adds that as an avid home cook he’s discovered something special about his custom L’Atelier Paris range. “The food actually tastes better—I don’t know how that’s possible. The flame is so powerful, there’s something about it. It tastes amazing .” Gubi barstools in coral nubuck suede, chianti red pendants, and a leather-finish marble island complete the one-of-a-kind copper kitchen.
If Eklund had given Forino a brief, it would have been this: “I don’t want any black in my house, I want everything in a color.” The family’s breakfast nook, with a custom-built banquette covered in Kvadrat and Svenstk Tenn fabrics, is a perfect example of her technicolor, yet ever-chic execution. “We should give props to the Swedish design love that we both have,” says Eklund, who years ago flew Forino to Stockholm for an apartment building project, where she fell in love with fabric store Svenskt Tenn. “We use Svenskt Tenn wherever we can, it’s my favorite,” the interior designer says. “It’s everywhere, it’s beautiful.”
One space Eklund was pleasantly surprised by was the dining room, with a table—the base by L.A. designer William Earle , the custom dichroic glass top by Bendheim —he calls “fluorescent, insane. There’s something heavy about dining tables, and this is this floating neon,” he says. “We took a little bit of risk, and it really paid off. It’s almost like a piece of art, and it has a great reflection. At nighttime the light shines up from it, and it gets this crazy glow.”
“There’s a lot of gray interior design, and Fred and Derek definitely didn’t want gray, and neither did I,” Forino says of the plan for the family’s Beverly Hills forever home. “So it’s light, and it’s blush, and it’s happy. There’s yellow and there’s copper, and that was the direction from them.” With almost exclusively rounded corners and lots of curves, the vibe is inviting and warm—even to kids. Eklund’s office is just off the living room, with a diaphanous blue, pink, and yellow scheme that echoes the primary bedroom. “There’s something very magical about it,” Forino says.
Resplendent in serene Phillip Jeffries wallcovering, with its hand-knotted silk Sacco rug, Ferrell Mittman bed, Hästens mattress, and Apparatus Cloud chandelier—an effervescent theme throughout the home—Eklund’s primary bedroom is a piece of heaven, if heaven was in a constant state of sunset. Visible through the doorway is one of few abstract paintings by Kaplan. Eklund actually bought it for the house, since his husband typically sells all his work. “We’ve moved around a lot,” the realtor says. “And to actually say it’s not about an investment, it doesn’t have to be right for anybody else, it just has to be right for us—that gave us freedom.”
A mighty faceted Glas Italia mirror lends glamour and groundedness to the primary bedroom against sunset wallpaper incorporating Eklund’s two favorite colors. “They’re incredible, they just do the most beautiful glass pieces,” Forino says. The bedroom also features a Stahl + Band chair and an Oluce floor lamp.
“The gold accents, the Waterworks tub, and everything pulled together with the pink is the perfect blend,” Eklund says of this bathroom, for which he had a very specific vision. “Paris executed so incredibly well on it, and we’re both really proud of it.” Forino designed the floor pattern using six different shades of blush marble. For her part, she says, “I think it’s the best bathroom I’ve ever designed!”
For the first time Eklund and Kaplan’s twins have their own rooms, though both Monte Design beds have trundles for sibling sleepovers. During the renovations, Freddy insisted he wanted his own blue closet, while Milla wanted a pink one. Now they each have a bedroom swathed in their favorite color, with frothy sheers and matching ceilings.
Eklund’s aversion to plain white walls led Forino to lean heavily on wall coverings for his kids’ bedrooms and most other spaces. “It’s a fairly new build,” she says of the house, “not a prewar with moldings and everything, so I think bringing textures through wall covering is so important. Fred and I have worked together a lot, and he’s been converted.” Freddy’s whales are by Cole & Son , while Milla’s clouds are Cole & Son for Fornasetti .
For years Eklund admired the woven lanterns at Soho House West Hollywood , so they were a no-brainer addition to the backyard olive trees, adding ambience over the pool. “At night time I’m in heaven under the trees,” he says. In this home, “I feel really zen—I even have a meditation corner.”