How a couple turned Topanga A-frame into sanctuary for music and recovery
- Last updated: October 12, 2026 | 10:00
The sky was blue, and the winding street in Topanga Canyon was quiet. Only birds and the voices of Deena Robertson and Austin Bisnow could be heard, their sweet harmonies floating from their A-frame cabin into the canyon. "If I were a painter, I'd be your eyes and spend eternity looking inside. If I were a dancer, I'd spin you around so I could hold every part of you that I found.
And catch you in my arms safe and sound." Even before they opened their front door to offer a tour, the lyrics to the couple's song "Evermore" conveyed why their home means so much to them. "It gives us presence and safety," says Robertson, 45, standing in the warm, wood-paneled living room next to an upright piano. "We made a conscious choice to live in peace here."
Robertson and Bisnow bought the home in 2018 for $1.2 million after more than three years of searching. That same year, they got married while working independently in creative fields: Robertson is the co-owner and founder of Modo Yoga LA, now North Ray Yoga; Bisnow is a musician, lead singer of Magic Giant, and a writer and producer of songs for John Legend, David Guetta and Jon Batiste.
After years of renting, they quickly fell in love with Topanga, a community known for its bohemian vibe and artistic community. "The first week in the house, I overheard the clip-clop of someone riding a horse up our street," Robertson says. When Bisnow struggled to unload a Wurlitzer piano in the driveway, their new neighbours stepped in to help. "Each one picked a side of the piano and helped me move it," he says, smiling.
Although the house needed some updating, with its dark bathrooms and an undeveloped backyard that was just a dirt lot, the couple appreciated the 1976 home's midcentury style: oak floors, a dramatic vaulted ceiling, freestanding and earth tones throughout. For the couple, the biggest issue with the house, which rests on a 10,500-square-foot street-to-street lot, was that many rooms in the 2,000-square-foot home didn't take advantage of the breathtaking views.
The kitchen, for example, had overhead cabinets that blocked the views of the cliffs and canyons of Topanga State Park, which stretches just beyond the living room and deck. "You had to be in a low squat to see the views from the kitchen," Robertson says. "The second day after we moved in, we got a sledgehammer and took out the overhead cabinets." A year later, their shared DIY project took on even more meaning when Robertson was diagnosed with a rare form of mouth cancer.
"I was told I would most likely never speak properly again," she says about the tumor on the roof of her mouth, where sounds are formed.
"Or she would speak with a cleft palate," Bisnow says softly. When doctors told her she needed to have surgery, Robertson, a self-professed "nature girl" who grew up on a farm outside of Toronto, says her first instinct was to seek solace at home by lying down on the earth. "But there was not a single place in our backyard where I could lie down," she says. So Bisnow carved out a spot in the dirt yard and installed a 4-by-8-foot piece of turf where she could lie down every day. "Later, after I had healed, we thought, 'Let's make this backyard something special,’” she says.
"It was a profound experience," she says, describing the deep silence she felt while recovering at home after surgery. Drawing on her background as a yoga teacher, she tried to learn from cancer, which she called her "tumor teacher." Inspired by research showing that thoughtful architecture and design can help with healing, the couple set out to make their home as peaceful and creative as possible. They added skylights in the bathrooms, so they could watch the moon from the tub. They added texture by hanging handwoven textiles in uncluttered rooms furnished with vintage Midcentury Modern pieces. No TV, but there's a stereo, whimsical chimes and cozy nooks outfitted with instruments for making music together.
They paid special attention to lighting to create a warm glow inside, even softening the harsh refrigerator light so it would not be too bright at night. They also expanded the guest room and turned the nearby driveway into a patio, making it a welcoming spot for family visits. "Awe is a shifter for us," Robertson says of the subtle changes. "I think that's what good design does. This house holds you." To demonstrate this, she sat on the built-in bed in their bedroom and raised the blinds across from it with a remote, magically bringing nature into view.
Feeling supported like this, Robertson noticed a change in herself after surgery. "Music just started pouring out of me," she says. "We didn't play music together for the first nine years of our relationship," says Bisnow, 39. They had never even sung together, though he remembers the first time he heard her sing at a Modo Yoga class with her sister. "I thought it was an iPod," says Bisnow, who performs with Robertson as the indie folk duo Somewhere In Between. "It was too angelic to be live."
By finding creative new uses for old items, they made the house their own. They turned a piece of driftwood into a front door handle. Towels in one bathroom hang from a macrame plant holder. They made a toilet paper holder from old leather ties and a wood dowel that was headed for the trash. Also, a pair of side tables started out as telephone book holders. Emily Morwen, a friend and co-founder of North Ray Yoga, finds the property deeply restorative. "It feels both completely luxurious and completely connected to nature," she says in an email. "There are beautiful properties, and then there are places that make you feel something. This is one of those rare places. You leave feeling softer, more grounded and somehow more yourself."
Tribune News Service