Who could better tell us the story of Lilla Hyttnäs than Carl Larsson himself? In his book, ”Ett hem”, he writes:
  " A while ago my father in law and I took some time off and travelled around here in Dalarna. We made the usual pilgrimage around Siljan apart from a diversion to father in law’s birthplace, Sundborn, where his two old sisters lived in a cottage that belonged to him. It was somewhat ordinary, an ugly and insignificant building, standing as it did on waste rock from the mines. It was known as Hyttnäs-Little, in contrast to the neighbours’ large one.
  The cottage stood right on a bend in the Sundborn River, just where it gets a smidgeon wider. Everything inside was spick and span, the furniture was simple, but old fashioned and robust, handed down by their parents, who had lived in the vicinity. While I was here, I experienced an indescribably delightful feeling of seclusion from the hustle and bustle of the world, which I have only experienced once before (and that was in a village in the French countryside). When my Father in law suggested buying me a small property in the same village, I declined, saying that only something resembling this little idyll would suit an artist.
  A couple of years later one of the sisters died and the other did not wish to remain there alone. Father in law remembered what I had said on that occasion and gave me the cottage with everything inside it. For the next few summers radical changes were made to the cottage, it had to be exactly as I wanted it, otherwise I should not be happy there and my work would suffer as a result. Now it is finished – I believe – but before you look around be so good as to listen to my little sermon on art in the home. Others have done it better than I have, but one cannot say too much about the matter.”