Gwyneth Paltrow Goes “Thrifty”

I subscribe to Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP newsletter for two reasons: entertainment value (the lady is seriously out of touch with regular folk) and recommendations (she still comes through with some awesome recipes/ideas from time to time).

Last week’s issue sort of hit both categories. She dedicated the entire newsletter to an apartment renovation done for her family while she was filming in Nashville. The budget was “very limited independent film–scale,” which in Gwyneth terms naturally means it was much higher than most anyone’s budget for their primary residence. I won’t even get into the fact that having a designer custom create a stunning temporary residence for you so you’re comfortable while shooting a film is already head and shoulders above the most decadent scale of luxury imaginable for me…

But I digress. The point here is that the apartment came out beautifully.

Before

After

See? Very nicely done, design team. Especially given your woefully limited budget, which we can see outlined in Gwyneth’s helpful markup:

After - With prices

So, like, I guess the moral of the story is I hope one day I can claim that a $1,600 coffee table is inexpensive. In the meantime, there’s no reason we can’t drool.

This must be where she cooks her legendary organic meals.

Another (real) feat is that this whole makeover was completed in 10 days. Apparently the designer had the workers organized into teams doing 16-18 hour shifts around the clock. They’d bring lunch to the work area so people didn’t leave the site during their shift. Now that’s how you get things done!

One part of the newsletter I did really like is her designer’s list of “go-to” stores. I was happy to see HomeGoods in the #1 spot because that place really does rock:

• Homegoods – “is my number one choice!”
• Anthropologie
• Pottery Barn or Pottery Barn Outlet
• World Market
• Target
• CB2
• Design within Reach
• Mitchell Gold Furniture
• Restoration Hardware
• 2 Modern
• Dwell
• 1st Dibs
• E-Bay

Of course, all the “anchor” furniture is from one of my all-time favorite expensive stores, Mitchell Gold. A pile of dog doo would look good next to Mitchell Gold furniture. But it’s a smart strategy – get a few nice pieces from a pricey store like that, and then fill in the rest with Homegoods and Target. Or even Overstock.com: