10 Days to Renovate

Designer Annette Joseph was given less than two weeks to transform an industrial Nashville condo into a temporary home for Gwyneth Paltrow and her family. Here's how she did it.

Annette Joseph was getting ready for a trip to Italy in January when the phone rang. It was Gwyneth Paltrow -- well, her people, that is. Gwyneth had seen some of Annette's work (her work as a gallerytylist and designer has been featured in numerous magazines, like Better Homes and Gardens, as well as HGTV and "The Today Show"). She wanted Annette to transform a temporary space for her and her family in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, where she would be filming a movie.

Needless to say, Annette said ciào to Italy and took on this exciting design project. There was just one catch: The space needed to be finished in 10 days. Sound like something from a reality show? Just about. A renovation like this would normally take about 3 months to complete.

Before we even talk construction, let's answer the question that we're all asking: What was it like working with Gwyneth Paltrow? Did she have that "movie star attitude"? Annette said it was actually the opposite. "She was such a pleasurable client," says Annette. "She knows what she wants and she's a very stylish woman. She's also very decisive, and having a decisive client makes things a lot easier. She's the real deal."


Found by the movie's production team, the space is in The Icon, a new condominium building in the up-and-coming Gulch area of Nashville. When located and booked, the space was just a concrete shell with plain walls and a basic builder's grade kitchen. It needed to be quickly and cheaply made into a relaxing, cozy family-friendly home for an Oscar-winning actress.

But a 3-month reno in 10 days? "I literally didn't sleep. I would lay down for a few hours but then I kept making lists in my head of people I had to call and things I had to get," says Annette.

First, Annette consulted with Gwyneth, going through the design plan and flipping through hundreds of photographs of furnishings. Then she raced home to draw up plans and begin ordering the decor. Annette says that she "spent all night online ordering things so that they would arrive in time to unpack them, wash them and put them away."

"Because I'm a stylist, I have to do things very quickly," she says. "That was very helpful in the process. The other thing is that I've been doing this for 20 years...I can make decisions and I can edit quickly." In fact, she knew immediately what walls could come down and what the space would look like in the end, from her experience working on big construction projects. She also understood her limitations and didn't undertake too many complicated projects that could cause delays.

Because of the time constraints, "there was a limit to how many walls we could rip out," says Annette. "I decided to rip out all the walls in the master bathroom and recreate a closet and make it a really nice, large beautiful master bathroom. And then I ripped out a couple of walls from the kitchen to the den area." She left the concrete pillars because she thought that they were kind of cool.


There were a few fist-shaking moments. First, she wanted to put in a new floor. But since everything needed to be done at once, it was difficult to find a day or two when no one was working in the apartment. Painting and sanding areas simultaneously also presented a challenge -- the sanders needed to use a vacuum to try to get all of the dust controlled so that it did not collect on the newly-painted walls.

Once the furniture started arriving, it presented a whole new challenge -- where could they store it when the renovations were still underway? Luckily, there were some vacant apartments in the building on other floors and Annette was able to stash it all until she was ready for it.


Don't go rushing off to Nashville to do any celebrity sighting, as the Paltrow family has already vacated the space. According to Annette, most of the furnishings remained and the builder will likely sell the unit furnished. For more info on this unit or any other in The Icon condo building, check out The Icon in the Gulch website.

Since you and I are probably never going to undertake an entire condo renovation in 10 days, I wondered what we could learn from Annette's experience. Annette was nice enough to share some of her handy decorating tips. She incorporated many of these ideas into Gwyneth's temporary Nashville home.


1. Mix price points. "I like a nice mix of things that are costly and things that are inexpensive," she says. "In other words, if you're going to buy a sofa, buy a good sofa..." and throw on a pair of inexpensive HomeGoods or Overstock.com pillows. "Think of decorating your home like your closet -- you can wear a $50 pair of shoes with an expensive dress and look fabulous. With a balancing act, you can do things beautifully and cost-effectively." In Gwyneth's living area above, Annette paired clear plastic chairs from Overstock with slightly more pricey blue banquettes from Mitchell Gold.


2. Be dramatic using inexpensive materials. For example, Annette used subway tiles that cost about 25 cents per tile in the kitchen in Gwyneth's condo, but tiled all the way to the ceiling for a custom, gourmet look. In the bathroom, Annette discovered a marble-like tile that costs just $13 per square foot and decided to do the entire bathroom floor, shower and wall for a rich, luxurious look.


3. Buy items directly from craftsman or fabricators. Annette went to a local stainless steel fabricator to create a custom island for Gwyneth's kitchen that cost $500, a fraction of what she might pay at a fancy retailer. Lights seen above the island were found at a flea market for $400.

If you're interested in more of Annette's fast-paced lifestyle, she recently shot a reality show pilot! We hope it gets picked up so we can watch this decorating diva in action.

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