Step Inside Gwyneth Paltrow's Tranquil Montecito Home
Working with AD100 talents Roman and Williams and Romanek
Design Studio, Gwyneth Paltrow builds a serene family sanctuary
First, a caveat. Anyone hoping to find an array of caricatured, Goop-arific novelty features in the Montecito home that Gwyneth Paltrow shares with her husband, writer-producer Brad Falchuk, is sure to be disappointed. There’s no plant-based, toxin-leaching, zero-gravity pod, no fermenting cabana, no crystal-powered sweat lodge. There are, to be sure, myriad elements specifically designed to nurture mind, body, and soul; they just happen to be far more discreet—things like Vitruvian proportions, sacred geometries, and a host of finely crafted architectural details that together represent a nuanced interpretation of wellness by design.
Gwyneth Paltrow, wearing a Khaite dress, Georges Chakra belt, Femme LA shoes, and Foundrae Jewelry, at home in Montecito, California. Fashion styling by Rob & Mariel.
The entry has an 18th-century fireplace mantel and reclaimed-stone floors from Chateau `Domingue. The Akiko Hirai vessel on the center table is from RW Guild.
“The strength of the house is in the subtleties of light and space,” Paltrow says. “We spent a lot of time assessing family patterns, how we really live, what makes us most comfortable. The focus was on the experience, the emotion.
Paltrow first fell under the spell of Montecito during her two semesters at UC Santa Barbara, before she decamped to pursue a career in acting. “I’ve always gravitated toward Santa Barbara. Even when I was living in London, we’d take the kids there for holidays. It was our sweet gem of an escape in the U.S.,” she says. On one visit in 2015, Paltrow checked in on Redfin, her “favorite pornography app,” and discovered a generous lot for sale with a teardown but tons of potential. “It was like Grey Gardens,” she recalls. “There were wild animals living there and swarms of bugs, but I fell in love with the land and the views.”
And so Paltrow set out to fulfill the dream of building her first ground-up house. “That was chapter one of a long and arduous journey,” she notes wryly, citing the many technical complexities, unforeseen setbacks, and existential quandaries that inevitably arise in the process of home building. To tackle the assignment, Paltrow tapped her longtime collaborators Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams, the AD100 firm that had previously designed the actress’s Tribeca loft, the first Goop pop-up shop, and the company’s first permanent boutique, in the Brentwood Country Mart. “Robin and Stephen brought a real elegance to a very spec-y New York apartment, and I wanted to replicate the feeling of serenity they managed to conjure,” Paltrow says. “The kids were much younger when I embarked on this project, and I wasn’t married to Brad, so I was ideating for a future self that didn’t exist yet,” she adds.
Umbrellas from Niche Beverly and custom chaise longues are arrayed along the pool deck.
Paltrow describes the précis for the design of the house as “a Parisian apartment set within an old European barn, something with high ceilings, flooded with light, a place that feels generous yet manageable at the same time.” Drawing inspiration from the humble forms and rugged grace of Old World barns, the team from Roman and Williams responded with a scheme that deftly bridges the classical and the contemporary—a long, lean monolithic structure, laid out largely on one floor, with a shingled roof and stone walls that approximate the irregular rhythms and timeworn texture of dry-stack construction. The property is powered on solar energy, with a gray-water system, reflecting Paltrow’s commitment to environmentalism as an essential consideration in any homebuilding project.
“A home should reflect the physicality and ethos of its owner, and this house takes its cues from Gwyneth’s height, beauty, and focus on distillation. You see it in the tall bones, the attenuated proportions, the radiused corners, and the slender molding profiles,” Standefer avers. “The house is built around extremely precise, thoughtful spaces that we refined again and again for years.”
A Jim Zivic hammock for Ralph Pucci and an Alexander Díaz Andersson lounge chair grace the living room.
Clad in tiles by Bantam Tileworks, the spa has waterworks R.W. Atlas shower fixtures, Shiplights sconces, and Willy Guhl planters.
Gwyneth Paltrow, wearing a Khaite dress, Georges Chakra belt, Femme LA shoes, and Foundrae Jewelry, at home in Montecito, California. Fashion styling by Rob & Mariel.
Asked about any big takeaways from her six-year journey, Paltrow offers some battle-tested advice: “There will always be pain points in a project like this, but keep your eyes on the big picture,” she says. “This house has taught me so much about patience and gratitude. If you commit to design integrity and character, you’ll never be sorry.”
An earlier version of this story mis-identifed the creator of the hanging wire sculpture in the living room. It was made by D’lisa Creager.