Gwyneth Paltrow's New York Apartment was Roman and Williams’ first collaboration with her. She’d loved some of their work that she’d seen in a friend’s house, so she called the office one day, out of the blue. “That kind of phone call never gets old,” laughs Standefer. “It was the beginning of a wonderful relationship.”

Though the design firm’s best known work at the time was “dark and rich, very layered,” according to Standefer, “Gwyneth saw how we could instead channel this ethereal palette: light delicate whites, palest lavenders, grays,   

silvers, embroidery details.” The trademark Roman and Williams layering is there, but in whispers: “It’s the classical marble Chesney’s fireplace paired with a Venini light fixture, the hand-painted wallpaper in one room with the hand-embroidered wallpaper in the next, it’s paper and fabrics and flowers. We worked carefully together on the palette and the textures to create the sense of refinement.”