Jamie Colby Brings Old-World Italian Charm to her NYC Apartment - Closer Weekly

When she decorated her luxurious Upper East Side apartment, Fox Business Network correspondent Jamie Colby turned to some divine inspiration.

“It was 2005, and I was on assignment in Rome covering Pop John Paul II, who had fallen ill,” Jamie, 54, shares with ‘Closer.’ “The minute I walked into the Vatican, I said, ‘Oh my, look at this! I need a Tuscan villa!’”

Upon returning to New York, Jamie – who bought the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath, 2,000-square-foot apartment in the late 90s but “hadn’t really done anything to it after moving in” – hired a painter to make her dream come true.

Jamie on Fox on Jan. 26, 2015.

“I explained that I saw these stone blocks at the Vatican, and he recreated them in the dining room with Venetian plaster,” says Jamie. “He basically built a memory of the most significant assignment I’d had.”

And like Rome, it wasn’t built in a day. The project took a year and a half to complete. “My painter ended up living in my apartment, becoming part of the family. I was like Murphy Brown!” she says with a laugh.

Jamie at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April 2012.

Jamie also added Italian touches to the kitchen – which she designed herself – by removing the original white cabinets and replacing them with deep, rich cherrywood cabinets. She chose the ceramic and smoked-glass floor “because I wanted something elegant, but durable,” she says. “I didn’t want a home where guests had to take their shoes off.”

To read the full story on Jamie’s apartment, pick up the new issue of ‘Closer Weekly,’ on newsstands now!