Jamie Colby Brings Old-World Italian Charm to her NYC Apartment
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.”
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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!