Fine arts collection inspires home design

A home on East Conway Drive built to showcase the owners' fine art collection will be featured on the Cathedral Antiques Show and Tour of Homes on Jan. 25 and 26.

Bill Murphy and Jim Essary worked with their clients and the architect for four years during construction of a home on East Conway Drive to create a space that would showcase the owners' fine art collection. The designers' efforts will be featured on the Cathedral Antiques Show and Tour of Homes on Jan. 25 and 26.

In the living room above the sofa is a collection of antique camels from the Chinese Tang Dynasty.

The camels seem to be resting but still attentive, each carefully lined up and ready to leap into action at a moment's notice.

Funerary urns sit together on the living room mantel, illustrating one of the designers' principles: Do not mix collections.

The kitchen is large enough to accommodate caterers during large parties.

Blue-and-white Chinese export porcelain platters are grouped in the kitchen.

The dining room has two tables, which makes for easy dinner table conversation and versatile seating. Hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper provides a complementary background for the blue-and-white porcelain displayed in floor-to-ceiling shelves.

Although the rooms are large and filled with art, the spaces never feel overwhelming because of 13-foot ceilings and appropriately scaled furniture. Arrangements are harmonious and balanced.

Eighteenth- and 19th-century paintings of dogs, grouped together between a pair of windows, are the theme in the family room. Walls and trim are painted the same subtle color, allowing the paintings to gain full attention.

An Oriental horse stands on an antique English server table in the family room. The owners' fine collection of pieces dates primarily from China's Song dynasty, A.D. 960-1279.

The guest bedroom showcases hand-colored ancestral Chinese portraits.

The master bedroom contains paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. Murphy says if you don't have enough pieces to avoid mixing them, "buy each other art for all gift-giving occasions."

1/12

Bill Murphy and Jim Essary worked with their clients and the architect for four years during construction of a home on East Conway Drive to create a space that would showcase the owners' fine art collection. The designers' efforts will be featured on the Cathedral Antiques Show and Tour of Homes on Jan. 25 and 26.

Today's Gallery Headlines

Photos: Cedar Grove defeats Cairo in first round of state tournament

PHOTOS: See the 'Places in Peril' across Georgia for 2026

PHOTOS: Tyler Reddick wins again at Autotrader 400

Allyson Phillips (center), Laken Riley’s mother, prays at UGA’s Tate Plaza on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, during a memorial service for her daughter. Riley was attacked on Feb. 22, 2024 while running in Oconee Forest Park on the UGA campus and killed. (C.J. Bartunek for the AJC)

Alerts

Photos: Cedar Grove defeats Cairo in first round of state tournament

PHOTOS: See the 'Places in Peril' across Georgia for 2026

PHOTOS: Tyler Reddick wins again at Autotrader 400

PHOTOS: Hundreds honor Laken Riley with 5K, memorial on UGA campus