Gray House Art & Antiques

A punchy print by British pop artist David Shrigley hangs above a French midcentury chest by de Bournay. “I like pairing contemporary art with antique furniture,” Fasoldt says.

Cordelia Fasoldt, owner of Gray House Art & Antiques, leans next to a grouping of silhouettes. “They are a way to add people without making too bold a statement,” she says.

Industrial-style steel lamps flank an arrangement of eighteenth-century Italian bookplate engravings in cream-colored metal frames. “It’s a great installation if you have a lot of wall space to cover,” Fasoldt says.

A midcentury English Windsor chair in elm and a Victorian ballroom chair with a silk velvet seat sit atop a Chinese Khotan rug, and an antique hand-stitched quilt spills out of a contemporary maple trunk.

Fasoldt points to the ironstone pitchers from the 1800s as a way to do coastal without being beachy.

The shop’s colorful selection of contemporary suzani pillows.

A seascape by American modernist Ross Moffett, two English crewel works, and a mirror with a needlepoint frame hang above a pair of chairs by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin.

It was the building—a modest gray clapboard circa 1900—that did it. “I saw this simple New England house for rent when I passed through Manchester-by-the-Sea and thought, ‘If I were ever going to do an antique store, that’s the building,’ ” Cordelia Fasoldt says. Six months later, in October 2022, Gray House Art & Antiques opened its charcoal-colored door.

Fasoldt, who worked in advertising for twelve years, had been feeling restless. She, her husband, and their two little girls moved from Beacon Hill to Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, during the pandemic, and Fasoldt quickly realized work-from-home life wasn’t for her. “I missed interacting with people,” she says. “Shop ownership was a chance to do something different.”

Gray House is not your grandparents’ antique store. There’s no dust or haphazard piles of tarnished goods. Instead, the sunny 700-square-foot space with built-in bookshelves and a fireplace looks like a chic New England living room. Like Fasoldt’s living room. The thirty-eight-year-old, who grew up in Belgium with a British mother and German father, has eclectic, worldly taste that is absolutely current. “I believe in mixing eras and styles to make antiques feel modern and fresh,” she says.

Fasoldt is most drawn to English, American country, and midcentury modern pieces. Ultimately, she buys what she likes. Antique Chinese rugs, an African Senufo stool, and a riot of suzani pillows mingle with a William and Mary server from the 1700s, a Harvey Probber rosewood bar, and an early 1900s rocking horse that customers named Tabitha. “As I was accumulating things last summer, I looked at it all spread out in my dining room and wondered how it would work together,” she says. “It fell into place as I set up; I think it’s about not trying too hard.”

Gray House also offers artwork, from cheeky graphic prints to nautical oil paintings, a diverse array of accessories meant to add personality to bland bookshelves, of-the-moment design books, and sustainable Peruvian blankets. Designers, tourists, and locals have all been enthusiastic. “I’m touched by how many people have come in to introduce themselves,” Fasoldt says. “It’s what I wanted, to get to know this community.”

Gray House Art & Antiques, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., grayhouseantiques.com