When Marie Barfoot graduated from the Frankie Shelton School of Design in Houston, her intention was to own a flower shop, and for the next six years she owned Atlanta Floral on Main Street in Atlanta, Texas. In the early 1980s she sold the store to Benita's Blossoms and moved her business to Texarkana.
She went from florist to interior decorator and opened a store in McKnight Center until she outgrew it. For the past 25 years Marie's Interiors and Gifts, on the corner of McKnight and Pleasant Grove Road, has grown to fill every corner of every room with delightful seasonal finds and upscale home interior items.
Besides the store, where she sells unique items, she also goes to homes and decorates for clients - even working with contractors on new homes from the ground up.
Marie works with the clients on color schemes and patterns, and orders everything from carpet to furniture to custom drapes. Once the house, or room, is designed, she decorates it with items she finds at market in Dallas.
"The key to being a good decorator is to visit with the clients first," Marie said. "Once you get to know them well, then it's easy to make them happy."
Each winter she and her team decorate 35-40 homes in the Texarkana area for Christmas. Her team consists of daughter, Dee Dee Wells, daughter-in-law Sherry Campbell; Julia Carpenter, Melissa Silvey, Glenda Jeauno, and Gwen Estill.
Most of Marie's clients return to her, year after year. "We have several people that hire us to take down the Christmas decor and store it (in their home) for them," she said. "We put it up on a schedule, and take it down on a schedule."
A lot of clients have hunting lodges and vacation homes they have Marie decorate. "My favorite jobs are the lodges. We get to do a lot of natural decor in them," she said.
For natural decor such as twigs, moss and dried flowers, Marie has a 35-year relationship with "The Nature Lady" in Mena, Arkansas. It is one of few suppliers she uses outside of the Dallas market.
Farmer's Bank in Texarkana is just one of the businesses Marie decorates this time of year. Others can be seen in Broken Bow, Idabel, Valiant and Hochatown.
"I've decorated several businesses in Southeast Oklahoma," Marie said, "including four banks, a phone company, some cell phone businesses and lodges at Beaver's Bend."
But Oklahoma isn't as far as she is willing to go. "Every July I go to Dauphin Island, Alabama, where I have several clients. They get decor 'refreshers' each summer," she said. "When I go down there I also go deep-sea fishing for Red Snapper, so it's an annual vacation for me."
When she isn't decorating for others, she and her husband Jerry reside on the Louisiana side of Caddo Lake where they enjoy entertaining. They are also very active at Trees Baptist Church. They have four children: Tony Campbell of Queen City, Dee Dee Wells and Misty Lutton of Atlanta, and Damon Donnell of Athens, Texas.
Marie says she has never gotten too busy to take on more clients.
"I never turn anyone down," she said. "I just hire more people to do the work. We will do what it takes to make people happy." n