Family, service dominate former Gov. Roy Barnes' home

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Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and his wife, Marie, built a new home off Marietta Square that celebrates family and his life in office.

Text by RACHEL POMERANCE: Marie and Roy Barnes, with their tri-colored beagle mix Lucy, moved to their new home just off Marietta Square in December to be closer to their grandchildren, all five of whom are no more than a mile away. Daughter Allison, her husband, John Salter, and their children -- Lilly, 4, Ella, 2, and Ava, eight weeks -- live behind them. Son Harlan, his wife, Amy, and their children -- Will, 4, and Libby, 2 -- are a short drive. Daughter Alyssa lives two blocks away.

Roy wanted a Victorian house, and Marie wanted one open enough that "all the grandbabies would be visible within a few steps," she says. At their last home in Mableton, she'd have to keep them all with her in the kitchen, where she'd worry that they would "toddle" into a danger zone. Built by Bonner Custom Homes, Rhett Bonner oversaw the project that seems to have made the Barneses very content.

A Sandra Saltness Parks painting of the couple hangs the foyer. It was based on a photo that ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the morning after Roy won the governorship.

In the entrance hall, a bronze replica of the Georgia state seal puts what Marie calls "Roy's extreme love for the state" on prominent display. Given "the service he had given to the state," she says, it seemed an "appropriate thing to have in the floor of a former governor."

Two themes run through the Barnes residence: mementos of their time in office and the celebration of family. A photo gallery where family pictures mix with snapshots of celebrities puts all of it on display in the great room. Featured here are photos of the Barneses with past presidents. There's one of Roy with Walter Cronkite and Marie with Chris Rock. Another has Marie and her daughters mugging with Oprah after visiting her show in Chicago.

The family often assembles in the great room, which is spacious with plenty of seating. Marie's grandmother's dining table, which she had painted black, separates the seating areas. It functions as a console but can change into a dining area by using the chairs tucked beneath. Even the coffee table converts into a dining table with miniature stools. The couple chose to decorate in the "jewel tones" of gold, green and red that Marie loves. Interior designer Kimberly Davis helped them.

Marie had her grandmother's dining room chairs recovered and monogrammed with the family initial. In her grandmother's day, there was often just one dining chair that carried arms, the one reserved for the "head of the household," she explains. To keep the look uniform here, they placed the armchair at a desk in the kitchen.

The wooden cabinets were painted cream and finished with a black glaze. They create a beautiful backdrop for the black, ivory and red in the kitchen. Look closely and you can see distressed red tones in the island. "I'm just a good old-fashioned Southern-type cook," Marie says of her style. But "I don't like to cook just for me and Roy because it's just about cheaper for us to go out and get something to eat," and then "I don't have to clean up," she says. Smart woman.

The grandchildrens' snack drawer. What more could a kid want? Another drawer, perhaps. Well, they have that, too -- a second bottom drawer is refrigerated and stocked with juice.

The look of the kitchen carried over from the Mableton home. At one time, Roy wanted to live on the Western edge of Cobb County. Marie didn't want to live that far out, so she joked she'd have a country kitchen. She liked the rooster look and began a collection that transferred to this home. In this kitchen, she added a rooster painting she found in New Orleans. It hangs over the stove.

A ledge above the pass-through between the kitchen and great room displays some of Marie's roosters. Many of the pieces came from HomeGoods, which she adores, along with T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Just off the foyer, the dining room features portraits of Roy and Marie. Roy's portrait by Carol Kirby is a reproduction of the one that hangs in the Capitol. The one of Marie was painted by Saltness Parks. A cabinet housing much of Marie's collection of nativity scenes, not pictured, also is here. "They're not expensive," she says, "just things that I like." Among them is a scene in a Southwestern motif that features buffaloes instead of cows.

"I'm here every night," Roy says of his favorite room. The last six years have been his longest stint away from public service, where he devoted 26 years. "It's been very pleasant." But he vented over "some of the off-the-wall things the General Assembly does" and feels "torn" about whether to run for governor again. He hopes common sense will prevail with "some knight in shining armor." Marie says she "never enjoyed the spotlight" but would never tell her husband not to run.

For Roy, public service is a sacrifice demanded of everyone, whether that means volunteering at church or mentoring a child, he says. "Politics is an honorable profession, or it should be." These bookcases in his office are stacked with red leather-bound Georgia law books, and one of them hides a secret passageway to the hall leading to the master suite.

Marie displays her husband's precious book, a copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird" signed by Harper Lee. Barnes loves this book "because of Atticus Finch," he says, whom he calls "the ideal lawyer" who sets the standard for others to follow. Plus, he says, Atticus has a daughter who narrates the story, and Barnes practices law with his daughter Allison. The novel is "so much about the South and heroic lawyers," he says. Clearly, he sees his own hopes and history in its pages.

This display, a Christmas gift from the Barneses' children two years ago, exudes the spirit of the home. Pictured on the far right are early photos of two of Allison and John's daughters. Marie calls Lilly "Miss Mischief." When Ella gets ornery, the family teases her to get a certain response. When asked, "Are you Stinkerbell?" or "Are you Ornerinkus?" Ella replies: "No, I Ella Grace Salter."

Lighting behind the crown molding illuminates the gold ceiling, bathing the room in a soft glow. It's a decorating tip Marie picked up from HGTV. Their dog Lucy sleeps back-to-back with Roy, and once he wakes up, she cuddles with Marie. "She spoons me," Roy says. They named the dog Lucy because the Barneses picked her out at Fulton County Animal Services on the day she was scheduled to be put to sleep. "I guess you are one lucky little Lucy," Marie told the dog. The name stuck.

Marie angled the TV into the ceiling so she could watch it without getting cricks in her neck. While Roy's watching The History Channel in the great room, she has an ideal set-up here. "I'm a big fan of 'CSIs' and 'NICS,'" she says. The artwork is something Marie fell for in New Orleans, saying it "looks like you could just rub his little face." Birdhouses that inmates made for the couple when Roy was in office are displayed atop an antique armoire.

It might look like an adult's bathroom -- Roy loves his steam shower -- but this is like an amusement park for the grandchildren, who adore the bathtub. Not only does it come with bubbles, but also there's a light that can color the water a range of hues. Because Lilly likes the pink light and Ella likes the green one, their baths are adjusted accordingly, with the color switched halfway through bathtime.

Hinged artwork hides the medicine cabinets.

"Nammy, my favorite color!" Lily exclaimed when she saw the hot pink walls in the granddaughters' room. "Nammy" was coined by Will, who couldn't say Grammy. He also came up with "Daps" instead of Gramps, which is what Roy is called by his grandchildren. Cameras upstairs let Marie check on the children from the main floor. The quilts in the girls' room came from HomeGoods.

Marie found these sconces in a Shades of Light catalog.

Two sets of bunk beds, decorated in the theme of the Barneses' alma mater, are in the grandsons' room. Right now, there's just Will, who was allowed to decorate with stickers. The extra room means he can have his friends over, Marie says.

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Text by RACHEL POMERANCE: Marie and Roy Barnes, with their tri-colored beagle mix Lucy, moved to their new home just off Marietta Square in December to be closer to their grandchildren, all five of whom are no more than a mile away. Daughter Allison, her husband, John Salter, and their children -- Lilly, 4, Ella, 2, and Ava, eight weeks -- live behind them. Son Harlan, his wife, Amy, and their children -- Will, 4, and Libby, 2 -- are a short drive. Daughter Alyssa lives two blocks away.

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