Lily Barfield, stands outside The Marlene Inn, a bed and breakfast in Montrose. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle)

There's a pale yellow house with sprawling porches and purple-flowering crape myrtle trees behind a wrought iron fence in Avondale East, a historic enclave in Montrose. Built in 1909 or 1910 - depending whom you ask - it was originally a spec house for a New Orleans businessman. A prominent Houston family reportedly lived there, too.

The former residence will soon reopen as an inn. White and blue mosaic curb tiles spell out "The Marlene" on the front steps, one line above the dwelling's address.

Lily Barfield, a European-decorative furniture dealer known as Lily's Vintage Finds on social media, purchased the now 115-year old neoclassical home last year. It was previously listed in February, 2023 for $2.4 million.

In March 2024, Barfield announced that 109 Stratford would become a bed-and-breakfast called The Marlene Inn, after her late grandmother. The soft opening is Saturday.

The Old World-garden room inside The Marlene Inn. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle)

"There are rumors about these old houses that you find out about when you take one on," Barfield says, gazing up at stained glass in the doorway separating the Marlene's Old World-garden room from the primary dining area.

One of her favorite, whispered rumblings is that those windows are vintage Tiffany. But that's a mystery she'll have to solve at a later date.

For more than a year, Barfield's 47,000-strong Instagram following tagged along on the Marlene's laborious restoration journey. The 29-year old Louisiana native teased a mid-construction tour of a bedroom here, or unboxed a decorative delivery there. She's been careful, and clever, to never give too much away.

"I want people to actually come," Barfield says with a glint in her eye. "I want people to be surprised."

This weekend, they'll get that chance. The Marlene checks in its first overnight guests on Saturday. The public can belly up at the bar that night, too; reservations to book one of the inn's nine rooms become available online shortly thereafter.

Bar Madonna inside The Marlene Inn. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle)

Diehard fans will know the story behind Bar Madonna, and more specifically, the watering hole's namesake: a towering 9-foot painted wooden panel of the Virgin Mary which Barfield hauled over from France two years ago. She traced the piece's origin to an Italian church circa the mid-1800s. Now it anchors the Marlene's bar.

Tom Hardy, previously with Bludorn Hospitality group at Navy Blue and Perseid at Hotel Saint Augustine, leads the beverage program. The menu is equally influenced by New Orleans and Paris. The wine list is 100-percent French. A gin cocktail called the Southeastern incorporates a dash of crawfish seasoning.

Bar Madonna will accept walk-ins only. Patrons can mosey into the sun room, lobby lounge or outdoors if they like.

"I wanted somewhere people could slow down and enjoy the space," Barfield says. "Houston, we needed some more good patios."

The Marlene can accommodate roughly 55 visitors across the 18,000-square-foot property. Five en suite guest rooms in the three-story primary structure are complete. Another three-room configuration above the three-car garage is in the works; as is a separate, private cottage named after Barfield's mother, Tracie Aguillard.

Barfield explains that the Marlene's residential neighbors are already accustomed to the street traffic. Harry's Breakfast & Lunch is a stone's throw away from the inn. And there are other businesses on Stratford, too.

"Montrose is the cultural heart of Houston," Barfield says in an outdoor courtyard. "This is the Houston I experience every day."

Most of the Marlene's furnishings and decorative objects were sourced from the South of France. Barfield and Aguillard have famously, and somewhat hilariously, documented their champagne-laden buying sprees online before packing shipping containers full of commodes, armoires, and tableware back to Texas.

Barfield filled in the gaps with finds from Round Top and River Oaks. Some of the sconces and tchotchkes were unearthed at the Blue Bird Circle and the Guild Shop.

Her design aesthetic is self-described as 'furniture first.' Downstairs in the Marlene's common spaces, that means antique pastry baskets on double duty for both provencal breakfast service and bar snacks. Upstairs Barfield utilized one focal piece to inform the mood and feel of each room.

"And anywhere I could stick a chandelier, I stuck a chandelier," she says.

The guest bedrooms are all named after women in her family. "The Nanette, for my mother-in-law, is the best room in the house," Barfield shares.

The Nanette guest room makes for an ideal bridal suite. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle)

It also makes an ideal bridal suite. The Nanette reserves full use of the Marlene's second-floor porch, has heated bathroom floors and a secret bar behind a nondescript wall.

Next door, the Sophie has yellow walls, which shine bright in the morning and cast a warm glow in the evening. There's in a princess-style canopy bed, too.

The Mia, with its shuttered, semi-private veranda, boasts one the Marlene's most prized treasures: a green settee covered in early fabric from the 1880s. "I've never had more interest in a piece in the history of Lily's Vintage Finds," Barfield says.

The Moira boasts its original light fixtures, red bathroom floors and a clawfoot bathtub. For quality control, Barfield insisted on giving each of the Marlene's tubs a good soak ahead of this weekend's paying customers.

There are still a few unchecked boxes on her to-do list. A Lily's Vintage Finds Gift Shop needs to be unpacked and organized near check-in. Bar menu cards have to be printed and inserted in their leather holders. And the in-room mini-fridges have arrived and await installment.

"Converting the house to commercial grade was difficult. But that's true of the first time you do anything," she says. "In the end though, everything has turned out better than I thought."