Beautifying homes for three decades

Village Interiors Design Center and Home Furnishings has been serving Sisters Country, all of Central Oregon, and beyond for 33 years, according to owner Patricia Molesworth, who has owned the business for the past 23 years.

The center, located at the northwest corner of East Hood Avenue and South Larch Street includes a 6,000-square-foot facility with a large showroom with a large number of samples of flooring, countertops, slabs, showers, fabrics, home furnishings, and accessories.

Village Interiors is a Hunter Douglas Show Place Priority Dealer and a Centurion dealer. The business offers its clients installations, warranties, and repairs. Molesworth has a full-time staff of five that includes a professional designer and an on-site certified installer. They also construct custom furniture.

"Village Interiors was founded in 1981 by Maggie Bull as a small design center," Molesworth recalls. "She sold it after a few years, and then it became available after one more year. I was planning on starting my own design business when this one became available, so I purchased it in 1991."

Patricia grew up on a ranch in The Dalles area and was introduced to Sisters by her husband, Gary. His family lived in Central Oregon. He had been visiting the area for a number of years and wanted to live here to follow his career as a general contractor. Patricia had a retail background, having worked at Nordstrom's in Portland and later for a mechanical contractor. After moving to Sisters she worked at Sisters Mercantile before buying Village Interiors.

In 2004, Patricia sold the home-furnishings portion of her business and moved the design center next door. A year later, she reacquired that portion of the business and moved back to the present location.

When asked how Village Interiors survived the recent recession, her answer is short and simple: "At least 80 percent of our business is repeat business. We worked with (our customers) in designing and furnishing their homes as they started their families. Later, we served them again as their lifestyle changed and they moved into a different phase of their lives. They downsized, they moved and they wanted to remodel. They are wonderful people."

While she does little business in Sisters proper, Molesworth has many customers in Black Butte Ranch, Cascade Meadow Ranch, Sunriver and Bend as well as Portland.

She and her staff have worked with customers establishing a vacation home in the area and again later when these families move to Central Oregon as full-time residents.

She remembers one customer that she worked with in their small Sunriver vacation home and who asked if they would help them with their home in West Linn in the Willamette Valley.

Hearing a positive answer, the customers laid out their house blueprints and explained that this residence was to be constructed.

Village Interiors worked with them for the complete project from the ground up.

She and her husband have two grown children. Their daughter works at Village Interiors, and their son works with his father. Having young children during their first years in Sisters got them involved in school activities including starting Little League baseball, getting a ball field established, and later lights, plus supporting the high school.

Patricia also has been active with the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, serving one year as chamber president. She also stays active with professional design societies that help her stay current with changing trends and new materials. She is also proud of the contribution her business makes to the economy of the Sisters area with a payroll of a full-time staff and a successful business.

She sees the current improvements to Sisters as something that is needed and that will improve the community.

"People who want to visit Sisters will still come during this construction. Even if they have to park off of Cascade Avenue and walk to the businesses," she believes. "I still believe that Sisters is quaint and charming, and I want to keep that in our community."

Molesworth appreciates the hard work that the early business people did in building Sisters, including John Leavitt, Chuck Hoyt, the late Harold Barclay and others.

Patricia and her husband live on acreage east of Sisters where they have horses, greenhouses, and hayfields.