I’m the interior designer who helps you choose every finish in your custom home on Lake Texoma.
I’m Heather Shields, the interior and exterior designer for Ceci Bates Custom Homes. I’m in the room from the first conversation and on the job site through construction — so the home you pictured is the home that gets built.
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You’re not doing this alone
Building a home is one of the biggest things you’ll ever take on — a lot of money, a lot of decisions, a lot of unknowns. My job is to make that part feel personal. I’ve sat at the table for home after home, and I know how to take a folder of loose ideas and turn it into choices that feel like you.
From the very first conversation, I’m already in the room. By the time we talk about budget, every material is real — not a guess — so there’s nothing waiting to surprise you at the end.
More about how I work
Recent work on Lake Texoma
Every home here started as someone’s idea and became something cohesive — colors, materials, and textures that move together instead of competing. One of my favorite parts of the job is morphing into each person’s style, even when it’s nothing like my own. Here are a few.
Grandiose Lakehouse
An entertaining home in Rock Creek, built outward from a single Taj Mahal quartzite slab.
View the home
Stone Retreat by the Lake
A modern home softened with warm finishes and a few deliberate pops of color.
View the home
Midcentury House
Ultra-modern and high-contrast, with an exterior and interior that make complete sense together.
View the homeHow I help you choose every finish
Inside and out, I’m the one with my hands on the materials — flooring, tile, countertops, cabinetry and hardware, lighting, plumbing, fireplaces, and the trim and details most builders leave for you to sort out later, plus the exterior stone, brick, paint, and roof. I learned all of it the hands-on way, staining cabinets and mixing finishes myself, so I know how a material is going to behave long before it’s installed.
Color and materials
This is my signature. I read the undertones most people walk right past — there’s no single white, there are fifty — and I get a whole palette to flow together.
My approach to colorThe whole exterior, too
Stone and brick, exterior paint, the roof and the gutters, outdoor kitchens and fireplaces — all chosen to make sense with everything happening inside.
See the full scopeAlways within your budget
I’ll never just tell you no. I’ll show you the real numbers and find the path — a look-alike that costs less, or the one spot worth spending on where it shows the most.
How the process worksWhat it’s like to work with me
We start by getting to know each other, and your home — how you live, where everyone gathers, what you want it to feel like when you walk in. From there I’ll pre-pull options based on what you’ve told me, so you’re never standing in front of a wall of a thousand tiles trying to find a place to start.
You’ll see your actual selections in your actual rooms, in 3D, before anything is built — so nothing comes as a surprise later. And I’m on the job site through construction, making sure what you chose is what gets installed. That matters most for the folks who can’t be here every week to check for themselves.
See how the whole process works
The team behind your home
I don’t do any of this alone, either. I work inside a tight team — our architect, Roberth Jordan, whose drawings always have a reason behind them, and Scott Bates and the Ceci Bates crew who build it all. I think of my part as the finishing details on Roberth’s architecture: the colors, the materials, and the textures that complete what he’s drawn.
We have a lot of homes behind us, and we look out for each other and for the people we build for.
From the journal
Why I almost always start with the countertop
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How I find the right white among the fifty that exist
ReadLet’s talk about
your home
If you’re planning a custom home on Lake Texoma, I’d love to hear what you have in mind. There’s no pressure here — just a conversation about your home, and how I can help you get it right.
Tell me about your visionColor and materials are the heart of every home I design.
This is the part I love most, and the part I’m known for. Color and undertones, materials and textures, custom stains, the way light moves across a finish — getting all of it to flow as one is where a house starts to feel like your home.
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