Inside and out, I help you choose every finish in your home.
I’m the interior and exterior designer on Ceci Bates custom homes around Lake Texoma — the person who carries the materials, colors, and finishes from the first conversation all the way to the final walkthrough, so your whole home comes together as one piece.
Scroll
How I help you through it
On a Ceci Bates build, I’m the one responsible for the materials and finishes of your home — everything you’ll see, touch, and live with, inside and out. I’m in it from the first conversation, before there’s even a contract, and I stay on the job site through construction, so the home you pictured is the home that actually gets built. How involved you want to be is up to you. Whether you want to cannonball in or just dip a toe, I’ll meet you there — guiding the whole thing, or just weighing in when you want a second opinion.
Most of what I do is the part you’d never think to ask about. I catch the hundred small decisions that come up between the big ones, I step into your taste instead of pushing my own, and I keep every choice talking to every other choice — so the finished home reads as one thing, not a pile of decisions made on different days.
Inside the home
Inside, my scope is just about everything you can put your hands on. I choose the flooring for every room and the tile for the floors, the walls, the showers, and the backsplashes. I pick the countertops and the edge profiles that finish them, the cabinetry style and its finish, and the hardware and pulls on every door and drawer. I choose the lighting — the decorative fixtures, the recessed cans, the under-counter strips, the lit mirrors — and the plumbing fixtures and their hardware, right down to the materials around an indoor fireplace.
Then there are the finishing details most builders hand back to you to sort out on your own — the level and texture of the drywall, whether it’s
a soft orange peel or a smooth, skimmed flat; the way the corners are turned; the trim. Those are the things that quietly decide whether a room feels considered or unfinished, and I make every one of them on purpose, so you’re never handed a clipboard of questions you didn’t know you’d have to answer.
The reason for carrying all of it is simple. When one person is choosing every finish, the whole interior comes together as a single, cohesive thing, instead of a floor that fights the cabinets that fight the tile. If you can see it, touch it, or stand on it, it’s something we chose together.
If you can see it, touch it, or stand on it — we chose it together.
And the outside, too
My work doesn’t stop at the front door. Outside, I help you choose the stone and the brick, the exterior paint colors, the roof shingle, and the gutters — matched so the whole envelope reads as one decision rather than four separate ones. I work on the outdoor kitchens and outdoor fireplaces as well, and I’ll go with you to the stone yards and slab yards to choose the actual pieces in person.
It starts from Roberth’s architecture — he sets where the stone and brick belong — and I help you land on the specific materials, colors, and finishes that bring his drawing to life. Inside and out are chosen to make sense together, so the home feels of a piece from the moment you pull up to it.
Color and materials are my signature
If there’s one thing I’m known for, it’s color and materials. I read the undertones most people walk right past — there’s no such thing as one white, there are fifty — and I get a whole palette to flow together instead of competing. Custom stain is a specialty of mine, left over from years of staining cabinets by hand: I’ll mix a stain to the exact tone we’re after and hand the trades both the formula and a demonstration, so what gets built matches what we planned.
Before a single product is chosen, I build the mood boards that set the direction — the colors, the materials, the textures, and the overall feeling of the home — so we agree on where we’re headed before we start picking. There’s a lot more to this part, and it’s where I do some of my favorite work.
See how I approach color and materials →
Keeping it within your budget
One of the most important parts of my job has nothing to do with how a room looks. Before there’s ever a contract, I run a preliminary round of selections and pricing, so you walk into the build knowing roughly what you’re going to spend — not guessing, and not braced for a surprise at the end. Every material I show you in that phase is real and priced, so the budget we set is a budget you can actually trust.
Once we’re building, my job is to keep your vision inside that number. I’ll never just tell you no. If something you love runs over, I’ll show you the real cost and find the path — a look-alike that gets you most of the way for a fraction of the price, or the one spot worth spending on because that’s where it shows the most. The goal is always the home you pictured, arrived at honestly.
Where I fit in the build
I don’t do any of this alone. I work inside a tight design-build team — Roberth Jordan, our architect, and Scott Bates and the Ceci Bates crew who build it all. I think of my part as the finishing layer on Roberth’s architecture: the colors, the materials, and the textures that complete what he’s drawn. The architecture is his and the building is theirs; what’s mine is everything that finishes the home, and the way it all comes together.
Furnishing the finished house — the movable furniture, the art, the accessories — usually stays with you, and I’m glad to partner with whoever’s helping you style it. My focus is the home itself: the selections that are built in, and the direction that holds them together.
Let’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 — whether you have a folder full of inspiration or just a feeling you’re chasing. There’s no pressure here, only a conversation about your home and how I can help you get it right.
Tell me about your vision