A modern home, softened until it felt like theirs.
Stone Retreat by the Lake — a fundamentally modern home on Lake Texoma, warmed with color and finished with a few deliberate risks.
Scroll
The brief
The owners of this home have a lot of energy, and it shows in everything they love — they wanted a modern house, but not a cold or serious one. They wanted it to feel warm, personal, and unmistakably theirs, with room for a little color and a little fun.
They also surprised me. Partway in, they leaned into a direction I hadn’t expected, and rather than talk them out of it, I ran with it — which is how this home ended up being one of the more genuinely
unique ones I’ve done. My job was to keep the modern bones they wanted while softening everything with warm finishes, so the house felt inviting instead of austere.
That balance — modern lines, warm heart — is the whole home in a sentence, and it’s the kind of problem I most like to solve. Here’s more on how I work through a home like this.
They surprised me — and rather than talk them out of it, I ran with it.
Modern bones, warm finishes
Modern homes can tip into cold if you’re not careful, so I softened this one everywhere I could — warm colors, warm finishes, materials that invite you to touch them — while keeping the clean, modern lines the owners came for. Then, because these are people with real energy, we let a few deliberate pops of color in, with cabinet-color accents that carry their personality through the house.
The boldest move of all was the fireplace, but that one deserves its own paragraph. Color and materials are where I do my best work, and this home gave me a lot of room to play.
The fireplace
Here’s the paragraph. The fireplace is finished in a shiny black geometric tile — very modern, with a little built-in drama — and it’s the piece everyone remembers. It was also a genuine first for me; I’d never installed anything quite like it before this house, which made it exactly the kind of risk worth taking.
It works because everything around it is warm. Set that much drama against soft, inviting finishes and it reads as a showpiece rather than a cold statement — which is the whole trick of a modern home you actually want to live in.
The details I still think about
A few details from this home have stayed with me. The primary bath is a spa in miniature — exactly the calm, restful retreat the owners had their hearts set on, and a warm counterpoint to all the modern edges elsewhere in the house.
And then there’s the green tile in the guest shower. I loved it so much — the color, the way it caught the light — that when it came time to finish my own home, I used the very same tile. That’s about the highest compliment I can pay a material.
How it turned out
What we ended up with is a modern home that feels genuinely warm and personal — full of the owners’ energy, softened everywhere it counts, and unlike anything else I’ve done. That’s what happens when a client trusts you with a surprising idea and you both commit to it.
The best sign it worked: the owners still swing by and still call, just to talk. A home that keeps that kind of relationship going long after the last box is unpacked is the whole point for me.
Like all my homes, this one is a Ceci Bates build — Roberth Jordan’s architecture, built by our crew — and the color, the materials, and the way it all comes together are the part that’s mine. See it from the builder’s side →
Want modern to feel warm?
If you love clean, modern lines but don’t want a home that feels cold — if you want it to feel like you, with a little color and a little nerve — that’s exactly the kind of home I love to work on. Tell me what you’re imagining; there’s no pressure, just a conversation.
Tell me about your vision