Every corner
of the lake asks
for something a little different.
I’m the interior designer on the Ceci Bates team, and I follow our homes all the way around Lake Texoma — both sides of the water, and across North Texas.
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How I think about the region
I’m lucky to work all the way around one lake, and it never asks for the same thing twice. The Texas side climbs — limestone bluffs, coves back in the trees, homes perched high where the light bounces off the water and comes straight back in through the glass. Cross to the Oklahoma side and it all opens out: low, sandy shoreline and a big, bright sky that drops a completely different light into a room.
That difference is where my work starts. The light of a place changes the colors I reach for long before anyone picks a paint chip — how much light there is, how warm it is, how much of it bounces up off the
water. A home high on a Texas bluff and a home on an open Oklahoma shore want different palettes, even when the owners are after the very same feeling inside.
Because my clients are Ceci Bates clients, I go wherever the homes are — often to a Texas site and an Oklahoma one in the same morning. If you want the land, the water, and the building side of all this, that’s Ceci Bates’ part of the story. My part is everything you’ll see, touch, and live with — and it begins with how the light of a place shapes the color I choose.
The light of a place changes the colors I reach for long before anyone picks a paint chip.
On the lake
Most of what I do sits right on the water, where the view and the light do half the design work — and ask for finishes that can hold their own beside them.
Lake Texoma
The lake is the center of everything I do. Homes here are built to open onto the water, so the palette has to work with a moving, shining view instead of competing with it — warm, quiet finishes that let the lake be the loud one. Two of the homes I’ve worked on sit right on Texoma.
Designing on Lake TexomaRock Creek & Gordonville
Rock Creek is a lakeside community over in Gordonville, with a consistent, considered look from one house to the next. That kind of setting rewards a home that feels cohesive and calm — exactly what we were after in the Grandiose Lakehouse, a warm, neutral home built around a single quartzite slab.
See the Grandiose LakehousePreston Harbor
A newer gated community on the Texas side. On open, water-facing lots like these I plan for reflected light early — it can pull the color out of a room by midday — so I lean on finishes with enough depth to keep their tone from morning to evening.
Pointe Vista
A lakeside community on the Texas shore. A home that faces this much water gets very different light at eight in the morning than at six in the evening, so I choose palettes that are easy to live with in both — nothing that only works in one slant of sun.
Thompson Heights
A lake community on the Texas side, up in more sheltered, greener ground. Where a home sits among the trees, I can bring in a little more warmth and depth than a wide-open shoreline would take, and let the greenery outside do some of the work.
Monarch Ridge
A Texas-side lake community with long, open views. When the view is the whole point, I keep the interior quiet and let it lead — clean, calm finishes that frame the water rather than compete with it.
The mainland towns
Not every home I work on is on the water. The towns just inland have their own light and their own pace, and a good bit of my work happens here — there’s more on designing in Pottsboro, Denison, and Sherman if you’d like it.
Pottsboro & Spout Springs
Pottsboro is home base — the Ceci Bates studio is here, and so is a lot of my day. It sits just off the lake with an easy, walkable feel, and Spout Springs is a newer neighborhood going up nearby, home by home. The light inland is gentler and more even than the open shoreline, which gives me room for warmer, cozier palettes.
Denison
Denison has a real, lived-in downtown and a steady, unhurried rhythm. Its homes range from established, tree-shaded streets to newer lots on the edges of town, and that shade and greenery let me work with a little more warmth and contrast than a bright lakefront would take.
Sherman
Sherman is the bigger town in the county, with larger lots out toward its edges. Those open, roomy sites are where the more ambitious homes tend to happen, and they give a design space to breathe — generous rooms that still have to feel warm and personal, not just big.
Across the wider region
Ceci Bates builds well beyond the shoreline, so I do too — out across Grayson County and down the Highway 75 corridor.
Lake Bois d’Arc
Bois d’Arc is the region’s newest lake — still open, still quiet, with homes only starting to give it a character. On a lake this new there’s no established palette around you to answer to, so the color and the materials can be driven entirely by your own site and how you want the place to feel. That kind of open canvas is a treat for a designer.
Bonham & Honey Grove
Small Texas towns east of the lake, surrounded by open country and a slower pace. Homes out here tend to want to feel rooted and unfussy — warm, honest materials that sit comfortably in the landscape rather than against it.
Gainesville
West of Sherman, the land opens into ranch country. Homes here often carry a little more of that working-land character, and I love leaning into it — durable, tactile finishes and warm, grounded color that suit a home with real room around it.
Lake Kiowa
A gated lake community over near Gainesville, with its own water and its own light. Like anywhere on a lake, the view leads — so my job is a palette that frames it and finishes that live easily with sun and water.
The Oklahoma side
The lake doesn’t stop at the state line, and neither do I — I’ll often drive to a Texas site and an Oklahoma one in the same morning, and some of the homes I’ve worked on sit on this side of the water.
Durant, Oklahoma
Durant sits on the Oklahoma side, where the land opens up and homes get more room and more sky around them. I bring the same eye to a home here that I would to one across the water in Texas — the setting just gives it a little more space to be generous.
Kingston, Oklahoma
On the Oklahoma shore near Kingston, the land lies low and the sky takes over — a broad, bright openness you don’t get in the tucked-in Texas coves. All that light changes my hand: I tend to work cleaner and a little cooler here, with palettes that can hold their color in a room full of sun.
Where’s your land?
Wherever it sits — high on a Texas bluff, out on an open Oklahoma shore, or on a quiet street in a town in between — I’d love to hear about it. The design always starts the same way, with the place itself and what you want to feel when you’re standing in it. No pressure, just a conversation.
Tell me about your vision