Nice to Meet Ya: Heather Bateman

Doing it with style in Dripping Springs is what Heather Bateman does and she does it at her business Before Your Eyes Interiors. Creative interiors are her specialty and her tastes are “ very eclectic, it’s all based on the clients. We’re part of a team on a project. It’s not my dreams, it’s their dreams,” she said.

How she got to Dripping Springs is almost a story in itself. Working in Austin, she would receive emails from clients in Dripping. She enjoyed coming to do business here and finally her husband, Joe Bateman pointed out, “you light up when you go there.”

Time passes and they have two children in DSISD. Being in the PTA, she’s also a yearbook chair. Moving from big city Austin, “I needed that small town community,” said Bateman.

She spent her early years in Huntsville, where she attended elementary and middle schools but summers in Orange, Texas. “I was fortunate to have both grandparents and parents,” she said.

She graduated high school in Orange, and then attended and received her Interior Design degree from the College of the Mainland.

Working for an Interior Design firm in Orange, then moving when the owner of the business was moving to Aruba. “I moved to Austin and lived with an aunt to get my feet steady.” She took a job as a luxury apartment manager and lived on the property. “No traffic, no commute.” Moving to Austin was a big event in her life, meeting her husband Joe.

“I moved to Austin in 2008,” Bateman said. “I met him at Chuy’s at Barton Creek. One week after I moved, he was the first guy I met in Austin.” They married and soon had two children. After a few years as a stay at home mom, friends and prior clients urged her to get back into interior design.

She was commissioned to do the entire airport at Kelly AFB (now Kelly Field) in San Antonio, based on prior work. “I got back in, it was the perfect time and the perfect place,” she said. “I built my portfolio back up.” Her residential client list grew, as did her business.

“My favorite parts of business are working on the project beginning to end, getting to know someone,” Bateman said. “I love taking the rendering (of the project), a picture comes to life and people are living in it. It’s an unspoken reward.”

“The construction industry has not slowed down,” she added. Although it is steady growth, clients sometimes do not understand about the delays and patience. “If anything, (the pandemic) has taught us patience,'' Bateman said. “Pre-Covid it was instant gratification. Patience has been a challenge for some.”

Her dreams for the future are “the business grows and becomes full brick and mortar. A dream house team likes Designing Women (TV show) collaborating with other women designers.”

For more information, visit Before Your Eyes Interiors’ website at beforeyoureyesinteriors.com.