Meet Lesley Hodges | Design Manager & Indoorsman

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lesley Hodges and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lesley, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
Eating healthy and clean, regular exercise, plenty of rest. Don’t save things to do later, do them now. Listening more than speaking. Dig in and get facts prior to making a decision. When someone is in front of you, give them your undivided attention. Let people show you who they are.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a child, I was always fascinated with people’s homes. I would even rearrange the furniture in my friends’ homes, to achieve a better space plan. My legitimate career as a designer started at Saddleback Design in 2004, I worked part time helping Lolly merchandise model homes. Saddleback is the flooring company for multiple Colorado home builders, we have a showroom with over 20,000 SKUs of material, tile, carpet, countertops and wood floors. Our design team meets with those builders’ homebuyers and select all of the finishes for the interior of their home. I added more time to my schedule over the years as my daughter grew and I had more time available. I truly enjoyed every client that I worked with and helping them create a space that reflected them and functioned for them and their families.

I became the Design Manager at Saddleback Design in 2013. There are more challenges every day than you would want to read about. The last three years have been the most challenging ever, specifically Covid. Our business (construction) was considered essential, so we never missed a day. My design team was sitting across the table from buyers who may have just traveled by plane, to come select finishes for their new home. This was before vaccinations, before we knew how the virus was spread, some people refused to wear masks (masks were a mandate by our city, not our company) … it was challenging to say the least. My team was full of fear. Some of them had family at home that were in the vulnerable category for Covid, and they didn’t want to take the virus home with them. Followed by that and sparked by Covid were the global supply chain issues that would result in us reselecting multiple products for each buyer that had already completed the process, doubling the workload. Then on December 30th, 2021, the Marshall Fire burned more than 1000 homes, some of which we participated in building. The Saddleback Design Team has met with more than 400 of those homeowners and selected finished for their rebuild. The design team has met with these buyers for back-to-back appointments, hearing their stories and sharing tears. Navigating the emotional trauma has been a huge hurdle. In all of this, I have learned that you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I have learned that you have to give yourself and those around you grace. I have learned that I have an incredible team and we take turns holding each other up. I have learned to sit back and let my team lead in situations and bring them together to collaborate and figure out next steps. I have learned to let each person on my team shine their light as bright as they possibly can and share each one’s strengths with the rest of the company. I am extremely proud of my team. They are brave, compassionate, strong-willed women and we are who we are because of all of us, not just me.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would have coffee and breakfast at home, where we could spend some quality time together. Day trips would be Red Rocks, Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Spa Day at the Brown Palace. Dinners would be at Quality Italian, Frasca, Root Down, Sushi Den, Hillstone.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have worked for Saddleback Design on and off for 20 years. I would not be where I am today without Lolly Hauptman and Rich Larson, they are both mentors for me.

Image Credits
Rebecca Bonner