Today we’d like to introduce you to CL Stevenson.
CL, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Scott Powell founded New Leaf Custom Homes, a Dallas based luxury home builder, in 2006. As the company grew and enjoyed success, he eventually brought architecture and interior design in-house by starting the sister company Design Shop. In 2022, Scott realized that this group was nearly perfect but missing exterior design to make the group of services complete. This is how Pools By Design was born. He only needed to find the right person, with the right experience, to run with it. This is where I came in. I started a pool company in 2008, having been a designer for many years prior, and eventually sold it to an investor in 2021. Scott didn’t know me at that time and I didn’t know I would end up here, but the timing was perfect. I’m now the president of Pools By Design and our business has taken hold in the Dallas market.
There are specific benefits we have that 99% of other pool companies do not. Our design services (by me, with 22 years of design experience) are done in an open work environment that includes our team of seven architects and five interior designers. We collaborate on designs to create unique and special projects. This often means sourcing unusual tiles and stone, and coordinating materials, textures and colors not only with the exterior of the home, but even color palettes used on the interior. The idea is that our design services are cohesive and intentional to deliver a level of expertise that is rare in this industry.
Though Pools By Design is part of a larger group of sister businesses, we operate independently and we regularly design and build pools for home owners unrelated to our custom home clients. This year we’ve built projects as small as an in-ground spa (Purdue picture) and as complicated as a $1M perimeter overflow pool with a glass floor bridge and floating steps (unfortunately I cannot provide pictures of this one yet as it is still under construction).
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Since I have the background of starting a pool company and growing it from ten pools the first year to over eighty pools per year ten years later, I fortunately had the experience to help to make this a smooth road. Additionally, being part of a collaborative and supportive culture here with Design Shop and New Leaf, the growing ‘pains’ have been very minor.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I mostly touched on this in the section about us, but I’ll reiterate that what sets us apart is the way most pool companies approach design compared to our processes. Most pool designers are not architects, but they have a focus on sales, and they know enough about designing pools to put together a pretty picture to sell. For a design to really stand out as professional, there are considerations beyond what untrained designers would realize. I start with sight lines and alignments before ‘pen to paper’. Before I complete a design, I collaborate with my team of architects and interior designers.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Don’t rush growth. For someone in this type of industry, declining business because you are already booked out is going to be the better option than trying to hire on the fly when you are already working long hours. Keep your workload manageable and plan ahead for growth. Taking every job when you can’t handle it will lead to bad client experience which will hurt your company more than help it.
Pricing:
- Custom pools start around $60K
- Average pool + spa projects are around $140K
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.poolsxdesign.com/
- Instagram: @poolsxdesign
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088879133678
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pools-by-design-dallas/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CLS_modern
