Drew and Shannon Lester are a husband and wife landscape design team that have over 40 years combined experience in Central Oregon. Together, they promote sustainability and gardening for success, so homeowners can enjoy all the other activities Central Oregon has to offer. Drew and Shannon currently focus their efforts on landscape, irrigation and low voltage lighting design, backflow assembly testing, project management and hourly consultations for D.I.Y. homeowners.
Drew graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington where he studied economics and public policy. After graduating, he decided to move out west to become a mountaineer guide and get more in touch with the natural environment. Shortly after, Drew started working in the landscape industry and furthered his education at Central Oregon Community College in the green industry.
Shannon is a landscape designer who holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Washington State University in Pullman. After a sojourn in Italy where she experienced landscape and design, Shannon returned to the Pacific Northwest to focus on custom residential and commercial landscape design, land use and city planning projects.
From 2012 to 2017, Drew and Shannon focused their efforts on starting up a mid-century, modern-inspired planter company, Steel Life. Steel Life planters have been recognized by many nationally accredited industry professionals and magazines including Martha Stewart, Sunset, Better Homes and Gardens, 1859 Oregon, and Dwell magazine. Drew and Shannon have also designed product for The Standard Hotel NYC and Miami.
Shannon has shared her product design experiences on a design panel moderated by OPB at the 2015’s Bend Design Con. She currently enjoys teaching seasonal workshops both locally and on her travels. Shannon focuses her teaching on design trends, plant selection, succulents, xeriscaping, living centerpieces, wreath making and other green D.I.Y. creations.
OUR HAPPY CLIENTS
Houzz User
It was a pleasure to work with Shannon Lester to design the landscape plan for our property in Bend, Oregon! The project presented a few challenges around sourcing product and materials that were deer and heat resistant due to the nature of the climate in Central Oregon. Shannon navigated this on our behalf as well as offered excellent project management of the landscaping team throughout the entire project. Shannon brings knowledge, experience and a positive, cheerful attitude to each meeting making the process enjoyable.Read More
Peter Krimmel
Shannon helped us create a landscape design for our backyard and gas fire pit. She came up with a design that looked great and needed very few revisions. She was accommodating and super easy to work with. After creating our design, we contracted with her to get our design approved by the HOA, source all the vendors and oversee the installation process. Overall it was a very straightforward and seamless process and we were very satisfied. We would definitely work with her team again!Read More
Houzz User
Very professional, knowledgeable and friendly. Listens to your ideas. Timely with correspondence/meetings. Plan is very professional and easy to understand/follow. Provided a detailed legend listing all needed materials as well as a list of different suppliers. Gives you options to include/exclude certain materials based on your budget. Landscape is aesthetically pleasing and interesting. Can't say enough about our experience with Blooming Desert Design + Build. Highly recommend!Read More
Lisa Joy
Having worked with various contractors in central Oregon since 1984, Drew & Shannon remain among my top favorites.
Throughout the multiple, albeit smaller, projects I have used BD Design for, our relationship was consistently solid, professional, and highly satisfactory, start to finish. Clear communication, vision that melded their expertise with my wishes, at a reasonable cost. I spend most of my time outside on my ten high desert acres, and strive, as FLW advises, to "study nature, love nature, stay close to nature" - BDD projects kept that goal alive for me. And their work always survived hard use by my multiple wild corgis!Read More
Theresa
Shannon of Blooming Desert Design + Build exceeded my expectations. Shannon listened and understood my vision and put it on paper. Shannon then worked with our architectural review board to gain approval for the landscape design (our greatest concern), which I greatly appreciated. In addition, Shannon connected me with a local professional landscaper that I’m looking forward to working with. Shannon’s expertise, professionalism, and understanding was beyond amazing. Working with Blooming Desert Design + Build was fun and exciting. Thank you, Shannon!Read More
