She was 43 years old. The award reads: "'Life's most persistent and most urgent question is, what are you doing for others? Both Time and CNN once proclaimed Bridges “America’s Best Interior Designer.” Bridges also broke barriers hosting four seasons of Sheila Bridges Designer Living for the Fine Living Network, now the Cooking Channel, making her an in-the-flesh example of just where other black interior designers could go. BIDC’s continued success and a wider reach for Iconic Home, in addition to Skylar’s wellbeing and that of her family and friends, will be a fitting legacy for Kim. Last year, she added AmericasMart as a partner, alongside ADAC, to expand BIDC’s imprint and impact. Does your firm use a waitlist for new clients? The 2017 conference, held in Atlanta at the Merchandise Mart a week prior to Ward's death, honored the organization's founder. So she would have been devastated by Harvey’s destruction, but would have insisted that the city rebound. Houzz’s 2021 trend predictions, Airbnb’s surprising quarter, and more. That drive, that made people feel that they can do anything. Protest was never a motivating factor for her. All of this she achieved while also being a loving mother and rock star role model to her young daughter Skylar. She served as home and lifestyle contributor for Gospel Today magazine for four years before joining design blog Pink Eggshell in 2008. Two, to provide educational opportunities for up-and-coming designers who need business structure and entrepreneurial help.”. Ward was too ill to attend the conference, but the organization called her to announce her award, and designer Boyd read her its inscription. Photograph courtesy of Kimberly+Cameron Interiors. Domestically, Houston was a very special city for her and she worked there often. This serene Decatur home keeps it simple with black and white design, Behind Georgia’s Covid-19 dashboard disaster, In politically mixed friend groups, a lesson for navigating differences. Ward began her design career in 2002 working for members of the then-newly formed Houston Texans franchise; she would grow her career to take on clients from NFL teams including the New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and designed more than one home for upwards of 90 percent of her clients. And despite unexplained health complications that kept her, a previous breast cancer survivor, in her native Mississippi, she still, with great assistance from Keia McSwain and her sister Tony Ward, hosted the 2017 Black Interior Designers Conference from July 27 to July 29. I’m sure that the designers on the list will agree—beauty and style know no color,” she concluded. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.' But her vision did not and should not perish. After an AA Top 20 celebration at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in New York City back in 2012, she relocated, anchoring the festivities, while also adding a full-blown conference, in Atlanta, finding a great partner and champion in ADAC. Kimberly Ward, founder of the Black Interior Designers Network, died on August 1. She established the Top 20 African American Interior Designers list on design blog Pink Eggshell and founded the 120-member BIDN to connect homeowners to designers of color. To Kimberly Ward, with love and extreme gratitude from your design family." Not just as an African American, but more specifically as one working as a professional in the design community,” she wrote on PinkEggShell when she unveiled the very first AA Top 20 list back in 2011. “When I am featured in magazines and other media outlets, the questions that repeatedly arise are, who are your colleagues, is there someone like you in my neighborhood? Guadeloupe Rojas tells EAL: "We gave her an award for the conference this year, with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. [inscribed]. She also dreamed of growing her brainchild, the magazine Iconic Home, beyond a conference publication so that she could share the talents of the AA Top 20 and BIDC with a wider audience. "Kimberly was like a mother hen with all her children," remembers Guadeloupe Rojas, who was first approached by Ward at High Point Market, when the designer struck up a conversation with her. Kimberly Elaine Ward was one of them. "Even going to the funeral, you heard people speak about her, and we'd all laugh becuase we'd all had similar experiences with her. Within ADAC, some great partners included Ainsworth-North, Peacock Alley, and Martin Nash. Instead, she shone her light on others: first with the annual African American Top 20 Interior Designers awards and, later, the Black Interior Designers Conference. In an April 2017 feature, Ward told EAL, “I started the network to solve two problems. Kim’s intent with the AA Top 20 and the BIDC was slightly different than some assumed. Guadeloupe Rojas, who began her career before Ward had, said that when she started, "There was nothing like [BIDN]. Long live traditional! ", The legacy she began building has already changed the design landscape for designers of color. With [Ward] bringing us all together, now we lean on each other.". Michigan architect Irving Tobocman passed away after a November 10 car accident. BOH Insiders unlock access to weekly designer classes and exclusive Insider-only workshops, Designer and founder of Black Interior Designers Network Kimberly Ward has passed, A designer’s guide to sourcing and sampling services, Instagram update draws ire, a Noguchi at the White House, and more, Muji is the latest brand to go the lifestyle retail route with West Elm deal, How commercial work gives this Virginia designer a leg up on residential projects, Currey & Company relocates in Atlanta, Sunbrella’s new gallery space, and more. Kim adored Tiffany Brooks, HGTV’s 2013 Design Star winner, who became one of Kim’s tireless supporters. It genuinely surprised her whenever anyone questioned the need for her efforts. Though it is not a place where everyone would spend hours doing one thing, like when in the sala or in the bedroom, still, it receives constant traffic at any time of the day. From day one, she intended to inspire, celebrate, and encourage established and aspiring interior designers—not blast the interior design community because they didn’t. The organization's mission: to "celebrate diversity within the interior design industry by highlighting designers of color and supporting black designers with business development opportunities." Editor’s note: Earlier this summer, Atlanta Magazine’s HOME had just begun to explore partnerships with Kimberly Ward and her Black Interior Designers Conference. After all, the very idea of her—a black girl with six siblings who was born in the shadows of the University of Mississippi and grew up to become an interior designer—was a testimony to the power of dreams. During her four-year tenure, Kimberly wrote monthly interior design columns for the lifestyle publication. Like the rest of the interior design community, here and around the country, we were saddened to hear of Kimberly’s untimely death so soon afterwards. 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