Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1543536
him here — "a little dark, a little moody, and there have been these moments of light," he says. Visitors seemed to pick up on that immediately. Throughout the run of Kips Bay, people kept telling him the same thing: "It feels so good in here." He attracted a raft of new clients, including one Highland Park couple who hired him on the spot to design multiple spaces in their home — a lounge, a wine cellar, a powder room, and the husband's office. And, perhaps most meaningfully, the show house brought a wave of validation from peers he had long admired. "People finally saw me," he says — no longer as the newcomer piecing together small projects, but as someone with a defined point of view and the skill to express it." He's taking on larger, more architecturally complex projects and plans to expand his small studio as new work comes in. Just as important to him is creating space for others. As one of the few Black designers represented at Kips Bay Dallas since its inception in 2020, he feels a responsibility to make himself visible to younger designers who may not see a clear path forward. He plans to make that visibility concrete by answering DMs from aspiring designers, offering honest portfolio feedback, sharing resources, and being the kind of mentor he wishes he'd had early on — "reaching back while I'm reaching forward," he says. "If someone can look at me and think, 'I can do that too,' that means everything." Clockwise from top left: Parisian sideboard, 1920s, from Twelve Twenty. Artwork by Nuge from J Williams Fine Art. In a powder bath off the hallway, Bernard used dark Emperador and custom Zip Mosaic tiles, with Artistic Tile slabs of Breccia Imperial quartzite. Arteriors Hutu sconces. Artwork, Thom Jackson's Shade, Craighead Green Gallery. Luxence chair from Luxury Living Group. Liaigre coffee table styled as a bench from Sutherland. 84