Kimberly Harper

A native of East Texas, Kimberly attended The University of Texas where she received her degree in design. Her inspiration for old world lighting came early on from her summers spent while vacationing with her family in the Mexican heartland and continued as she frequently traveled throughout Mexico as an adult. It was on one of those trips that Kim purchased a unique outdoor light fixture from a local merchant. After returning to her home in Austin and having it installed on the exterior of her home she was asked by a local home builder where she had purchased this unique light. She told the builder where she had bought it and after striking up a friendship she agreed to bring one back for him on her next trip.

When Kim returned to Mexico she was unable to locate the exact fixture she had promised to bring back for her new builder friend. She asked the shop owner about his supplier for lighting and he directed her to a small welding shop on the outskirts of town.

Seeing these master craftsmen create beautiful pieces of art out of raw steel inspired Kim to arrange with the shop owner to supply her with lighting based on her designs that she intended to sell in the Austin market.

As a single mom Kim wanted a career that allowed her the flexibility to spend more time with her children, so she launched the illuminares.com website and the rest as they say is history.

Kim spent the next 10 years building a successful online business, importing and selling beautifully designed and crafted home lighting to designers and home builders all over the US, Canada and Europe.

Due to the issues with violence on the US border with Mexico, Kim found it increasingly difficult to travel to Mexico to inspect the lighting she was having built. During the later part of 2009 Kim decided it was time to bring the manufacturing of her designs to the US. After carefully planning the move and spending months locating skilled welders, fabricators and contracting with all the required suppliers, Kim opened her manufacturing facility in August 2010.