Not all heroes wear capes. Some, like Kendra Mays, rock sneakers, sweats, and leggings. Her superpowers are designing and building, and she’s using those powers to help rebuild Altadena after last year’s firestorm destroyed over 9,000 buildings and claimed at least 19 lives. Mays is an interior designer and general contractor with over 30 years in business, helping people bring their home visions to life.
Growing up in Dallas, she was a self-described busybody who found herself sawing in her grandmother’s shed, rearranging furniture without permission, teaching herself how to sew, loved crafting and woodworking, and also had a lot of fun walking around on rooftops when her roofer grandfather would take her to work with him.
“I was just very curious. I always had this expansive creative imagination,” Mays told EBONY. “I feel like that’s where God talks to me. He talks to me in my imagination. I’ve always been very creative. I was very poor, so we didn’t have all the toys and stuff like that, so I used my imagination and it worked for me.”
When Mays was a young adult, the tragedy of losing her brother and also going through a divorce inspired her to relocate to California, where she launched Kendra Mays Designs. She got off to a rough start, unable to land clients, partly because people were taken aback by seeing a young Black woman in an industry that isn’t very diverse.
“I didn’t get any work. I really feel like it was because there was nobody out there like me. All the general contractors were old, seasoned white men, and the designers were old, seasoned white women,” she said. “It just wasn’t a lane for me, and so I struggled to get business, so I would have to go and work another job and still work the business, but that wheel inside of me, it just wouldn’t stop, and because I didn’t stop, it led me to where I am today.”
Today, Mays is a highly sought-after contractor and interior designer who has turned her passion into a thriving community and family business, with her adult son and daughter on the team too. January marked 32 years in business for Mays, whose office is located in Altadena, in an area that wasn’t destroyed by last year’s firestorm, and the firm has become a major part of helping people who lost everything in the Eaton fire rebuild.
“You’d be surprised at what a year makes. We were one of the first on the ground right after the fires because we had renovated a lot of homes. Obviously, the clients were calling like, ‘My whole house is gone,’” said Mays. “So, we were helping with cleanup, handing out water, standing with them, crying with them, holding hands, and praying. That was the hardest time, January last year, but a year makes so much difference. There’s so much hope and optimism.”
During that time, and even still, Mays’ firm became a place where clients, mainly people from the Altadena community, could come and get simple tasks done. People who had lost their personal technology were able to send emails, use the fax machines, and perform other administrative tasks that helped them get their affairs in order.
“My clients come in, and it’s like a family reunion. They catch up with one another because they hadn’t seen each other since the fires. And that is one of the things that I’m so blessed to have come. It’s like our office turned into everything,” Mays said. “We opened up the doors and just gave them a big hug. Every Tuesday, we have taco Tuesday. On Mondays, we serve Italian. On Friday, it’s pizza day, and they can just come in and get a pastry. They can sit and talk to each other. It has completely changed the tone of the community. It has turned around in the past 12 months, and it’s beautiful to see. We’ve seen a lot of tears of pain and sorrow, and tears of joy.”
As rebuilding continues, there’s still a lot to be done, but hope and optimism are high as some families begin to move back into their homes. Mays’ firm has also purchased several lots to resell to residents at fair prices amid corporations trying to flip the homes at astronomical prices.
“We want to build back and resell affordable homes, because I know that was a big deal with people being pushed out of certain places. They can’t come back because of the prices,” Mays said. “They can’t afford two and a half, three million dollar homes, so we are buying and building it in a more affordable way that they’ll be able to buy for half the price.”
From breaking ground to design, Mays is there with her clients every step of the way, bringing visions to life, and with more fortified fireproof materials, while still keeping aesthetics at the forefront. It’s a process that will take years, but the healing has intensified. “This is my purpose. I was born to do this. If I’m not creating, I’m really not living, and that keeps me going,” she said. “My clients keep me going. I love people. I love to see their dreams turn into reality. That keeps me going.”