The ColourPop Brunette, Kiera Murphy, on bringing the pigments she uses in her professional life into her rental home, and thanks to the support of her hubby Dan, she has the business in a place where she can start saving for a mortgage.
It took the support of her husband to push Kiera Murphy to rediscover her creativity.
Five years since she sold her first illustrations, the woman who trades as The ColourPop Brunette is attending trade shows, popping up at Kilkenny Design on Dublin’s Nassau Street, and earning enough money to start saving for a mortgage application.
Kiera Murphy and her husband Dan Sheehan were living in Dublin when Covid happened.
A textile designer turned visual merchandiser, she had been working in retail, most extensively with Cos.
It involved travelling for work, opening stores across Europe, and on the outside looked glamorous.
He’s been working as a network operations centre engineer (NOC) and is currently employed by Tek Systems and working for gaming company Blizzard Games.
But she found she had no time to create while working full-time.
“I would knit, make jewellery and embroider things for our home,” she explains.
Covid was the first time I’d slowed down in over 20 years. She’d been working in retail since the age of 18 but had started her working life aged 13 working in bars and hotels.
“I had never not had a job. It felt very strange,” she recalls.
“We needed to move. Dublin was really expensive.”
A neighbour of Dan’s mam had a farmhouse that was empty in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick.k
The dairy farm is situated about a mile down a country road. They were able to rent it for a reasonable sum.
The place hadn’t been lived in for several years. Being the Colour Pop Brunette, there is no taupe, beige or other neutral colours here.
Instead, there’s sky blue on the kitchen cabinets, lilac on the dining table and chairs, and a floral throw on a fireside chair in the sitting room.
They share their house with dogs Millie, a merle blue collie, and Bowie, a black lab and lurcher cross.
She’s just been selected for Kilkenny Design’s Maker’s Academy, a collab between the Irish design chain and the Local Enterprise Offices (LEO).
It all started when hubby Dan bought her the gift of an iPad, telling her “I think you need to be creative. I think people will like it”.
He could see what I couldn’t see in myself, she says.
It gave her the courage to bring a selection of illustrations and jewellery to Wickham Way market in Limerick.
“I was selling quite well, which surprised me. Is this something I can do?”
He then suggested she show her first greeting cards to a café down the road to see if they might stock them.
Roots Community Shop & Café in Kilmeady, a village about 13 clicks east of Newcastle West.
She met Dan on dating app Plenty of Fish. It was 2012, and her housemates had set up a profile for her.
She went along with a backup plan to get out of the date, "but he was so kind and considerate. He gave me a hug. It felt like home."
Fourteen years later, there have been lots of difficulties, including a brief spell of unemployment and various medical diagnoses.
She was diagnosed with dyslexia aged 13, and then, following sessions with a psychotherapist and medics, she was diagnosed with several conditions including polycystic ovary syndrome, ADHD, autism and Hashimoto's disease.
“Going on medication gave me the focus, attention span and drive and follow-through. Before, I didn’t have the executive skills.”
Business started to gain traction in 2023, but it’s only been in the last six months that it’s really taken off.
Her signature stickers featuring household Irish brands, keychains, illustrations, notebooks, journals, and greeting cards have struck a chord with Gen Z and Alpha.
When she filed her last returns, she had just turned over €36,000. Her accountant says she’s progressing.
“It’s made me intensely proud to be at this point. To be involved. To be contributing. It’s a milestone for the business and for us.”
After renting for years, at the age of 37, she feels the couple can start looking at putting down real roots and looking at the possibility of getting a mortgage.
“Between Dan supporting me to get to this point in the business, getting to that stage of development where we can start talking to the credit union and the bank, finding out how much we both need to put away.”
The couple had a small wedding. “We wondered when we would get to the point when we’ll be saving for a home.
“Next year we hope to start looking. I have no doubt it will be a colourful home.”
Catch The ColourPop Brunette at her first pop-up at Kilkenny Design, Nassau Street, Dublin 2 on Friday, September 11th and Saturday, September 12th. She does multiple markets; all details are here.
