The brief
Murugi had written for years on a free blog. She wanted a place that felt like her own: simple to read, warm, and easy to keep writing in, without fighting a website builder.
What I built
- A brand of her own. A sunflower, teal and night palette with literary typefaces, a split hero built around a line from her poem, and dark mode for night reading.
- A clean migration. All 36 posts from 2017 to 2025 moved across with their original dates, sorted into Love, Boldness, Healing, Letters and Musings.
- Reading that flows. Custom home, archive and post templates with a "read next" trail, sharing, and a newsletter so readers get new pieces by email.
- Search basics done right. Author schema, a sitemap and Search Console and Analytics connected from day one.
The writing desk
WordPress's admin is built for site managers, not writers. I built a small plugin that gives Murugi a focused writing desk: she sees only what she needs to write and publish, while admin tools stay out of the way. It also creates shareable quote cards from her lines and supports audio readings of her poems.