Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Tyrrell.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
This career path actually began with an epiphany more than 20 years ago, sitting alone on a park bench in San Francisco, staring into a fountain. I remember asking myself how I could possibly bring together everything I loved: my degree in cultural anthropology, my passion for travel, my desire to truly help people, preserve beautiful art, and my natural love of home décor. And then it hit me: I would start a company focused on unique, fair trade décor. The feeling was unlike anything I’ve experienced before or since — a flash of inspiration I felt deeply in my core. In that moment, I knew it was something I was meant to do.
But then life happened. A business like that would require travel, financial resources, and a level of risk that felt overwhelming for a young woman just starting out. So I set the idea aside. Graduate school, marriage, three wonderful children. For many years, I worked in higher education, helping launch new programs and managing federal, state, and local grants. Yet even as the years passed, that moment on the park bench never left me.
Eventually, I did what so many of us do when we’re searching for clarity — I talked to my mom. She listened to my vision and encouraged me to pursue it. Her belief in me gave me the courage to finally take the leap. It’s also why the company is named Purple Nest Design. Purple was her favorite color — and mine and my dad’s as well — and “nest” reflects the way she nurtured me, giving me both the safety and the wings to pursue my dream.
About five years ago, I decided I was done talking about the dream and ready to start living it.
I began researching textiles and home décor throughout Latin America and traveled to meet the artisans and weaving partners we work with today. The path hasn’t been straight — there have been twists, turns, and more than a few struggles. But today, I’m grateful to say I’m living the dream that first came to me on that park bench all those years ago.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building Purple Nest Design from the ground up meant learning almost everything the hard way, and I do mean everything. I had a background in cultural anthropology and grants management, not retail or import/export. Nobody hands you a roadmap for that.
The early logistical challenges were humbling. Something as seemingly simple as sewn-in product tags turned into a months-long ordeal spanning two different companies and continents before we got it right. Customs created headaches I hadn’t anticipated and couldn’t always predict. Each of these setbacks sounds small in isolation, but when you’re a solo founder trying to move product across international borders while honoring your commitments to artisan partners, nothing feels small. Everything compounds.
And then there’s the technology. No one tells you that launching a small business in the modern era means becoming a reluctant expert on so many different platforms simultaneously. Websites, SEO, email marketing systems, social media – each one in its own universe, each one requiring time I didn’t have. Add PR and broader marketing strategy on top of that, and some days it felt less like running a luxury textile brand and more like running a small IT department that occasionally sold beautiful throws.
What kept me going through all of it was the same thing that started me on this path in the first place: a deep sense of purpose. The artisans I work with, the craft they’re preserving, the mission that’s been sitting in my heart since that park bench in San Francisco. It was always enough to keep moving forward.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At its heart, Purple Nest Design is a luxury artisan textile brand, but that only tells part of the story. We specialize in handloomed alpaca throws sourced directly from artisan partners in Peru and Ecuador, people whose families have been practicing Andean weaving traditions for generations. Every piece we sell carries that lineage. It’s simply the truth of where these textiles come from and what makes them extraordinary.
What sets us apart is the directness of those relationships. I know my partners by name. I’ve visited many of their workshops and watched their hands work the loom. When you purchase a Purple Nest Design throw, you’re not buying something mass made or anonymous. You’re bringing home a piece made by a specific person, in a specific place, using techniques that deserve to be preserved. We pay fair prices and we provide advance payments so our partners have the financial stability to do their best work. We also donate three percent of profits back to weaving communities, because sustainability in this work means more than just beautiful product.
Our collections span a range of weights and fibers, from all natural undyed fibers like our Muru, Kulsi, and Wasi Collections. Many of our colorways use undyed fiber, which means the color you’re seeing is the actual color of the alpaca fur. For those who love color, we also have beautifully woven alpaca blend throws in gorgeous colors. Our Ecuadorian artisans use a specialized tool from plants, called a Tesal, to brush the textile fibers – creating a beautiful lustrous sheen unlike any other throw.
What I’m most proud of, brand-wise, is that we’ve built something that refuses to separate luxury from conscience. The throws are genuinely heirloom quality, the kind of thing you drape over a sofa and your grandchildren eventually argue over. But they also represent a way of doing business that I believe in completely: transparent, fair, rooted in relationships.
Purple Nest Design stands for preservation of a craft, the support of a community, and a different way of thinking about what luxury can mean.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
For nearly two decades, I traveled to at least one new country every year. My love of anthropology was really a love of curiosity, and it led me everywhere, sometimes with friends, sometimes entirely on my own. Each place I went, I found myself drawn to the art. Not the tourist shops, but the real thing – the textiles, the pottery, the stonework that told you something true about the people who made it.
My home reflects all of it. I have pieces gathered from all over the world, each one with a story attached to it. Long before Purple Nest Design existed, I was already doing instinctively what the brand would eventually be built on.
Pricing:
- Handloomed Undyed Alpaca & Peruvian Pima Cotton – $480 – Muru Collection
- Handloomed Undyed Alpaca & Peruvian Pima Cotton – $425 – Kulsi Collection
- Handloomed 100% Undyed Baby Alpaca – $355 – Wasi Collection
- Handwoven Alpaca Blend – $280 – Kallpa Collection
- Handloomed 100% Alpaca – $425 – Miksa Collection
Contact Info:
- Website: https://purplenestdesign.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purplenestdesign/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18guCKxHxy/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-tyrrell-0227421a
