02 Start here
Install and publish
Add Curio to your store, set the six things that matter, and publish with confidence.
Add the theme#
If you bought Curio from the Shopify Theme Store it is already in your theme library. Go to Online Store → Themes and you will find it under Theme library.
If you were sent a .zip file, go to Online Store → Themes → Add theme → Upload zip file
and choose it. Upload the zip exactly as you received it — do not unzip and re-zip it, as
that adds a wrapper folder Shopify will reject.
Curio lands unpublished. Your live storefront does not change until you publish it, so you can take as long as you like over the next steps. Use Actions → Preview at any point to see the work in progress on your real products.
The first fifteen minutes#
Open Customize on the Curio theme and work down this list. Everything here is in the theme editor, and everything is reversible.
- Logo and favicon. Theme settings → Logo. A transparent PNG or SVG works best. Logo width is capped at 250px on purpose — Curio’s masthead is a nameplate, not a banner. The favicon should be a 32×32 PNG.
- Color scheme. Theme settings → Colors. Five schemes ship configured. Scheme 1 (Manila, a warm paper tone) is the default. Every section has its own Color scheme setting, so you can change a scheme’s colors here and re-point individual sections there.
- Menus. Curio’s header reads your Shopify menus, so build them first in Content → Menus. A menu item with children becomes a dropdown; add a third level and it becomes a full-width mega menu. Then set the menu in Header → Menu.
- Home page. Sections tab. See building your home page for the arrangement that works, and which sections need data before they will show anything.
- Cart style. Theme settings → Cart. Drawer (the default) or a cart page. The drawer is styled as a receipt; the page is the same treatment, full width.
- Footer. Footer section. Add menu, text, and newsletter blocks; switch payment icons, social icons, and the country and language selectors on or off.
Then set up the Curio metafields. That is the step that turns a tidy store into a resale store, and it is the one thing you cannot do from the theme editor.
Publish#
Online Store → Themes → Actions → Publish on the Curio theme.
Before you do, five minutes of checking saves an awkward hour:
| Check | How |
|---|---|
| The home page holds up on a phone | Use the mobile view in the theme editor toolbar |
| A product page is complete | Open a real product in the preview, not a placeholder |
| The cart works end to end | Add something, open the cart, start checkout |
| Search returns results | Search a word you know is in a product title |
| Menus go where they should | Click every top-level item |
| Nothing says “Add a label” | Placeholder text left in a section is the most common launch slip |
Keeping your settings when you update#
Theme settings live with the theme, not with the store, so a new version of Curio starts fresh. The reliable way to take an update:
- Add the new version alongside your current one — never publish straight over your live theme.
- Copy your settings across. For most stores that means re-doing Theme settings (fifteen minutes) and rebuilding the home page from your existing one, side by side in two browser tabs.
- Preview, then publish. Keep the old version in your library for a week in case you spot something.
Metafields are store data, not theme data, so they carry over untouched. So do your products, menus, and pages.
If you edited the code. Any change you made to Curio’s files is replaced by an update. Note your changes before you start, or keep them in a separate copy of the theme. Support can help you tell theme behaviour from a local edit — see support.
Working on the theme locally#
You do not need this to run a store, but if you or a developer want to edit the code, install the Shopify CLI and run:
shopify theme dev --store your-store.myshopify.comThat serves the theme from your machine against real store data, with hot reload. Before you push anything back:
shopify theme check