How to modify a WordPress Theme and to make it unique

By: Alexandru Vornicescu | March 24, 2009 | Customization, Tutorials | 23 Comments

I think that everybody who have a blog wants it to have unique design in the blogosphere, because unique style means superiority and it’s cool.

So there are some small tricks that you can apply on you blog to make it to look better then before.

In this article I will show you how to recreate an existing WordPress Theme and making in it a unique and powerful design just in easy steps.

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For example WPCrowd use a free Freemium Theme from freebiesdock.com, very well designed and I like it very much.

Now what step I used to transform a popular theme that uses a lot of people in a good looking and unique template:

1. Removed a sidebar because the theme is 3 column but we need 2 column theme.

removed-the-sidebar

In the index.php file of the theme I deleted the “<?php get_sidebar(); ?>” tag that represents the sidebar colored in red.

Moved the sidebar.php widgets to sidebar2.php.

And in the single.php removed the all <div id=”post_data”> tag.

2. Enlarged the post space in home page.

changed-size-in-the-post

In the style.css file I enlarged the size of the post from 348px to 608px for the home page.

3. Changed backgrounds color in the post and for the comments, text color changed to black, links from green to orange, editing only the style.css file and images that are used in menubar.

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4. Added a background image that combines very well in this theme.

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I hope you enjoyed this article and if you want you can post a comment about your thoughts and ideas.

23 Responses:

  1. Paul Kadysz 24 March 2009 at 9:03 pm #

    This is a really cool modification. I’m impressed. But I think it should still have a “based on FREEmium wordpress theme” note in the footer (;

  2. saurabh shah 25 March 2009 at 3:14 am #

    so simple… was looking for this … thnx for sharing ..

  3. professional web design 25 March 2009 at 4:47 am #

    Very simple and effective. Some times all we need is small tunings. Good post, Alex. Take care.

  4. T-Law 28 March 2009 at 6:17 pm #

    Simple and fast. Thanks

  5. Dennis 28 March 2009 at 9:35 pm #

    I am looking for a clean and ite magazine style theme for wordpress without too many function calls, any suggestions?. thanks in advance :)

  6. lawrence77 29 March 2009 at 9:48 am #

    thanks man, it helps my upcoming testing in wordpress in my home! :) :P

  7. hami 4 April 2009 at 1:06 pm #

    hey awesome, i do similar edits in my blog more often and I love it .. good to read :D

  8. Cristhian Bedon 9 April 2009 at 6:12 am #

    This is good, small changes can make big difference in looks.

  9. Hinh anh dep 9 April 2009 at 12:38 pm #

    Cool post, thank you:)

  10. Carlos Guevara 11 April 2009 at 12:46 pm #

    Thanks you help me very much customizing my recent theme

  11. cyberfly 22 April 2009 at 10:51 am #

    hi..how do you put the image caption like you use in your blog?edit using photoshop?

    and also how you modify the themes to display images in the left?

  12. Alex Vorn 22 April 2009 at 11:39 am #

    If do you mean the menu image then yes I used Photoshop to change the color.
    About left images - float:left; of the div.post div.headline in style.css file.

  13. cyberfly 22 April 2009 at 11:59 am #

    what i mean is the sentence “How to modify the wordpress theme and make it unique” in the image.how to do that?

    and thanks for the left images aligment ;)

  14. Alex Vorn 22 April 2009 at 12:44 pm #

    In Photoshop make a rectangle, fill with black color and use Horizontal type tool to insert what text you want…

  15. Matt 23 April 2009 at 11:04 am #

    Your version of this theme is awesome. Any chance you can release your version of this theme as a downloadable theme? I just can’t figure it out.

  16. cyberfly 27 April 2009 at 9:49 am #

    vote for matt :)

    or at least you can make this tutorial more details.anyway im having this http://cyberflyx.googlepages.com/problem.png problem when editing freemium themes.how to solve this?

  17. Alex Vorn 27 April 2009 at 12:23 pm #

    you need to change the background colors as I said in the article. edit the content_bg.png and the content_main_bg.png

  18. cyberfly 27 April 2009 at 8:17 pm #

    hi thanks for the tips.now the problem is gone :)
    but now when i open the single post, this problem happen.i already delete the get_sidebar() in single.php.hope u can help me :)

    http://cyberflyx.googlepages.com/problem2.png

  19. Ric 18 July 2009 at 2:46 pm #

    Hey,

    nice looking blog.

    I wonder if you would be able to give me some advice. I like to modify other people’s wordpress themes for my own use but could you tell me at what point does a theme become my own rather than the person’s who designed the original? How much do you have to modify a theme before you feel justified in taking out the person’s link out of the footer?

    Thanks
    Ric

  20. FtonDavid 24 July 2009 at 12:01 am #

    @ Dennis (March 28, 2009 at 9:35 pm)

    veryplaintxt 4.6.1 by Scott Allan Wallick (http://www.plaintxt.org/wp-content/uploads/veryplaintxt_01.png) should fit the bill nicely.

  21. Andrew 2 October 2009 at 10:03 pm #

    I’m stuck at how to change the color of what used to be the 2nd column. Could someone help me out with that part?

  22. Alexandru Vornicescu 3 October 2009 at 9:01 pm #

    @andrew – you must to change the background image….
    look at the 3rd point of the article!

  23. poorblogger 24 November 2009 at 7:20 am #

    Cool tutorial for newbie..


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