I’m very pleased to have a new theme for my blog. I installed my last theme almost five years ago; in fact, this is only my third theme in eight years! If you look at my two previous themes I’m definitely getting lighter, not sure where I’ll go for the next one.

It took me a year to accept I needed a new theme, and to collect my thoughts on what I liked and didn’t like. I’d planned to use a designer to help me develop the look for my blog, but I found looking for and contacting designers very frustrating, so stopped that for now. As I didn’t have any branding elements in my old theme I had to create something myself. Fortunately, I had a starting point in the mood board and background document I’d created to send to designers which included colours and styles I liked.

About darktea

I’d already worked out my blog niche, including choosing six words that describe me. I also looked through the pictures on my mood board and summarised how I viewed the pictures.

6 words – Happy, helpful, planner, positive, colourful, bright
Mood board – Organic, clean lines with a bit of sparkle

Combining these, I decided I wanted something colourful, bright and simple, which worked well for me doing it myself.

The theme

I’ve been writing lists of things I like and don’t like about other blogs for the last year, and when I reviewed them I discovered that the method of reading blogs and my tastes have changed significantly since my previous theme. For example headers are cleaner now with less internal promotion, and posts are often listed with extracts (or even just titles) instead of the full post. I like the tradition of a blog being a reverse chronological list of posts so couldn’t move to the current style of having just a title and image, instead I’ve included a few extracts at the top with recent posts in the main categories highlighted below.

I’ve used the Genesis framework* with the Magazine Pro child theme as the basis for my theme. I’ve spent lots of time over the last few weeks working out how to make it look how I want and I’m particularly pleased I’m still able to edit code – just look at those personalised bullet points above :). And thanks to Genesis, I finally have a responsive theme.

I’m also taking this refresh to start an email newsletter so I can share my popular posts from this and other sites straight to your inbox. I’d love to share my highlights with you, so please sign up if you’re interested.

Future improvements

Using Genesis means it is going to be easier for me to change the layout in the future so I don’t think it will be another five years before I make a major change. Plus I’m still interested in working with a designer to develop a brand for my blog so the next significant change could be the look of the site.

I’d love to know your thoughts on my new theme, do you think it is an improvement? Do you have any suggestions for future changes? What would you like to change about your own blog? Have you worked with a designer, how did it work for you?

* Disclosure – this is an affiliate link meaning, but obviously I’m very pleased with Genesis and would recommend it

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Emma T

The theme looks great. Much cleaner with more white space at the top. Liking the new strapline. too.

JuggleMum, Nadine Hill

I love the new theme Kate, you’ve obviously put a lot of thought and work into creating something that you can adapt and build into your future needs too. I remember your old theme too – I feel like this one is cleaner and more professional looking – not to say it wasn’t professional before but it was a bit like a lot of other sites I have seen. What you have now is more individual and I like that. It was lovely to FINALLY meet you at BritMums Live after years of being virtually connected! I hope I’ll see… Read more »