If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile now, you’ve probably noticed that its been through a few changes. First, it moved from WordPress.com to self-hosted. Then I bought a new theme for it. And as of yesterday, it has another new design.
I know, most bloggers stick to one theme and run with it (branding 101). But to be honest, when I went self-hosted, I didn’t know what I wanted. So I bought a simple theme off of Etsy, installed it and attempted to figure everything out. The more I dove into it, the more I discovered that it wasn’t nearly as customizable as I wanted it to be.
Hence the new look. I’m much happier with the overall feel. I think it’s much cleaner and easier to navigate. It’s more appealing to the eye. And it’s much more me. That’s the most important part.
It will probably continue to be a work in progress, and that’s okay. I’m just happy that I found a theme that I enjoy.
Here are the elements that were most important when I was looking for a new theme.
Eryn's must-have elements for her blog theme! @erynecarter
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1. It needed to scream ‘ERYN’ : Essentially, it needed to have the right feel. The other one was nice, and it was pretty, but it wasn’t… me. I thought it was initially, but looking back, I realize it wasn’t. It was actually too plain (I never thought I would feel that way seeing how I like things clean and semi-plain). The new theme is simple, clean and pretty. It’s easy on the eye. It’s easy to find what you’re looking for. The colors aren’t 100% me, but that’s easy enough to tweak.
2. It needed to flow: My other theme felt jumbled together. I didn’t like the header, besides the splash of blue. I felt like everything was just thrown on there. This one feels like everything has its place and purpose.
3. It needed to be girly: Yep. This was a requirement. I love girly/vintage/chic/feminine things. I’m not a total girly-girl that’s life revolves around the latest fashion trends, but I am feminine and like pretty things. And my blog needs to represent that side of me. I like that this one is subtle, with the ribbon and the pretty script-text. It’s girly, without being over the top.
4. It needed to have some style: And I’m not talking about CSS style. I wanted it to look like a blog should look (or at least how I envision them in my mind). I didn’t want a theme that was just a big white background with some text and images… wait… I already had that. This has exactly what I was looking for.
5. It needed to be customizable: That was my complaint from day 1 with my theme from Etsy. I bought it knowing that I couldn’t do much with it. I knew I would be able to adjust fonts, and such, but that was it. I bought it because I wanted something unique. What I found instead was a headache. If any changes needed to be made to the actual style, I had to contact the designer and have them take care of it and resend me an entirely new download, or provide them with my log-in information and have them change it.
I know this is how they make their living, and I 100% support that. But when I went self-hosted, I wanted something that I could adjust on my own when I wanted.
Overall, my first look will always be near and dear to my heart. It was my first self-hosted theme after-all. But this new one, is much more me and much more what I was hoping for all along.
So I hope you like it as much as I do!
Question: What were the elements you had to have with your blog set-up?
