3 Lessons Learned from Switching Blog Themes (Top 10 Gorgeous WP Themes)

 

Hi everyone! Reverie Society, previously ‘A Writer’s Tales’ has had a long history of design changes. Truly, I’ve tried so, so many things. Different colors, different layouts… And, even different themes.

When I first started I operated with the Sugar and Spice theme, a free theme from the WordPress library. Yeah, I really dug the sweetness. But not soon after, I discovered Nosegraze and her amazing work as designer and developer for book bloggers. Her themes are so gorgeous and I made it my life goal to convince my dad to allow me to buy one of those.

Eventually, I did! Yay!

This is theme I’m currently using.

I have used others, but free ones for a day or two. The only other theme that I purchased was Juliette. Juliette was the epitome of everything I was looking for at the time. It looks beautiful, professional, and it has that menu with the logo thing that I’d been dying to implement in my blog, but couldn’t code it myself. (I still sigh when I see it. It’s so pretty!)

Now, I want to share a few lessons I learned from having done this shift.

 

Customization > Prettiness

This is something I learned very, very soon in my blogging journey. Because, you know, Sugar and Spice is very pretty. But the problem, the reason why I eventually shifted to Tweak Me was because with Sugar and Spice, there was only so much I could change. Well, wordpress allows you to do essentially anything, but let’s be honest. Most of us aren’t code-savvy. We want our themes to either be exactly what we’re looking for, or to have the options that will let us customize it to be exactly what we’re looking for. That was what Tweak Me was for me. The option to change a lot of stuff without having to mess with code.

 

Except when looking for something specific

So, you may be asking, if you loved customization so much, why would you go with Juliette? Because I was looking for something specific. I tried, believe me. I tried to find a way to code the logo in the center of the menu thingy but it just didn’t work. So I decided to invest in a new theme that would just give me what I wanted.

Because of that, of course that specific features might win over customization. It really depends on which you want most. Ideally, a theme should have both, but well, you can’t have it all. Or, rather, you can but you would have to pay more money for it, and we’re talking about a college student so… trying to cut back the expenses and go as DIY as possible!

 

Themes with lots of features (shortcodes) are not always the best

Tweak Me used to have a lot of these, but then Ashley did a major rehaul of the theme, apologizing for the incoveniences. She explained that themes weren’t supposed to be about functionality (this is the role of plugins), but only about design. I understood, but I don’t think it really sank until I experienced it myself. Juliette is gorgeous, like I said. But it has this problem… It has a lot of shortcodes. I had been warned so I was very careful of where I used them. Only in the homepage, where I could keep track of where they were.

When I decided to switch back to Tweak Me, it was easy for me to make the change. But imagine if I had used the fancy shortcodes in a shit load of posts. They would look like [shortcode][/shortcode] everywhere! I would have had to manually go over every post and delete them.

So tread carefully there. With Juliette, I had sworn I would to stick with that theme, and that it wouldn’t be a problem, but I did switch again, so you never know. Always be prepared for change!

 

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10 Beautiful WordPress Themes

My theme-hunting journey has brought me to discover so many amazing ones! And if you are currently or ever in the mood for a makeover for your dear blog, then here are a couple you should definitely check out (in no particular order)!

[alert type=”info” close=”false”]These are all for self-hosted WordPress websites, so if your blog ends in wordpress.com, or is using the blogger platform, they won’t work for your blog 🙁 However, keep this handy if you ever want to self-host :)[/alert]

 

Less than $60

1. Chanel – 17th Avenue Designs ($49)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://17thavenuedesigns.com/shop/chanel-wordpress-theme/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

2. Fiona -The Lovely Design ($39)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://creativemarket.com/lovelydesignco/1834139-Fiona-Responsive-WordPress-Theme” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

3. Marion -Lovely Confetti ($55)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://creativemarket.com/crisa28/116849-Ecommerce-feminine-genesis-theme-Mar” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

4. Ingrid -Nosegraze (FREE)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://shop.nosegraze.com/product/ingrid-theme/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

5. Mary Kate -Angie Makes (FREE)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://angiemakes.com/free-feminine-wordpress-theme-mary-kate/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

6. Enamored -Beautiful Dawn Designs ($45)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://creativemarket.com/beautifuldawndesigns/279935-Enamored-Feminine-WordPress-Theme” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

6. Serenity -Beautiful Dawn Designs ($55)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://beautifuldawndesigns.net/product/serenity-theme/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

Over $60

7. Marilyn -Bluchic ($79)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://www.bluchic.com/shop/wordpress-themes/marilyn-theme/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

8. Hello Foxy -Hello You Designs ($65)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://helloyoudesigns.com/shop/hello-foxy-theme/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

9. Noah -Nosegraze ($69)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://shop.nosegraze.com/product/noah-theme/?ref=316″ text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

10. Gentry -Angie Makes ($70)

 

[button size=”” color=”primary” url=”https://angiemakes.com/shop/gentry-feminine-wordpress-theme/” text=”Take me to the theme”]

 

 

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