How to Create a Custom WordPress Theme

March 26. 2021

What if we told you that to create a custom WordPress theme, all you need is an hour or two of spare time? That’s right, no coding knowledge is necessary anymore to create a beautiful theme that will suit your preferences. In the past, you had to either hire professional WordPress support or at least have some knowledge of coding. Luckily, times and technology have changed and, today, all you need is one very useful plugin – Beaver Builder. This page builder has an add-on called Beaver Themer that targets, you guessed it, custom-made themes. Let’s take a look at how you too can use Beaver Themer to create an appealing layout everyone will love.

Before you create a custom WordPress theme, you need to install the plugin

The first thing you need to remember is that Beaver Themer is an additional plugin and does not automatically appear once you install Beaver Builder. You will need to install and activate both plugins before you can start your work. Don’t underestimate this part of the job – it’s an important one!

Choosing a theme to work with

The end goal is for you to end up with a theme that will be completely unique for your website, but that doesn’t mean you can create one from scratch. Well, you can, but that involves plenty of knowledge and skill. Don’t worry, though – WordPress has plenty of templates that can serve as a great starting point, after which it will be easy to customize and upgrade. If you are currently glaring at all the choices you have, it might be good to know our top picks:

• Astra
• Underscores
• StudioPress themes

A lot of WordPress themes come with built-in support for Beaver Builder, so creating your custom WordPress theme should be a piece of cake. Oh yes, and did we mention that everything is done by using a drag and drop interface? Well, now you know!

What’s important to note is that you have to make sure that the Beaver Themer has access to the full body of the page, from one edge to another. Unfortunately, some layouts include sidebars which make it difficult to build a custom theme with Beaver Themer. But there is a solution to the problem! Head over to Appearance – Customize – Layout – Sidebars and simply choose the ‘No Sidebar’ option. Problem solved!

Building custom theme elements

By focusing on the most popular custom theme elements, you’ll efficiently achieve your goal. The elements you need to focus on include header, footer, the content area for posts and pages, and archive layouts for your custom theme. So, let’s get right on it!

Creating a custom header

Once you have the finishing product at hands, you will be able to change the color, background, and even add columns and rows by using the drag and drop feature. But how do you get to the finishing product? Start by clicking on Beaver Builder – Add New page to provide a title for your header. We sure hope you have a good one in mind.

Once you are done with this, you should select ‘Themer Layout’ as the type and ‘Header’ as the layout option and then click on the ‘Add Themer Layout’ button which will bring you to the layout settings page. Sounds complicated, but you’ll easily get the hang of it. Now feel free to choose the ‘Entire Site’ as the location where the header will be shown and voila – you get a basic header to work with. And now the advanced settings we mentioned at the beginning come into play.

Creating a custom footer

The starting process is very much the same as building a custom footer. Start by clicking on Beaver Builder – Add New page, provide the footer title, and select ‘Themer Layout’ as the type and ‘Footer’ as the layout option. By clicking ‘Add Themer Layout’ you will continue on to the next page, which is the layout settings page. Select the ‘Entire Site’ option and then ‘Launch Beaver Builder.’ This layout will be your starting point, after which you can add modules, change color, text, and customize the footer.

Creating a content area for posts and pages

By now, you were probably able to conclude that Beaver Builder works pretty much guided by a set of patterns. And the starting process is somewhat the same as the one when you were building header and footer, with the difference that now you are creating the body of the whole website. And this is the process that inevitably precedes the one of creating converting landing pages – you first need to tackle the design. You can choose a layout that will work for only your posts, only your pages, or both posts and pages. Then you should ‘Launch Beaver Builder’ to open the interface where you will see a sample of the layout, with the option of clicking and editing any of the components of the page.

Archiving layouts

By now, your custom theme is already starting to get its look, and you are nearing the finish line. And if you have never heard about archive pages, these are the pages that display your categories and tags. In a word, they matter. Once again, you can create separate layouts for categories, tags, and monthly archives. As soon as you embark on the now already well-known process, which starts with you clicking on Beaver Builder – Add New page, you’ll intuitively know what needs to be done. Once you are done editing and are satisfied with the finishing product, don’t forget to click ‘Done.‘

When you create a custom WordPress theme, you are doing much more than making an appealing design

You are also improving the functionality of your website, as well as attracting new visitors/customers. As you know, looks sell. And once you create a custom WordPress theme, you get to continue on to developing and improving your site even further. From making your WordPress website mobile friendly to creating an online store, the options are endless.