I’ve finally finished the redesign of Making it Lovely!
Well, that’s not entirely true. There are a million and one little tweaks and additions that I’d still like to make, but the changes are ones that don’t impact the overall look and function, so I can add them in over the next few days/weeks.
I do all of my own designing and coding (I used to offer web design as Smart & Lovely), and this time around I built these themes off of Standard Theme for WordPress. It’s been been great to work with. I made a lot of changes visually, and a few changes to the core PHP files, but for the most part it gave me the structure I needed. And as for the pretty? I have Moglea to thank for the custom floral illustrations in the header, and I used a couple of elements from Pugly Pixel as well (the glitter and the honeycomb). The background floral pattern is a licensed image, and the logo and all the rest were done by yours truly.
Hold up, did I say themes in that previous paragraph? Plural? Yep. Remember the whole minimal vs. maximal debate I’d been having in regard to the new design? Jessica left a comment suggesting both with a theme switcher, and that was a genius idea. I’d forgotten that was even a possibility! So the default is the “Lovely” theme, full of pattern, but if it’s a bit much (and it may be), you could choose the “Minimal” theme instead. You can switch between the two themes at the top right, next to the social media links. Everyone wins! *
* Well, everyone will win. Eventually. It’s a bit buggy right now (I’m working on it), but you should be able to switch between the two themes with a hard refresh.
So what’s still to come? More organization of categories on the backend, making the design responsive (resizing to fit smaller screens for the 7% of you that need to scroll left to right a little on the site as it is now), more post layouts for different types of content, fine tuning the sidebar, perhaps adding to the footer, some changes to the social sharing options, and on and on. Good stuff, but not essential to launching. And I’ve been dying to launch, so it feels good to push on ahead, right on schedule.
And now, onward! Onward with bigger pictures, interesting new layouts, and different post formats. Onward with a select few new contributors (soon)! Onward with more content, and more awesomeness. And thank you for your patience as I’ve devoted myself to all of this design work lately. Hopefully you’ll love the new look and everything to come as much as I do.
78 comments
Leslie
Congratulations! Love seeing your new logotype up top! Looks good. I’m gonna stick with the maximal. That’s how I roll too.
Sarah van Loon
It looks incredible! What a beautiful space to come and visit. Thank you for putting all the hard work and energy into it! I’d love to learn more about how you learned about coding, etc, and if you took classes or taught yourself, or have and tips for people who want to customize their site more (I know that’s not exactly what you blog about, but your site is so gorgeous, I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering how you do it! :) ).
jessica
Hooray! Love it, so happy my suggestion worked out. I love the maximal, it’s so you!
kelle
Nicole, I simply love your blog redesign. It’s so very pretty.
Mary S
Hmmm, I am on google Chrome and the the theme change does not work for me – it’s maximal regardless of what I choose.
Also, since I’m providing feed back, the pink color you’ve chosen for some of the headers -the ‘Leave a Reply’ above is one example – is so faint it’s barely visible.
I just checked on Firefox and the the theme change works there, but the colors of the header are just slightly better.
That said, I like the design change!
Lynette@Dustwithflour
Gorgeous. I love, love, love the background. The colors are nice as well.
Tory
I originally voted for minimal but I was so wrong. I’m totally in love with the maximal version. That’s going to be my default!
April
LOVE IT!!!!
Sasha
Lovely indeed! You did an awesome job!
Sprout
Oddly I can only get the theme button to work when I am in comments…
katrina
OMG. your blog is LOVELY and the max/minimal options are perfect!!
TieDye64
You’re so clever! This is really fabulous. Adore the header and the honeycombs. Honeycomb circles for the little comments icons is really cute, too.
Heather
Congrats, Nicole! Love the two options! I’m in the middle of my own site re-design, yours is giving me even more ideas! :)
Josephine
So fresh, it’s a pleasure to read! Well done you! Also, snaps for allowing a choice in theme ;-)
Naomi A.
Holy wow, this is absolutely gorgeous!! You KNOW I’m gonna have to click through every time now!
kate
I simply love the design/s. Well done!
Jeannie
This whole blog redesign is just absolutely wonderful and well lovely! The floral illustration is so striking and modern. Just love it all. Oh I accidentally highlighted a word and I was so excited to see pink! Such a cool detail and when you take in everything together it is the perfect bit of color.
Jenna
Oh, yes, Nicole, it’ is LOVELY!
Holly
I think it is lovely! I love the floral illustration and the licensed floral on the sides. Very pretty! Excited to see the other updates that you have in store.
Erin | Holtwood Hipster
It’s kick ass Nicole. Love that the reader can customize the view based on their preference. I’m a minimal girl myself, but the lovely pattern is just that. Well done!
Dora
As a fellow web designer (and one the 7% who has looked at the site on a small screen device), I’m super psyched that you’re thinking about making your site responsive. I hope it turns out to be a fun project. Best of luck!
I’m a fan of the new design too!
Krissy
Rock on, Nicole! The new design brought to life looks FANTASTIC.
Ashley
Hi Nicole,
Will there ever be an option to go back to the old theme? The new design is very pretty, but I do prefer the old one quite a bit.
Making it Lovely
Sorry, onward and upward. The old theme won’t support the new photo sizes and layouts I have planned.
kelly
Congrats Nicole! I’m sure this was no small feat!
Andrea Howe
absolutely amazing Nicole. So fancy yet still so whimsical and pretty. I recognized the glitter header right away from PP. Bravo lady!
bink & boo
Oh my gosh Nicole, you make everything lovely. Actually you made this beautiful! I am luuuuving the flowers at the top with your name all glittery. You are so talented.
katie
the theme switching is a cool trick!
one thing i noticed, though, is that the page had to have a forced refresh (ctr-r) after changing the theme selection before it went into effect — just clicking on it didn’t get the job done.
ol
The new site is fantastic. But I vote for a different photo of you. You have a great face, but this particular angle does not do it justice. Just my two cents.
Katie
Pretty! I like the maximal. The minimal feels barren after viewing lovely.
Rebecca @ beautiful square feet
It looks brilliant Nicole – really looking forward to your new features! Well done!
Kristin
redesign looks really fab!! – go take a break and play with those kids :) You really do deserve a break after the past few years!~!
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com
Love the new site redesign — amazing!!!
Emily @ Peck Life
Congrats on all your hard work, this looks AMAZING! :)
colleen
Definitely loving the minimal look! Congrats!
Jen @ Rambling Renovators
Love it Nicole! It feels so fresh and new but consistent with your brand. And the font for comments is so cute!! Well done!
stef
Love it, especially the new header and background flowers.
I’m excited to check out the Standard Theme, too. I’m in the process of customizing an existing WordPress theme and it’s just not as flexible as I’d like.
Molly the Waffler
I especially like the 5 categories you chose to highlight (My home, Projects, etc.). I can’t remember if these were the same ones you used to have, but it now looks so clean and uncluttered that my eye is drawn to them and I know I’ll check them out more frequently.
Making it Lovely
I had about 13,000 categories before. I still have some organization to do in that regard, but narrowing them down to a main five is a good thing, I think!
christel
Very nice, congratulations!
Jill V / TerraSavvy
You are AMAZING!
I am partial to honeycomb myself for personal reasons and I love love love the choice of two themes!!
You’re one cool chick!
xo
Jill
Kylie @ All Things Lovely
Freaking love it!!! I love the maximal theme, so lovely and gorgeous.
arin
I really, really love the new design. I am viewing it in the “lovely” version and it is so pretty and easy to read and navigate. It may be maximal, but it certainly isn’t cluttered.
Jo-Anna
It looks positively gorgeous over here!! LOVE it all!
Jo-Anna
Loren
Really nice job, the new header is lovely!
christine // darling studio
I especially love the bling in your logo! So fun. xo
Cindy Miller, Bliss Designs
Love your site! How do you make the pinned board with all the photos? Love this
lea
Now that I have experienced the minimal and lovely design I have to say I’m over the moon for lovely!
Kelly
Amazing is all that needs to be said!
Mona
This looks fabulous! I look forward to reading all of your inspiring blogs!
Heather
Amazing job Nicole! It looks so pretty. I love it!
Rachel
It looks gorgeous! Love the details, colors and of course the glitter! :)
Erin
It’s beautiful! This is the only site re-design I’ve seen in the past year or so that I actually really, really liked.
I’m in firefox, though, and though I’m clicking to see the other site design, nothing changes. It defaulted to minimal for me…I can’t see the “lovely”.
Making it Lovely
Thanks!
Firefox has been buggy for me too. It’s a tricky problem, but I’m working on it.
Erin
Works now! :) Love it! :D
Caroline
I thought it was lovely before and even better now. Can’t wait for more new loveliness to enjoy.
Juliette
ooooh…the bar has been reset. I love this! The toggle feature is above and beyond, wow. And you have pink highlighting like Jules -LOVE that!
Totally worth the time and effort! Great job!
Making it Lovely
There are lots of little touches like that! They aren’t all evident right away, but they make me happy.
Desiree
I love the redesign! It looks great! Such a cute a design and so whimsical! Adore!
heather s.
Love it! The minimal theme was the default for me when I came to the page (which is what I prefer) but leaving a comment was a little confusing since I didn’t see the boxes to enter your info. I just clicked around until I was able to type. :)
Making it Lovely
Ah, the comment boxes are a little faint. I’ll be tweaking a lot of things like that over the next few days.
Jill Browning
I LOVE the lovely version!!! The flower-patterned background really seals the deal for me.
(I’m a little sad to hear that you’re taking on contributors. I know you’re a very busy lady, but I enjoy your voice the best!)
Great work :)
Jill
Making it Lovely
Reserve judgement until you see the contributors. I’m incredibly excited about having them on board!
Jill Browning
You’re the boss! I’m sure I will love it.
PS. The new fonts are very nice. ;)
Anouk
I love it !
Amelia @ House Pretty
I love the new site design – you are so talented!!
Amy Awesome
Beautiful!
Lauren@BaylorSays...
I’m speechless that you did this yourself. One talented lady…looks FAB.
Lauren
Looks great! I personally like the Lovely theme. Thanks for including both flavors!
agnes miles
looks GREAT! love the new themes! xxoo
Amanda @ willful/joyful
I love the idea of multiple themes, but if I HAD to choose I’d go for the Lovely design. It’s just so darn lovely :)
Dana
Nicole, you made it lovely! ;)
srrraah
LOVE love love the new themes. great job nicole!
jodi
looks great nicole! LOVE the new header.
Lindsey @ arkadian belle woods
It looks gorgeous! I love the new design! Great job Nicole!
Jenny at Spry On The Wall
It looks beautiful!
Comments are closed.