WordPress 101: Installing WordPress Child Theme

Using a WordPress Child Theme is the best way to customize your WordPress site. Once started using child theme, I never look back. I use it on all of my projects. In this article, I’m going to show you how to install a child theme.

Here’s an explanation about the child theme from the WordPress Codex - Child Themes:

A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called the parent theme, and allows you to modify, or add to, the functionality of that parent theme. This article shows how to create a basic child theme and explains what you can do with it.

There are two main reasons why I always us a child theme:

1. Safety - I never need to hack the core or parent theme. Need to customize the font size, font color, add some border etc? So child theme is the best way.

2. Flexibility - All customization made will not be overwritten when I update the parent theme. I believe parent theme should be update regularly to fix or update some bugs, security, deprecated functions or compatibility with latest version of WordPress.

Here’s Stretch, one of my favorite Genesis Child Themes.

Installing a WordPres Child Theme

1. Upload and install the parent theme - For example, Genesis Framework is the parent theme.

2. Don’t activate the parent theme, yet.

3. Upload the child theme.

4. Activate the child theme.

That’s how easy it is to use a child theme in your WordPress site. Since this tutorial is focused for beginners, I’m not going into details on how to develop your own child theme. If you’re using Genesis Framework like me, previously I’ve shared a list of 5 Genesis Starter Themes to start developing your own custom child theme. Be sure to check that out.