One problem with using a WordPress theme is your website will look similar to other websites using the same theme. The answer…? Customize! That’s what Tom from Sundance Cabin Rentals did. He wanted a banner with his logo, phone number, and some background scenery. He said he was going to stay with the Rustic theme (it does have a log cabin look!), so we chose to customize the whole header instead. I made four banner styles (winter, spring, summer, fall) , and four radio buttons to change them whenever he likes. Now Sundance Cabin Rentals has it’s own unique design that sets it apart from other websites that use the Rustic theme. Plus it makes the whole website look more professional and custom made!
I love WordPress and the things you can do with it, but I don’t want my blog to look like a blog. You know what I mean, most blogs look the same. I have looked for years for something that would give my visitors an unique look and feel when they visited my website. The minimalist look was not working for me.
I stumbled across Patrick’s Rustic Theme, downloaded it immediately and started reading everything on Patrick’s website and followed all of his links in his blog, trying to decide if it was really the one for me. This theme is so awesome and flexible, but I thought it needed more. I wanted a banner to be the first thing visitors see, and I wanted them to scroll down and look for more. I realized that what I wanted was way beyond my abilities to create and integrate, so I reached out to Patrick to see what we could do. He created a beautiful theme, and he knew it intimately. I am thankful that he was willing to take on my project. The banners he created are perfect, they fit seamlessly with the Rustic Theme and also with the purpose of my website.
I realize that Patrick with his theme and banners has raised my website to a new level, and that other things which were “fine”before will need to step up now. Yes Patrick, I am going to need your assistance with a ‘few other things’. If you have a vision about how you want your blog to be, talk with Patrick, he is truly a master and an artist. Thank you for all of your help!
Hey Patrick working on a wordpress site with your theme but for some reason or another the portfolio items are not working. It just links to a static image on the site. Is there a screencast i can watch? Tried following the text tutorial but it is not working.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Stephen Johnson
Sounds like a problem with the “media link”. If you send me a link to the portfolio page I’ll take a look at it for you. Sorry, I haven’t made any screen casts. It’s a good suggestion though.
I too am having this problem. There is nowhere in the Menu items on the left to select a “Portfolio”. I so want an easy way to set up gallery like items. I had hoped this was it. Please help!
Hi Marietta. Have you made a Portfolio? It’s like a Category, only for portfolio items instead of posts. Look for the +Add New Portfolio link on Portfolio Items->Add New page. After you make a Portfolio, it will appear on the Appearance->Menus page. Then you can add it to your menu.
Hi Patrick, first of all I’d like to thank you very much for the theme you created and shared, perfectly fits the style of my old and beloved website! That’s really well done!
I personalized it quite a lot…and there are some more details I’d like to change but I can’t find out how I can do it!
Here is the temporary link to my website: patotype.xoom.it/wordpress
(sometimes database goes down end it gives back an error advice… In case it’ll happen, you need to wait and try later… I’m gonna move it as soon as possibile on a safer and more efficient host)
Anyway, here is my changes-wish-list:
PORTFOLIO:
• is it possible to group all the portfolio items in the same preview page? I mean, letting the page get longer when adding new items as it works for articles?
• if not, is it possible to make pages number more evident? As a matter of fact, some people told me they didn’t notice that there were more than one portfolio pages.
• is it possible to change portfolio items order?
• may I remove the frame of the featured images?
• what do you think about linking images in the gallery directly to the item description page?
MENU
• I saw in another customized version of rustic theme a top menu with a scroll sub menu – I guess it would be great for me to have porfolio submenus… I mean it would be useful if visitors could choose if browse just a category, ex. lamps, or all my items… What do you think?
• is there a way of visualize the portfolio menu button even in the right side menu?
OTHER:
• How can I customize title font dimensions? I’m in need to change it mostly in portfolio items (as you can see for ex. for the submerged crocodile… title is really too long in the preview portfolio page… don’t you think?)
Sorry for my english, I hope I made myself clear anyway…
Thanks a lot in advance
Patrizia
Hello Patrizia. Here are some tips that I hope will help you.
1. It’s best not to have one long portfolio page because it can take a very long time to load. Nine items per page (like you have it now) is good.
2. Add this code to the bottom of style.css to make the pagination more prominent:
.pagination {font-size:16px;
line-height:16px;
padding-top:0;
}
.pagination .inactive {
background-color:#ff0000;
}
3. Here’s how to find a plugin to sort portfolio items:
http://bannerfish.biz/rustic-wordpress-theme-2-1-x/comment-page-1/#comment-934
4. Add this code to the bottom of style.css to take away the white frames from portfolio thumbnails:
.no-wood-frame .portfolio-thumbnail img {padding:0;
}
5. To make portfolio thumbnails link to portfolio page instead of opening in prettyphoto:
open taxonomy.php
find:
<a href="<?php echo $prettyphoto_link; ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="portfolio-thumbnail" rel="prettyPhoto[gallery]" ><?php the_post_thumbnail('blog-200'); ?>
</a>
and replace with:
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" ><?php the_post_thumbnail('blog-200'); ?>
</a>
6. To make portfolio sub-menu, simply create another portfolio, assign portfolio items to it, and add it to your menu from appearances->menus. Move it to the right until it stays indented. Now it will appear as a sub-menu item.
7. Add this code to the bottom of style.css to make titles under portfolio thumnails smaller:
.one-third h4 {font-size:14px;
line-height:1.2em;
}
This should get you started. Let me know how it goes.
Great Patrick! It works marvellously!
Many thanks for all you’re doing for all of us!
Pat
Hi Patrick
My first attempt to create a wordpress site and I’m using your theme. Super easy to work with however, I am not familiar with code and was having some trouble making the portfolio feature work so I am using the simple-portfolio plug in. Apparently it’s my lack of coding ability because that doesn’t work either. I contacted the programmer and he was quick to respond with the solution. But i’m still stuck because I don’t know exactly where the code should go.
He said that the data was not being retrieved and I should insert the following, but he didnt’ say exactly where
Media
I would certainly appreciate any help you could offer.
Thanks so much for your time!
Kelli
Hi Kelly. I’m not sure what’s happening with that plugin, but the Rustic portfolio might be better. It’s perfect for your website because it makes an art gallery style portfolio, and your slogan is “We turn wood into art”. Have a look at this comment and follow the instructions closely. I will help you get it working if you have any questions. Good Luck!
Thanks for the quick reply Patrick.
I’ll try the rustic portfolio again….and pay closer attention to set up this time. Thanks so much and I’ll be sure to contact you if I’m still having trouble.
Best!
Hi Patrick.. I am a WP newby.. my first day with it. Loved your rustic theme and have it up and running. I added a slider and logo etc.. all easy enough but I just noticed after I added the new menu to include the Portfolio the search box on all pages doesn’t work ? any ideas? ideally I would like to remove it and maybe just use a widget on one of the pages.
Any help appreciated…
Many thanks
Don
PS its not finished yet ! May 2012
Hi Don. Those rabbits are AMAZING! The search worked fine for me: typed in “don” and lots of posts were returned in search results. Is it the lack of a hover effect (hand, color change etc.) when you hover over “Search”? If so, I can help you fix it. You’ll notice that when you click “Search” it works. The search box is built into the graphic, so it can’t be removed. Let me know if you have any more questions.
aha thanks for replying.. It is back working this morning. What appears to happen is if you click search with nothing in the box it takes you off somewhere and then the box wont work from that poing.. weird !
not to worry.. the site looks great with your theme ! thank you !
I am new to this DIY blog design. How do you remove the bullets and indents on the links (widgets) from the rustic theme?
Hi Casey. Open style.css and put this code in the bottom of the page.
#main .widget-area ul ul {margin-left:0;
list-style: none;
}
You might have to refresh the page a few times before you see the difference. Good Luck!
Thank you friend that fixed it up!
Hi Patrick,
I’m using your Rustic theme.
Love the way it looks for coloured pictures which is what i need.
The question i have is; Is it possible to remove the “paper/lines”?
Hi Donna. I made some background images with most of the lines removed. It wasn’t possible to get them all, but it looks a lot cleaner. Delete the images folder (inside Rustic folder) and replace it with this new images folder. Here’s the link.
Hey Patrick, thanks for that. I’m not mega savvy when it comes to the guts of these sites/themes. Do you mean the folders that i access through dashboard/editor, the ones on the right side column?
Sorry should have been a bit clearer in my first comment. Can you remove the white sheet of paper and leave the old paper look thats behind it.
So it looks like what you see in the header part of the theme.
Hi Donna. Just had a look at that possibility, but it looks really bad and would break the theme. The text becomes unreadable, which is why I used a lighter paper for the content area when I designed Rustic. Plus the hidden paper underneath doesn’t look nice like the header.
Hi Again. I made a new version of Rustic with the ‘no lines’ images included. Here’s how to do the update. First change to some other theme besides Rustic. Then delete Rustic theme. From Appearance->Themes each theme has a delete link. Then go to Appearance->Themes->Install Themes to upload the zip I made for you. Then activate Rustic and your done! Refresh your browser a few time to see the changes. Good luck!
Here’s the link.
Hey Patrick, Thanks so much for that…Another question if i may.
If we cant remove the white paper look can i change the colour of it to…#cococo…if so what part of the code do i change to do that.
Thanks again.
Hi Donna. You can’t change the color with code because it’s in the graphics, so I changed the color to #c0c0c0 for you by making new images. Update the theme again like you did before. Let me know how it goes. Here’s the link.
Hi Patrick
After tinkering around with several themes, I’ve finally stumbled upon your theme and for the first time, I had this feeling: “okay this is just what I’ve been looking for all the time”.
But I’ve only got one question, could it be possible to have a bigger background version of the “wood_bg.jpg”. In the latest version it has a resolution of 902×321, but with a screen resolution of 1920×1080, the image doesn’t cover the screen completely and repeats it self, and as the image goes from dark to light (from left to right), the image repeats itself without a natural flow. Is it possible to fix this somehow? It would make the almost perfect looking theme, look completely perfect.
your sincerely,
Soundtrack Junkie
Hi Soundtrack Junkie. I like your music, and those Soundcloud players are great. Here’s a new version of the “wood_bg.jpg” for you. It’s 960px wide, so it will fill a 1920px wide screen with no seams. It goes in skins->cream->final->images folder. Here’s the link.
Wow Patrick,
I uploaded it straight away, and it looks fantastic, it now looks totally awesome! The finishing touch for the perfect theme.
Many, many big thanks.
your sincerely,
Soundtrack Junkie
Hey Patrick, just popped back to say Thank You. I couldn’t get it to install via wordpress install so a friend did it through cPanel. Never mind though it’s up and it looks great. A few more tweeks and its good to go…Thanks Muchly, stop by anytime.
Thanks Donna. Happy to help.
Hey Patrick….you thought I was gone..lol…I’m back.
A couple of Q’s if I may.
Q 1; My “Home” page picture; I wanted to get it to sit the full width of the (white/cococo) paper but it didn’t want to do it. I kept increasing the size from 700 to 900 yet it still stays the same as the very first pic I added. SO, I deleted and went to photoshop, made it 900x 3..that way i could just add it without editing and to see if that would actually increase the size of the pic. Nothing, it seems to be stuck to the one size. I figured 900 width should have taken it over the sides?
Q 2; Poetry page; I made a table with 3 cells and 2 rows, 1 for pics and text. For the life of me I cant get that table to go smaller. I cant get the pic’s closer so they fit on that paper.
Is there something in the theme coding that is doing this OR is it just me with the wrong code OR omitted code? I’ve tried changing the code a bit, I see it change in editor/visual but when I look at the page itself it hasn’t moved. Almost the same as the home page but 1 I’m wanting to increase and the other decrease.
That’s OK. Your questions keep me sharp! Drop this bit of code in the very bottom of style.css:
.page-template-onecolumn-page-php #content img {max-width: 880px;
}
That should allow the image to stretch out.
This next bit of code will fix your Poetry page:
#content img.wp-image-119, #content img.wp-image-112, #content img.wp-image-109 {margin-right:0;
}
#content tr td {
padding:6px 18px;
}
It goes in the style.css file too. Good Luck!
Looks beautiful…you know i’m lovin ya heaps right now..trying to work out what the missing code was – was driving me mental.
More Q’s if i may.
I have some pictures that belong to a photographer mate. These pic’s are up for sale so i want to put them into a Portfolio. I read the instructions that were there and i tried 1 pic just to see what would happen. …lol….Lets say i bungled something.
Am i suppose to add title of portfolio to menu first e.g..For Sale, Photography? I clicked the “feature” for the pic…went to home page and i laughed….Does it work on same principle as pages…Once i feature a pic where will it show apart from portfolio page???Is it/they meant to show anywhere else?
Also do i need a table to load 6 pics on same page OR is that part of theme coding for Portfolio?
Hi Donna. It’s looking better now! You can make a Portfolio any time, then assign Portfolio-items to it, just as you would put posts in a Category. After you’ve made a few Portfolio-items and put them in a Portfolio, go to Appearance->Menus and put the Portfolio in the menu. I called mine RUSTIC PORTFOLIO DEMO which you can view on this website. You will probably use your friends pictures as the Featured Image for each Portfolio-item, so it will appear in the PrettyPhoto Light-box when you click the thumbnail (wooden picture frame on portfolio page). Under each thumbnail is a Read More link which takes you to your Portfolio-item page. It will show whatever content you included when you made the Portfolio-item (just like a post). Try again and be careful to follow the steps on the Portfolio Items->Add New page closely. Maybe leave the page up on your website so I can have a look.
To display your friends photos, make 6 portfolio-items (one for each pic), put them into a portfolio (MY SIX FAVORITES), and put a link(MY SIX FAVORITES) in the menu. Click the link and see six nicely framed pics which will open to full size in a lightbox when clicked. Then go to the main page for each pic by clicking Read More. It’s best not to use tables because its hard to get them to look right. The Portfolio is the better solution.
Hey Patrick,
lmao….Ok i will try slowwwwly and read carefully.
I tried again last night, im thinking that something worked. Just a Q…when it went to “read more” the page was the old rustic page and it was in a pinkish colour…lol..not all of it just the “Sheet”. So i figured i’d done something wrong again and deleted it all.
I will get it right eventually…lol..Thanks
If that happens again next time, leave it up so I can look at it for you. Usually it’s an easy fix.
Hey Patrick,
Portfolio Page;
Ok i figured out how to get all pics to show in the portfolio section, NOW i dont know where i get the url from that i add to the menu part. On that same page it says to give the portfolio a title so i did “My Six Favourites” I noticed that added itself to the list of pics in portfolio(to the right). Where do i go from here?
Appearance/menu;
The part that says; http/ <<<<<<<<<<<where is this?
Name; My Six Favourites
I know how to add a title to menu….There is a missing link somewhere here…lol
Damn i think i had more success the other night…
IMPORTANT Q; Was i suppose to make every pic a "feature"….Maybe thats why this isnt working OR should i be getting the url from the pic i want to be the feature and go from there? I will try this while i wait for your reply…lol
On further inspection;
Lmaoooooooooo…..I think i made 6 portfolios….Lmaooooooooooo
Ok maybe what i need to know is how after doing the first pic as featured do i get the rest on the same page……Lmaoooooooooooo
Sorry, but this is just too funny.
http://rawtwig.com/?portfolio=mysixfavourites
Ooops not here there not…lol
There they is…lol
Hey Donna. Your half way there! You have successfully made your Portfolio ( My Six Favourites ) and have a link in the menu. All that’s left is to put in your Portfolio-items. Your question was spot-on. Yes, make the pic a feature because that’s where the thumbnail image comes from ( appears in the wooden frame ). Also Yes, get the url for the pic and put it in the media link box ( where it says Leave blank for no link ). That’s what makes the full size pic appear when you click the thumbnail. Then select the check-box for My Six Favourites in the Portfolios area to the right. That puts your portfolio-item into the portfolio, and allows it to show up on your My Six Favourites page.
Somethings not right. Went to check see if my portfolio would show in menu on home page….houston we have a problem…My home page is not loading the top half of theme…It looks a tad munted…damn…help
No Panic…problem sorted….Yayyyyyy i got the hang of it…
Q 1; Why do the text pages look diff to the rest of my theme.
http://rawtwig.com/?portfolio-item=woman-2
Q 2; I have 12 more pics to put up. I know to keep it 6 to a page. How do i get it to be page 1 2 and 3….without adding more menu titles.
Whoops! That color was my mistake. Got it right now. Go back here and download the theme again. Sorry about that!
You’ll be happy to hear this: It’s easy to choose how many pics appear on each page, and Rustic will make the pages for you. Go to Appearance->Rustic Theme Options and at the bottom is Portfolio Items per Page setting.
Patrick if i upload the theme again is that going to change everything ive done so far?
As in; will it revert back to bare theme?
Also; From the new link you have given me, does that also have the new pages on it e.g…Same as home page, no lines, cococo , added code etc..?
Hi Donna. Your work won’t be lost because it is saved outside the theme. It’s stored in a data base. I did forget the Poetry page fix. It’s good now. You might want to download it again to be sure.
Forgot to ask: With text pages that go with each pic; Is there a way to turn those off?
I only need 1 page to write my text, If i could put that text on Page 1 with photos would be even better as then i wouldn’t need any of the extra pages.
E.G…If i have 20 pictures thats 20 text pages i can save. Mine have nothing more than a repeat of first lot of text, so thats 20 pages of same info.
Also; I want to put a price above or below of each pic…Is this possible.
Sorry thought i’d best ask before re-loading again.
Hi Donna. Getting rid of those pages is tricky! Each page and pic are part of the same thing, a unique portfolio item with it’s associated page. It is possible to simply hide the “Read More” links, but this would make the entire site less useful. Since the page already exists,why not put it to good use! Maybe explain pricing, sizes, or some background info to help sell the photo by making it more interesting.
I might have a way for you to include some text on page 1 of your portfolio. I could include a Category Description area and limit it to the first Portfolio page. If this interests you, let me know.
UPDATE;
Hey Patrick, I took a huge leap and uploaded the file via cPanel….First time ever, i’m usually too scared to mess around in there, but it worked and i got rustic back up and running…woo hoo
I found how to put prices in, i just added them to the title of pic which works fine.
1 last Q; the colour of text pages is fine now but where do i turn those pages into 1 column so they match the rest of the site pages.
Sorry for all these posts, I dont mind if you delete some of them.
Congratulations! Got some code to make all your pages 1 column. That means no more sidebar, if your alright with that. As usual, paste this code into the very bottom of style.css
#wrapper {background: url(images/att/images/header-att2.png) no-repeat;
}
#main {
background: url(images/att/images/page-att2.png);
}
#tree {
background-image:none;
z-index:-10;
}
#container {
float:none;
margin:0;
width: 100%;
}
#content {
width: auto;
margin:0 40px;
}
#footer {
background: url(images/att/images/footer-att2.png) no-repeat;
padding-bottom:1px; min-height:144px; /*ie gap fix*/
}
#primary, #secondary {
display:none;
}
Thanks for that Patrick, Looks great…
Portfolio Q; In menu titles on home page, if you hover over “Photography for sale” there is a sub title under it for page two.
If i get rid of that sub and just keep adding pics to the main one (Photography for sale) will the theme/portfolio start creating its own pages if it goes over 6 pics a page. Or do i need to have the subs.
Yes. The theme will make pages for you automatically, so you don’t need the sub-pages. At the bottom of the “Photography for sale” page, links will appear to page 2, 3 etc. The default setting for Portfolio Items per Page on Appearance->Rustic Theme Options is 6, but you can change it if you like.