14 Most Visually Appealing Free WordPress Themes
With such a large community that has grown around WordPress, it’s no surprise that there are tons of free themes floating around out there. However, there are only a few that look great out of the box. In this article, I’ve rounded up what I believe are the best looking free WordPress themes available.
Magazeen
Themes don’t get more stylish than this one. Magazeen includes some pretty cool features including a thumbnail gallery at the top of the home page that showcases the latest posts.
Gallery
Since this one is heavily inspired by Card Observer, I had to include it.
Color Paper
This theme has a traditional blog layout but, but the use of color and texture really make it stand out from the crowd.
Infinity
This light on dark theme features a 3 fixed column design, thumbnail covers style, and Flickr, Twitter and delicious integration.
Irresistible
Irresistible is a visually-rich personal blog, with a little bit of a multimedia focus. Some features include: integrated video player, integrated banner ad management, and 9 color choices.
Typebased
Typebased is a very clean and elegant theme that doesn’t have a lot of design elements and doesn’t need them.
Imprezz
A very clean design with a unique middle column.
Outdoorsy
If you are looking for something unique and different in a theme, this is it. It makes great use of some beautiful textures.
Imprezz
This one is a 2-column theme with lots of detailed vintage design elements.
Meta-Morphosis
Meta-Morphosis is a visually-rich personal blog, with a magazine layout approach.
Notepad Chaos
This theme has 2 columns, a quite vibrant design including “personal” design elements such as handwritten headings, stick-it-notes, clips and pins.
Colourise
Colourise is a gorgeous light on dark, two-column theme with an ultra large header image, a dark backdrop and a fat footer.
WordPress Fun
Another theme that uses a lot of great textures and has an excellent color palette.
Simply Ornate
This is a minimal theme that comes with 5 different ornate background paterns.
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29 comments
insic
June 4, 2009wow! nice list of themes. Im impress by Imprezz i like it
a_usman
June 4, 2009Good list…. but these are not new to me, at least.
Fuad Ahasan Chowdhury
June 4, 2009yahoOo.. thanks a lot..
XIII
June 4, 2009Smashing Magazine seems to reign supreme.
Danh ba web 2.0
June 4, 2009Awesome list. Thanks you very much
See more great themes WordPress in my blog: http://tr.im/lqTt
liam
June 4, 2009Wow, 3 of my themes are mentioned here. Amazing, thanks Henry!
Stef
June 4, 2009Just signed up for my free WordPress blog.
Can I use these themes on the free blog version, or do they only work on a hosted WordPress site?
Thanks
Danny
June 4, 2009Agree with a_usman, nice… but the usual suspects that I ´ve been seeing on just about every wordpress theme post during the last few months. I guess that´s what happens when everone reads everyone else´s posts. New themes roundup! please..
webmasterdubai
June 4, 2009free stuff and also really cool nice and cool stuff.
Sabine
June 4, 2009Hmm – have seen almost all of them before…Sabine
Mike Diego
June 4, 2009One of my favorite themes WordPress fun. Great list and thanks for sharing.
Kayla
June 4, 2009Excellent list…I find new great themes every. You’ve made an excellent selection here.
Online hry
June 4, 2009Hey, great. Simply Ornate si one of the best theme what i can see.
hadi060
June 5, 2009It’s an excellent list.. I know some of these themes.. Thanks for sharing..
Giridhar
June 5, 2009Great list.. i liked color paper, but it has some alignment issues
aravind
June 6, 2009Great list!
Thanks for putting them together..
stacey
June 18, 2009The only scuff I have is that “notebook choas” looks like they ripped the design from http://www.webdesignerwall.com. Other than that these are very nice.
Rock Your Web
June 19, 2009Nice article. Good job.
N3K
June 23, 2009Good!!
Joe
June 29, 2009I’m using typebased, and it works great
Mark Fitzpatrick
July 1, 2009Thanks for this inspiring list!
Just starting to use irresistible for my new blog. Such a versatile theme.
Amor
July 4, 2009Great selection. I love the themes WordPress Fun Outdoorsy and the 2 column Imprezz.
George
July 10, 2009they look amazing. thanks alot guys
deborah
July 11, 2009Greetings,
Great designs here. I’m in search of a WP designer. If you are interested, please send me a quote. I’ve contacted five designers so far and only one has written back. My hope is that a targeted comment on a blog read by designers might get me a few more quotes to consider. Deborah
Andreas
August 5, 2009This is really a great list – and I will definitely look at some of them in detail. Thanks.
Andreas
Anthony Proulx
August 21, 2009Great post, some of my fav posts are ones that give out free resources!
Thank you!
Bill Bartmann
September 3, 2009Cool site, love the info.
Mahmudur Rahman
March 18, 2010These are really very awesome themes. Thanks for share.
Website design
November 16, 2011Hey,
These are great website templates
Keep up the good work
Darren