“Can I really DIY my own website without the DIY look?”

Great question. I get asked this all the time. Short answer. Anyone can build their own website, just like I *could* hammer some planks of wood together and call it a table. (More on that in a minute.)

The real question is SHOULD  you build your own website?

I’m going to start with some reasons why the DIY website route might not be for you and I want to be honest with you, because a decent website can’t be knocked together in just a few hours. A few days? Yes, if you keep it simple, but a few hours? No, and I don’t want to waste your time.

You shouldn’t build your own website if…

Here are your DIY red flags:

• You have a grand vision of how your website will look and it relies heavily on customization
• You want something completely and utterly unique
• You have exquisite visual taste and you know you’ll get frustrated if you can’t make your website look completely perfect
• You’re short on time and because of that, you panic a bit when it comes to the basics like buying hosting or connecting your domain
• You’re not interested in learning about running and updating your website at all and you’re not keen on learning new skills
• You’re a perfectionist when it comes to creating anything that involves design and you don’t quite know when to stop
• You want to just dive into designing and skipping the website planning stages
• You’re not a details person

If you recognise yourself in any of the above statements, it doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t build your own website, but you should be aware that some aspects of tackling a DIY website might get you a little frustrated.

Now that we’ve got the awkward part out of the way, let’s talk about what IS possible.

What is the easiest way to build your own website?

You’re probably reading this because you can’t afford to hire a website designer to create a custom site. I get it. Custom sites range from around $1,500 for a simple website to $5,000+ (that’s what I charge) for a more complex and completely unique website.

You also don’t want to completely freestyle it and build a website from scratch, because page structure and strategy are important and starting with a blank page is intimidating. 

Enter the IKEA method. 

When you go to IKEA, you know that you’re not going to get a piece of furniture that’s completely unique, but you do know that it’s going to be well designed and affordable. And certainly better than nailing a few planks of wood together yourself.

Most importantly, you know that you’re going to get some very detailed instructions and all of the tools you need to put it together. 

WordPress themes are the IKEA of websites, but without the Swedish meatballs. 

Specifically, our WordPress child themes, which work with all of the major WordPress page builders, like Divi, Elementor and Kadence, give you all of the freedom of a custom design, but with the underlying structure of every single page already done for you. 

They are designed to save you hours and hours of work. (Though I can’t guarantee that there won’t be a little swearing).

Why page builders? Because they allow you to design on the front end of WordPress, with a drag and drop editor, just like Wix and SquareSpace. You can also easily save and re-use layouts and sections, allowing you to build out new pages with ease and which blend seamlessly with your original design. 

Very Ikea! (By the way, you can read my whole story about Ikea here.)

How do you make a theme look unique without messing things up?

There – I came out and said it. Sometimes, things don’t always work out when you DIY your own website. 

We’ve all been there. You buy a gorgeous theme, dive in and start building, adding your own photos, shoehorn your copy into places where it doesn’t quite fit, add your fonts, your colours, run out of steam and the outcome is…underwhelming. 

Your beautiful vision hasn’t materialized and you can’t put your finger on why. And you’ve spent so much time and mental energy on building your website that you decide you’ll just have to live with it for a while. You’re the proud owner of an ‘average website’. Mucho annoying. 

This is a subject I could write a novel on, but here are a few golden rules that will get you a much better result every time and they all come down to one thing. That thing is understanding what makes the gorgeous theme you have bought special. 

Images

Look at the key images and work out why the designer has chosen that particular image. Is it the colour? Is it the negative space? Is it the orientation of the image?

Typography

Takes some time to examine the typography as a whole. Is a serif font paired with a sans serif font? Can you replicate that with your brand fonts? Do you need to use ALL of your brand fonts? Do you know when to stop?

Colours

I’ll tell you a little secret. Most theme designers usually only work with a monochrome palette or one extra highlight colour at most. Juggling more than one colour is tricky if you aren’t an experienced designer, so you might need to limit your colour palette. 

Spacing

I know that a lot of people panic when they see the amount of white or negative space a design is using. And yet that’s usually what gives the template the elegant, luxury feel that probably drew you to it in the first place. Resist the temptation to reduce the padding and margins!

Copy

Copy is the final piece in the puzzle. I often see templates where a much large amount of text has been dropped into an area than originally existed in the first place, which ends up creating a long, long column floating in white space. Not only does it unbalance the design of the page, it’s incredibly hard to read and lots of users will bounce off the page. Wherever possible, break up your copy into bite-size chunks and duplicate sections if you have to.

What do you need to have in place to build your own website?

Let’s talk practicalities. And I’m going to break this down into a very simple list of what you need to do or put in place before you dive into your DIY website project.. 

• Hosting from a reputable hosting company (and it needs to be self-hosted WordPress hosting rather than WordPress.com). 

• A parent theme/system, like Divi, Elementor or Kadence (read my comparison article here)

• A Google account (for SEO)

• A WordPress child theme (browse here)

• Your brand elements like fonts and colours

• A plan for building your website behind the scenes so you can leave your live site in place whilst you re-design. Yes, you can read about your options here.

If only I had some sort of Design & Build Checklist?

My friends – I’ve got you. I’ve pulled apart my own design process and compiled the ultimate step-by-step checklist which you can use when building your own website. 

From pre-build planning to post-launch SEO, there’s a lovely tick box for every single action point, to make sure you do everything you need to do in exactly the right order. 

Grab your checklist here.
https://thedesignspace.co/checklist/

So, can you build your own beautiful website? Absolutely. We’re here to be your website phone-a-friend. If you’ve got any questions, make sure you’re a member of our free Facebook group, The Design Space Lounge.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thedesignspace