Charlene

Version 2.0 (Requires WP 3.9+)

The Charlene Theme V2.0 has been entirely reworked from top to bottom, do not expect to upgrade from an older and outdated version of this theme.

With that note of caution out of the way, I can say that the overall theme design remains largely entact so with a few adjustments you should be able to retain the same old theme design you've also enjoyed with the Charlene theme.

Stripped Down Options

If you used the older version of this theme you might be sad to find out that there are almost no options baked into this version of the theme.

This time around it's all about keeping it simple and easier to maintain. Activate the theme, (maybe) change a few colors, add your favorite plugins for SEO, optimization, and security… then get to writing.

The Good News

You have a few smart customization options through the powerful theme customizer. You can:

Change the background color.
Change the link color, which is about all you need to do to change the color scheme.
Change the link hover color.

Plus, you'll still be able to add an intro title and opening paragraph on your home page. See widget areas.

Other useful things to note

Widget areas:

Site Intro The above mentioned intro title and opening paragraph.
Sidebar Main Main sidebar widget area.
After Post Widget ready area for after post plugins and functions that are packaged with widgets. Would be useful for recent posts or perhaps a text area that links to your available Rss subscriptions.

Post Formats

Post formats aside, image, video, audio, quote, link, and gallery are supported. Nothing fancy but templates can be overriden or modified.

Page Template

A single full-width page template, do something interesting with it.

A few simple shortcodes: Shortcodes have been removed:

Best practices dictate that shortcodes, if there is a place for them at all, are better left for plugins. I can agree and so they've been removed. While I consider how or if the functionality provided by these shortcodes needs to be handled, keep in mind that the classes for columns still exist in the stylesheet. You can also very easily add an introductory (larger font) paragraph by adding the class .introp to your paragraph.

For updates on this please visit the theme page and consider signing up for the theme updates mailing list.

Current State of Support

For right now, you're welcome to report bugs and other issues on Github

Growing Documentation

This will act as the documentation for now and a theme demo will still live at Papertree Themes

History

The original Charlene Theme (V1 and below) was based on a theme I had created for a personal site and then reworked to take advantage of a custom framework I was using for development at the time (2008ish). While it never gained the popularity of some of the more well known themes it was downloaded over 5K times, a number I could be proud of.

Version 2.0 is what I'd call a maturing view of WordPress theme development. It's built with a singular purpose in mind and only includes what is necessary to acheive that purpose while remaining flexible enough that you can extend it.

Credit

It would be near impossible for me to give credit to every theme I've studied, tutorial I've read, client I've worked with over the past 7 years but I consider them all deserving of credit. For this theme specifically I studied the simplicity and well thought code of Underscores and Twenty Fourteen. I'd also have to give credit to the original Kubrick theme, which is where I started.

A Guide To Charlene