Child Theme for Genesis – Free Download

Most new child theme Developers simply download the free Genesis default theme rather than create their own.

Its easier to modify an existing child theme than create your own.

But what if you want to build your theme using all your own CSS?

Here’s one way to create a child theme where you can add all your own custom styles and custom functions.

Create Genesis Child Theme

1. Create a new folder and name it something like child.

2. Using a code editor, create a new file named style.css and add the following header to the top of the file inside your child folder.

/*
Theme Name: Genesis Child Theme
Theme URI: http://example.com
Description: This is a blank child theme for the Genesis Framework.   
Author: You
Author URI: http://example.com
Template: genesis  
License: GPL-2.0+  
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html  
*/

You’ll notice there’s no styling, so you have 2 choices:

1. Load the style sheet from your Genesis parent theme.
2. Or add your own CSS to style everything from scratch.

Load Parent Theme Style Sheet

1. Using a code editor, Create a new .php file in your child themes root directory.
2. Add the following PHP code to the top of the file.

Genesis Sample theme

Add Your Own CSS

If you prefer to add your own CSS to style your child theme, you can write the CSS from scratch or use any of the CSS from any StudioPress child themes you own as they are all GPL licensed.

Download Free Child Theme

Here’s the child theme which includes the code from this post in a zip file you can simply install as a new theme.

Download Genesis Child Theme

How To Use This Genesis Child Theme

1. You need to install the Genesis Parent Theme first.
2. Once you have installed the Genesis parent theme, you can install this child theme.

Genesis Parent Theme