Robert Birming

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• 10 Dec, 2025 *

I’ve done it again. Started designing a new theme, got carried away, and somehow got lost along the way.

So I told myself I’m gonna take a step back, start over, and move slowly this time. One step at a time, carefully thinking through each part.

I opened the theme settings in Bear and switched to the Plain HTML theme. It leaves you with pretty much a blank sheet:

body {
width: 720px;
margin: 0 auto;
}

nav a {
margin-right: 5px;
}

That’s what my blog looks like at the time of this writing.

Then another idea popped up. Since there’s no rush, I might as well document the whole process. Who knows, maybe someone else finds it helpful.

Most Bear users already have a theme they enjoy, but they might still pick up a tip or two. Others might want to follow along from scratch, watch their own theme come to life, and learn a lot in the process. And even if you’re not using Bear, you might still find something useful.

So, here we go, theme building live →