New Theme: Sunburn
We’ve got a new theme for you now, a dark orange and black theme that only has sidebar/widgets on the home page. There have been a fair amount of requests for more darker themes like this and Chaotic Soul, so we’ll continue to keep an eye out for some. Of course if you have any suggestions for dark themes, please leave a note in the comments.
Here is a preview of the theme:

Jan 14th at 11:53 pm
Nice combo of dark/ bright autumnal colors there, and great idea to have the sidebar and widgets only on home page option
Jan 15th at 12:29 am
Very Nice
Jan 15th at 12:31 am
Nice dark theme.. Need more like these \m/
Jan 15th at 12:34 am
My Tales of the Macabre blog really looks Macabre! Thank You thank you thank you…and having the writing in white is great , you guys rule
Anita Marie
Jan 15th at 12:37 am
This is a nice one. I like it because it’s a dark theme and you can easily read the words because the text is much whiter and bigger than in other themes. I am not too fond of the top bar, but I guess that’s what gives it its name.
Jan 15th at 12:47 am
very interesting.
might try it.
Jan 15th at 12:47 am
Very nice theme great for a photoblog, but the title line is too big and covers the second tagline. Like this: http://nowphotography.wordpress.com/
At least it does on my Mozilla browser.
Jan 15th at 12:52 am
It’s a very nice theme indeed! It’s a nice, clean look. Keep those dark coloured themes coming…
Jan 15th at 1:02 am
I like it a lot. Nice addition.
Jan 15th at 1:07 am
wow! very nice.
Jan 15th at 1:18 am
I like this theme. If there is a version with a custom image header and lighter colors, that would be nice too.
Jan 15th at 1:29 am
the chaotic soul one is almost perfect, the colors are awesome and very simple…i just need the column to be a bit wider, so my pictures will fit, if i shrink the pictures i feel like it takes a way some of the pleasure of viewing them (for my friends anyways). the one i have now has a cheesy “new post’ spot and thats really all i don’t like about that one. thank you.
Jan 15th at 1:43 am
I love orange
Jan 15th at 2:00 am
good contrast. Only problem…my quotes dun show up well, unless they are in different colours or fonts. can they get boxed up or something?
Jan 15th at 2:23 am
Very cool Matt. I do like “a certain designer’s” current website, which is seen here, if you’re so inclined. It’s a great dark theme and has a pretty modern layout as well.
Of course, I love something as simple as Daring Fireball, whose typography and cleanliness make it special. It’s a dark version of a minimalist theme.
Then again, I’m the guy who’s always asking for VeryPlainText and Barthelme from Plaintxt.org, so what do I know about dark themes?
Jan 15th at 2:31 am
I’m showing it off at http://wptheme.wordpress.com/
Jan 15th at 2:33 am
Matt — another thing: Chewy is another theme by Jim Whimpey (the author of Sunburn) that is quite nice. Classic, clean…just nice. Give that a look too.
Jan 15th at 2:43 am
I’m so using this right now. thanks.:)
and yeah, chaoticsoul is one of the best.
Jan 15th at 2:48 am
nice
for a dark theme, i’d recommend vistered little.
Jan 15th at 3:17 am
Ooh… Nice. Yes – some “darker” themes would be nice.
Personally, I’d like a darker theme (mostly black/dark grey) with dark blue highlights. Or something like that.
Keep up the AWESOME work!!!
Jan 15th at 3:29 am
ooh like iiit. the theme feels like summer and fall together
thanks
can we possibly have an option to change the title’s font size?
Jan 15th at 3:33 am
its kinda depressing and i dont like it.
Jan 15th at 3:33 am
I LOVE IT!!! Im instantly going to use this theme!!!
Jan 15th at 3:34 am
I really do like the sidebar being on the front page only. Treats it more like a website, especially helpful as more people are starting to use their blogs as sites.
Jan 15th at 4:58 am
Nice touch .. neeed more templatessss !!
Jan 15th at 6:08 am
This theme is OK, but Chaotic Soul is just beautiful.
Jan 15th at 6:37 am
Cool Really good one….but i think a bit of more tweaking will do….doesnt seem solid,anyways good going…
Jan 15th at 7:18 am
It’s a good one!I like it!
Jan 15th at 7:32 am
Wowie! Another Dark theme!!! Tx
Jan 15th at 8:39 am
Oh. Thats nice
Great!
Jan 15th at 9:09 am
i cant agree more to the above comment. Darker themes are more than welcome here. But we need more space in the columns for the pictures. A black and white combination will do the trick for the upcoming themes.
Jan 15th at 9:49 am
release the freshy theme
i like that a lot
Jan 15th at 9:57 am
Tried it and went back to Cutline.
Jan 15th at 10:09 am
Nice theme, might try it out, thanks for it
Jan 15th at 10:12 am
Wow… a very impressive theme!!
Jan 15th at 10:22 am
nice
Jan 15th at 10:30 am
The idea of using sidebar widgets only on the home page is excellent! Give me a theme which combines this with a custom header, and I’ll switch immediately!
Jan 15th at 10:31 am
Whoa! After a long wait, a damn cool theme. It gave my blog a rejuvenating look. Hats off to Matt, looking for more cooler stuff like this
Jan 15th at 11:06 am
great color!
but a white backdrop stills makes this site slightly more easy on the eyes!
Jan 15th at 11:06 am
cool. i like it.
Jan 15th at 11:14 am
“Very nice theme great for a photoblog, but the title line is too big and covers the second tagline. Like this: http://nowphotography.wordpress.com/
At least it does on my Mozilla browser.”
Bill, yeah, it’s happening on Flock and Opera.
Jan 15th at 11:23 am
Why no style for PRE tag?
Jan 15th at 12:09 pm
i bloody love it! too bad it’s about 3 months too late, or it’d be perfect for halloween.
Jan 15th at 12:39 pm
its kinda cool but i think im gonna stick with the regulus
Jan 15th at 12:51 pm
Thank you! I was one of those who requested for a darker theme! More darker themes pleaaassse!!!
Jan 15th at 12:58 pm
Nice that it only has the sidebar on the homepage. I wish other themes woud incorporate that as well.
Jan 15th at 1:37 pm
Does this qualify as a “dark” theme?
http://www.jide.fr/english/downloads/template-freshy-wordpress/
In any case, I submitted info about it with the Feedback button some time ago as per instruction in the forums for theme suggestions, but didn’t get any reply from the staff. Thought the theme looks pretty good, what with the given customization options and font size/type that hits the sweet spot. Would be great to see that being introduced.
Jan 15th at 1:38 pm
Yeah! At least Sunburn theme at WP.com !
I was waiting for it! Thx Mat
Jan 15th at 1:44 pm
Looks nice! Will have to try it out!
Jan 15th at 2:10 pm
like it
Jan 15th at 2:38 pm
Sounds good!
Thanks.
] marcomkc [
Jan 15th at 3:43 pm
Nice joob
Jan 15th at 3:48 pm
It’s gorgeous. You guys have been doing a great job rolling out these new themes on a regular basis. Thanks
Jan 15th at 4:01 pm
Hi, I’m liking a lot of WP’s new themes, although I’d like to see more options in the three column range. Maybe a three column theme with a image header would be nice? Still I’m well happy with ‘Garland’ for my main blog at the mo. Cheers
Jan 15th at 4:35 pm
While I’m not usually a fan of dark backgrounds, I still want to thank the WordPress team for always trying to find and provide what the various bloggers here want.
It’s that very philosophy that makes so many of us take the time to post a thank you even if the newest item isn’t something we want to jump in and use.
So… thanks!
Jan 15th at 4:39 pm
Hmmm.
I remain undecided…
I use Chaotic Soul on http://solorafiki.wordpress.com but have just installed Sunburn on http://5joys.wordpress.com
Oh, decisions, decisions! *stuck*
Still, I’d second the general consensus that dark themes are superb!
Appreciate the effort, thank you
- Solo xx
Jan 15th at 5:16 pm
nice one. i really miss the black color on the background of the themes. i wish they were a bit more customizable (besides the header image, we could choose the link colors or the font size). someone could create a theme with black and red or black and pink, kinda minimalists. it would be nice too. ^^ cheers!
Jan 15th at 7:00 pm
Just asking, what theme is suitable for bussines blog?
Jan 15th at 7:06 pm
I like the idea of sidebar/widgets only on the home page. I would like to put in a request for more that offer that option.
Jan 15th at 7:09 pm
I really like this one, sunburn. I like it so much, I’ve switched (for the time being) from my favorite Green Girl Journal Theme.
Thanks Matt!
Jan 15th at 7:35 pm
Nice. I think the dark tones add a bit of professionalism, but I think the orange side text is a bit too contrasting and might be hard on the eyes after a while.
Jan 15th at 8:47 pm
I like the new theme, “Sunburn” – it provides another theme to choose from, and the more the merrier. I do have to side with Dana in that if we were given more customizing options it would make the great stuff available even greater. For example, my wife, Kritter Girl, liked using the purple color them for highlighted lettering and side colors, but would have liked to have had the option of choosing a customized header.
Word Press is great because of its diversity and always eager to add or improve.
Great job, Matt. Thanks. This theme would be perfect for around Halloween time, or like some say fitting perfectly with the macabre material of a blog. Also, think the home page only concept is a good idea with less clutter, et cetera, and as said in a comment above, more like a web page.
Jan 15th at 10:03 pm
I like this one, though it says “summer” to me, not fall. Might switch to this one as summer approaches…
Jan 15th at 11:28 pm
It’s great theme, I like the accent color orange
Jan 15th at 11:32 pm
Nice! Here’s a few other REALLy nice dark(er) themes to consider for porting to WordPress.com:
http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/1-column/343/foliage-mod-102/
This one’s a really nice design, great typography, and killer implementation
http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/1-column/929/d3s1gn-4uck-1/
Another nice looker
http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/2-columns/197/fluidityrs-10/
This one comes in a few different column configs. the nicest thing is, it is a fluid-width style.
Jan 15th at 11:41 pm
Very Nice
Jan 15th at 11:49 pm
sunburn r0x
Jan 16th at 12:48 am
It’s certainly attractive but I can’t read blogs that have black backgrounds. Too much eye strain for me.
Jan 16th at 1:27 am
Nice theme but the images were not auto-spaced with texts.
Jan 16th at 3:49 am
Nice , I love black & orange
Jan 16th at 4:27 am
Its COOL !!! Double Dark Freeze !!!
Jan 16th at 4:42 am
niiiice!! Love it! Just a suggestion, but we need a theme with a layout like Regulus but with different and more color and theme ooptions…like animals, colors (text, backround, headers etc.) and other stuff….great job, though!! I like the dark backround with the bright yellow shafts right above the title…very nice!
Jan 16th at 5:05 am
the color palette used is superb. nice work there! i like darker themes too. i think it has something to do with black’s universal appeal.
Jan 16th at 5:31 am
Perfect for Pictures and such.. Nice touch
Jan 16th at 11:08 am
A fantastic theme: one of the best actually.
I am already using it in my movies blog at: http://movies2007.wordpress.com
Nice work, as always guys
Jan 16th at 11:19 am
Wow. Great theme!
Jan 16th at 12:41 pm
Very Good Theme indeed!
Just a custom header image would do wonders !
Jan 16th at 2:45 pm
Yeah, reel cool
Jan 16th at 3:01 pm
Nice theme, but please why not adding the theme “Vistered Little” in my opinion it’s one of the best themes on WordPress. Pleasssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!
Why not to ask people for the themes they want ???
I’m sorry for my poor english.
Jan 16th at 5:49 pm
nice out…
must try
Jan 16th at 7:12 pm
nice, customizable banner would be nice ;D
Jan 16th at 9:24 pm
Matt you are a god amongst men!
Jan 16th at 9:28 pm
sweet
Jan 16th at 11:07 pm
Great theme Matt!! I love the orange/black combo – I’ve switched!!!
Jan 16th at 11:44 pm
wooow.. that’s hot. would like to see more in the future
Jan 17th at 12:24 am
nice theme
Jan 17th at 2:45 am
TOTALLY AWESOME!!!
Jan 17th at 3:56 am
If you tried to do something to “fix” the theme, on Mozilla it got worse.
Now the tag line is as big as the blog title and it looks worse. Try again?
Jan 17th at 5:20 am
Sorry, not for me. I would like to see more of three column themes where both of the side bars are on the right side instead of content being in the center. I also prefer a lot of white space to make the site look more professional.
Jan 17th at 5:40 am
I reeeeeally wish there were more themes with bigger font. We folks over 40 like to blog too, you know. K
Jan 17th at 12:01 pm
Very pretty – but what I prefer are three column themes which I think are more functional. The choice right now is very restricted.
Jan 17th at 9:57 pm
I really like this one!
Jan 17th at 10:55 pm
I’d like some more “dark themes” as well as some “dark blue” themes.
But take a look at Into the Light for another “dark theme.”
Jan 18th at 6:02 am
SWEET! I LIKE THIS ONE!
Jan 18th at 6:29 pm
I want a pink theme….there are only dark colors..
Jan 18th at 7:23 pm
I don’t like so much black there.
Jan 19th at 12:53 am
pretty cool