New Theme: Rusty Grunge
It is time to introduce a new free theme which goes by the appropriately evocative name of Rusty Grunge. It goes without saying, this theme has all the rusty and grungy elements needed to appeal to all those who embrace grunginess in themes. It has a light content area over a dark background, and some color splashes around on its design.
The Rusty Grunge Theme
The theme comes equipped with options for Custom Background, Menus, Post Formats, and Header Image. It also bears two distinct widget areas, making this theme not only grungy but also highly customizable.
As usual, find more about what it has to offer on the Theme Showcase.
Designed by Chris Wallace, Rusty Grunge is also available for self-hosted WordPress.org sites via the WordPress.org Themes Directory.
Mar 25th at 5:15 pm
“Not only grungy but also highly customizable”, I love it.
Mar 25th at 5:19 pm
I like it; though I’d much prefer if the header wasn’t red. Still, it’s nice looking.
Mar 25th at 5:26 pm
Another grunge theme. Love it!
Mar 25th at 5:57 pm
Work of Excellence, it seems creativity has gone Rampant, beautiful work by Rusty.
Mar 25th at 5:59 pm
Very nice theme but not my cup of tea… There is always a theme for everyone… Thanks!
Mar 25th at 6:05 pm
I think it looks awesome, although I would have preferred more red as opposed to blue and green. However that’s just my personal preference. Great theme!
Mar 25th at 6:18 pm
The themes look quite similar with each other, especially the new ones.
This one looks hip, though.
Mar 25th at 6:29 pm
Looks awesome, love how it’s so customizable too.
Mar 25th at 6:37 pm
Great way to start off the day! Thanks, WP team!
Mar 25th at 6:52 pm
Looks nice! Love this one
Mar 25th at 6:59 pm
Looks like the nicest one I have seen. Now how do I use it?
Mar 25th at 7:06 pm
You can activate the theme from your dashboard, in Appearance > Themes, or on the Theme Showcase page.
Mar 25th at 7:05 pm
Nice and Beautiful theme… But I would appreciate if you add “Like Box” feature of Facebook in WordPress.com
Regards
Mar 25th at 7:08 pm
Just when I thought I had found the theme I liked the best, this one comes along! Now I don’t know which one to choose!
Mar 25th at 7:31 pm
Good job… The more customizable the best.
Mar 25th at 7:33 pm
Decent theme. I might check it out.
Mar 25th at 7:35 pm
Tasty…
Mar 25th at 8:14 pm
Adorably coloured! Wonderful theme and, did I say adorably coloured?
Mar 25th at 8:22 pm
Love it! A bit more moody and dark…with some fun color!
Mar 25th at 8:25 pm
I feel like a lot of the themes are grungy and darker though? It would be nice to have something that’s very customizable but also bright and appealing – like many of the “bigger” blog themes out there.
Mar 25th at 8:37 pm
Not bad… not bad at all. Might even revamp the blog with it!
Mar 25th at 8:37 pm
I like it very much.
Mar 25th at 8:38 pm
Aww yeah! I love it! Seriously, you guys are awesome.
Mar 25th at 8:38 pm
Very Nice I’m happy that WP is making good blog themes for the web
I hope you guys actually make more things like “Vigilance” though because I think it is one of the most preferred themes on the site and one of the most beautiful and professional looking ones. It allows one to have minimalistic design but at the same time a very sophisticated approach to blogging. ^_^
Mar 25th at 9:03 pm
OK I love this theme! I’ve been using vigilance on 2 blogs and I love that one and I was going to switch to Liquirice on another blog which is using Bueno–also very nice but now I think Rusty Grunge it is for at least one of my blogs!!
Mar 25th at 9:15 pm
This looks like fun! It seems like there’s no end to the Theme Team’s creativity these days. I’m jealous of the new themes that have the various post formats. I wish all the themes could be update to have these formats. I agree with obsidianfactory though ~ more themes like Vigilance would rock. I love the clean design and sophisticated touches of Vigilance. It would be nice if it had bottom widgets or some of the features like the child theme. Thanks Theme Team.
Mar 25th at 9:50 pm
I will try it because the Contact form appears to be built-in. If it’s not I go back to my old theme.
Mar 28th at 3:41 pm
You should be able to add contact to any of our themes. See: http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact-form/
Mar 25th at 9:53 pm
Love the extra colour!
Mar 25th at 10:02 pm
I like the layout of this theme. The colors… not so much.
Mar 25th at 10:14 pm
Terrible name!
Mar 25th at 10:26 pm
Looks great!
Mar 25th at 10:38 pm
Best grunge theme I’ve seen so far! I’m going to switch right now!
Mar 25th at 11:38 pm
I like Rusty very much, ( sorta matches these old rusty parts of mine) *laughing* Nice to have someone there working away in the background to make things even nicer for us all. Thank you theme team..
Mar 25th at 11:56 pm
Looks fantastic, can’t wait to use it!
Mar 26th at 12:48 am
Nice, colorful, but not too loud. Neverless, I’m quite happy with my current theme.
Mar 26th at 1:15 am
Color Yeehaw!
Thank-y thanks!
Mar 26th at 1:56 am
I like you always introduce simple and cool theme! Thanks
Mar 26th at 2:12 am
Very, very nice. My fav is the post options!
Mar 26th at 3:18 am
I also like it very much ^_^
Mar 26th at 3:27 am
Very cool!
Mar 26th at 3:37 am
You guys never ran out of new themes! I love this one.
Mar 26th at 3:45 am
I like it very much.
Mar 26th at 3:50 am
Wow, this is very good
Thank for you sir 
Mar 26th at 4:08 am
Looks nice but would like to be able to change the side bar color.
Mar 26th at 4:47 am
One of my favourite themes.
Mar 26th at 7:21 am
More with link-blogroll page template, please.
Mar 26th at 9:14 am
It could be better if it’s more rusty.
Mar 26th at 9:53 am
I love that, very masculine in a sense. I like all the new themes that are coming out recently, progress.
Mar 26th at 10:05 am
I like the theme but I didn’t like the colors.
Mar 26th at 10:52 am
It’s real nice! Does it come in blue?
Mar 26th at 11:20 am
I do like it. The only problem is the red header: I’m not sure if that suits me. The two sidebars, though, are incredible!
Mar 26th at 11:33 am
Nice one!
Mar 26th at 1:30 pm
Simple and attractive design… I love it
Mar 26th at 2:09 pm
Like it. It’s easy on my eyes. May switch to it soon. Keep up the excellent work! I really appreciate the creativity that goes into WordPress to make our sites unique.
Mar 26th at 2:11 pm
Cool, but I like my present one more
Mar 26th at 2:47 pm
Lovely!
Mar 26th at 2:49 pm
Looks like an interesting theme
Mar 26th at 3:30 pm
It may be “grungey,” but the content certainly lays out nice and clean. A very fine theme. Well done. Cheers, Kevin
Mar 26th at 3:45 pm
like it but kinda grim I think for the colour so I keep using choco.
Mar 26th at 5:30 pm
Love it! I keep changing my favorite one and yet another to add to the list. Thanks for all the new templates!
Mar 26th at 6:25 pm
Like this theme. Want it!
Mar 26th at 6:59 pm
This is a really theme — it has a lot of art built in to it
But I dont like the way it handles the “recent posts” widget. The post links are too close to one another and at first glance it looks like a paragraph! Also I really wish most of the themes would handle tags better like how Vigilance does, instead of making the font very large !
Thanks for the new themes anyway !!
Mar 26th at 7:05 pm
I like it, but I prefer more pixels between item. Especially in rss item, recent comments, and those with more lines contents. right?
Mar 28th at 3:17 pm
Improved.
Mar 26th at 8:10 pm
Wow. It is similiar to “Elegant Grunge”, isn’t it?
Looks pretty cool, but I prefer theme zBench
Mar 26th at 8:51 pm
Ooh, that is very nice looking theme! Still very clean while a little edgily colored.
Mar 26th at 10:06 pm
Thanks, please keep the new themes coming!
Mar 26th at 10:09 pm
A very beautiful theme, I like the way you put colors together.
Mar 26th at 10:21 pm
Has that nice artistic feel to it, with a bit of an edge accounted for by the uneven patterns. Very well done!
Sports a great deal of personality in and of itself, a fairly stand-alone theme.
Mar 27th at 12:11 am
Love it. I describe it as redeveloped inner city… blight begone.
Mar 27th at 2:16 am
This theme is the best of all out there… Finally I found what I would to love stick to….
Mar 27th at 4:00 am
Very nice theme.
Mar 27th at 6:33 am
You guys have been putting out some pretty sweet themes lately. Keep up the awesome work!
Mar 27th at 8:10 am
It’s great to have your team inventing NEW themes! But how exactly do you find out if it’s worth it? Because you may think it’s absolutely great… but how do you know if the public think anything of it? It’s a test I personally think you should do. Thanks for your creativity!
Apr 1st at 1:28 am
We didn’t invent this one, as Matías noted in the post it was designed by Chris Wallace. It’s been on the WP.org theme directory for a few years: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/rusty-grunge. It caught our eye and we decided to port it over to WP.com for you.
As far as what you like, it seems you like everything, so we’re continuing to launch all kinds of different themes. As far as grungy themes go, they’re the most popular themes on WordPress.com right now.
Mar 27th at 9:04 am
Very ugly theme!
Mar 27th at 9:21 am
It’s a good theme for funny blogs.
Mar 27th at 10:14 am
Nice one! It’s be really good for a music photographers blog!
Mar 27th at 10:25 am
It is suitable for young people
Thank you so much.
Mar 27th at 11:10 am
Hm….very…very…very nice!
Mar 27th at 1:08 pm
Wow, you guys outdid yourselves with this one. Red and blue happen to be my favorite colors! I’m in love with Under the Influence, but I think I’ll try this one out.
Mar 27th at 1:27 pm
It’s good but I don’t like it (Everyone has different ideas.) : )
Mar 27th at 2:05 pm
Nice going, Rusty.
Very cool color combo.
Mar 27th at 3:45 pm
Looks promising. Keep ‘em coming.
Mar 27th at 4:13 pm
How do I change the text at the top of the site? (Not the header.) I’m sick of the site saying my site’s name, then “Just another WordPress.com blog.” Because that’s kinda unprofessional and I’ve always been able to change that top text, except not now. How do I change the “subtitle?”
Mar 28th at 2:54 pm
That is your site Tagline. You may change it anytime in Settings > General on your Dashboard.
Mar 27th at 4:48 pm
Nice – I tried Greyzed for a while and quite like it, although my readers preferred Freshy. Maybe it’s time for another trip back to the world of grunge! Thanks again
Mar 27th at 5:31 pm
I love it especially the customization options. I’m not activating it though. I’m happy with my current theme.
Mar 27th at 6:51 pm
I was hesitant to check this out based on the name, but it’s not that bad! Not a style for my blog but I do like it. Nice add to the Theme Vault, WordPress!
Mar 27th at 8:06 pm
Using it now, I seem to change the theme every time there’s a new one
Mar 27th at 8:22 pm
That one does look pretty cool! I have worked pretty hard getting mine to look like it does…would hate to change it now, but will sure keep this one in mind!
Mar 27th at 10:09 pm
I thought I had left the, “grunge thing” behind when I left Seattle, yet like a loyal friend and shadow, it’s appearance is welcomed.
Apr 1st at 1:28 am
The grunge will follow you, wherever you might wander.
Mar 27th at 10:41 pm
Great looking theme. Thanks!
Mar 27th at 11:11 pm
Oh that’s really interesting
Mar 28th at 1:48 am
Thanks for creating new themes, please keep them coming!
Mar 28th at 1:49 am
When you said rust I was looking for a burnt rust look. Something with dark red and burgundy.
This is more like Tea Time. Dissappointing.
May I propose something of a rusted metal theme?
Mar 28th at 2:02 am
Beautiful theme, I love the colour scheme!
Mar 28th at 3:10 am
Love the theme! You guys are freakin’ awesome.
Mar 28th at 4:52 am
It’s kinda weird. Don’t look grundge to me. Not that it’s bad but I just wouldnt use it.
Mar 28th at 5:02 am
Wow, cool! I like its red color… ^-^
Mar 28th at 5:24 am
Nice. But I think, there’s too much color in it for me. Also, is there a widget-ready footer?
I guess, I’ll have to find out about that myself.
Mar 28th at 6:42 am
Great WP ‘grungy’ theme!
Mar 28th at 7:48 am
This theme is really me! Love it!
Mar 28th at 10:55 am
This reminds me of another theme on WordPress. I want something new… a photo theme for example!
But still… you’re great.