Follow the instructions here to get your website looking exactly like our demo!
Table of Contents
- List of plugins used
- Color Scheme/Main Hex Codes
- Font List
- Uploading and installing theme
- Importing Demo Widgets
- Adding header
- Customize the Colors
- Navigation menus
- Setting up the Homepage
- Recent posts widget
- Adding social media icons – navigation bar
- Adding social media icons – home, sidebar, footer
- Adding in Subscription Box/Genesis eNews Extended
- Adding footer widgets
- Featured Posts or Pages in Footer
- Setting up the Portfolio
- Blog Template Settings
- Setting a page to display your blog posts
- Setting up the Pin-It Hover Button
- Setting up share icons at bottom of posts
- FAQ
Plugins
- Genesis eNews Extended: for the subscribe areas
- Jetpack: for sharing icons at bottom of posts
- jQuery Pin It Button For Images: for the Pin-it hover button
- Portfolio Post Type: to support the portfolio
- Regenerate Thumbnails: if your images are looking wonky, you’ll need this
- Simple Social Icons: for all social media icons
- Soliloquy Lite: for the slider on the homepage
Color Scheme Main Hex Codes
Text Color: #454342
Main Color & Accent Color: #222120
Font List
You can download these fonts if you want to use them for other areas of your branding.
– Raleway
– Helvetica Neue (comes standard on most computers)
Uploading & Installing the Theme
See our video on installing our WordPress themes.
** IMPORTANT: IF YOU PURCHASED YOUR THEME AT CREATIVE MARKET, GENESIS.ZIP WILL NOT BE INCLUDED IN YOUR THEME DOWNLOAD. YOU WILL INSTEAD NEED TO PURCHASE GENESIS AT STUDIOPRESS. PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT-HOW-TO-PURCHASE-GENESIS.PDF IN YOUR THEME DOWNLOAD FOLDER FOR MORE INFORMATION.
Importing Demo Widgets
We’ve included an exported copy of our widgets (not content) to help get you started setting up your own site. To use:
- Install the Widget Importer & Exporter
- Go to Tools >> Widget Importer & Exporter
- Upload the .wie file (found in the demo-content folder of your theme files) in the “Import” section and click “Import”
- That’s it!

Adding the header in WordPress
Add your site title and tagline in WordPress by going to Settings >> General. On the demo, we’ve left the tagline blank so it doesn’t appear.
UPLOAD YOUR OWN HEADER: Go to Appearance >> Header and upload your header. Your header should be 700 x 250 pixels before you upload.
Customize the Colors
Click on Appearance >> Customize and then click on Colors. Change the colors to your liking and save!
Navigation menus
Go to Appearance >> Menu. Create and save a menu with your desired links. For a video tutorial on adding in navigation menus, click here.
Primary navigation menu: This is the main navigation menu under the header area.
Secondary navigation menu: This is the navigation menu at the top of the page that shows up when you scroll down the page.
Setting up the Homepage
This theme features a widgetized home page with six areas:
- Home Top
- Home Left, Home Center, and Home Right
- Home Featured
- Home Bottom
If you do not put any widgets in these areas, the basic blog template page will appear. Control what shows up on the homepage by going to Appearance >> Widgets and dragging and dropping widgets into these areas. We suggest two different homepage options: the default option and option b.
Recent Posts Widget – Sidebar or After Entry
Use the Recent Posts widget in the sidebar to highlight recent or featured posts. (To highlight featured posts, create a new category for your posts called “Featured” (to do this, just go to the Posts >> Categories page and add a new one) and mark each one you want to feature. Or, leave “all categories” selected to highlight all recent posts.) To add the widget in the sidebar, go to Appearance >> Widgets and add a Genesis – Featured Posts widget to the primary sidebar. Use these settings:

Adding in the Social Media Icons – Navigation Bar
First, download and install Simple Social Icons. To add, go to Appearance >> Widgets >> drag and drop a “Simple Social Icons” widget to the Nav Bar Social Icons widget area. No need to change the color or size–just enter in your desired social media URLs and save. * You must have the secondary navigation bar active for these to show up. (See navigation menus section above.) *
Adding in the Social Media Icons – Home, Sidebar or Footer
First, download and install Simple Social Icons. To add, go to Appearance >> Widgets >> drag and drop a “Simple Social Icons” widget to the Primary Sidebar widget area, one of the Home widget areas, or one of the Footer Widget areas. Change settings and enter in your URLs as necessary.
Genesis Enews (Subscription Box)
You can add in a subscription box in several different areas: home top widget area, home bottom widget area, the sidebar, after entry content area, or a footer widget. Do this by 1) installing Genesis eNews Extended plugin followed by 2) dragging and dropping a Genesis – eNews Extended widget into the widget area of your choice on the Appearance >> Widgets page. This tutorial covers how to set up your subscription box.
Adding in Footer Widgets
This theme features a 3-column footer widget area on the bottom. Control what shows up here by going to the Appearance >> Widgets page and dragging and dropping widgets into the Footer 1, Footer 2, and Footer 3 widget areas.
Featured Pages or Posts – Footer
You can highlight featured pages or posts in the footer like so:

- Make sure each post or page has a Featured Image set.
- Go to Appearance >> Widgets and drag and drop a new Genesis – Featured Page or (Genesis – Featured Post) into Footer 1, Footer 2, or Footer 3.
- Select the page you want to feature. Click the box to show a featured image, selecting the Footer – Featured Page image size from the dropdown box. Also click the box to show a page title. Your Settings will look like this:
- Repeat for the other two areas if desired. If using a Featured Post instead of a page, make sure you select “No Content” under the Content-Type drop down.
Setting up the Portfolio
First, you will need to install the Portfolio Post Type plugin and activate it. Once you’ve done that, you should see a “Portfolio” tab in the sidebar of your WordPress administration area. From here, you can add in your posts. I like to set up my categories first, and then you can add in posts and tag them in their specific category. The featured image that you set for each post is what displays on the portfolio category pages.
You can view your main portfolio at http://yoururl.com/portfolio/, and your category pages at http://yoururl.com/portfolio_category/your-category/
If you’re receiving a 404 error page when you view your portfolio, you might need to reset your Permalinks. To do this, go to Settings >> Permalinks and click “save” on the bottom, without making any changes.
To ensure your title displays on the portfolio page, go to your main category page and edit that category. Add your title where it says “Archive Headline”.
To watch a video tutorial on this set-up process, click here.
Blog Template Settings
The blog template is set to feature the post title, date, and a large version of the featured image. To ensure this appears, go to Genesis >> Theme Settings and scroll down to Content Archives. Ensure your settings look like this:

To add excerpts, visit the FAQ section of this page (at the bottom).
Setting a Page to Display your Blog Posts
If you’re using the front page layout but still want to have a page that displays recent blog entries, go to Pages >> Add New and create a new page called “Blog.” In the Page Attributes section, make sure “Blog” is selected under “Template.”

On the demo, we’re using a full-width layout. So, scroll down to the “Layout Settings” box and select the full-width version:

Setting up the Pin-It Hover Button
We’ve included a custom pin-it button with this theme. To set it up, you’ll need to install the jQuery Pin It Button For Images plugin. Once activated, click on Settings >> JQuery Pin It Button for Images and configure your settings. On the “Visual” tab, upload one of the pin-it buttons found in the /images folder of your theme download.
Setting up Share Icons at Bottom of Posts
You might have noticed the share icons that appear at the bottom of each post. To set this up, you’ll need to install the Jetpack plugin by going to Plugins >> Add New and searching “Jetpack.” The instructions will walk you through syncing Jetpack with your WordPress.com account (if you don’t have one, you can create one from free). Once you have it set up and synced, go to Settings >> Sharing and ensure your settings match the following:

FAQ
Q. My images aren’t displaying properly/are the wrong sizes.
Please install Regenerate Thumbnails plugin and run through the images in questions to “reset” them.
Q. How do I change the favicon?
Find instructions on how to swap out the default Genesis favicon for your own right here.
Q. I want post excerpts or content on the blog template page.
This requires editing the functions.php file, so please make a back-up copy of this file before you start working on it and ensure you have access to your site’s files via FTP in case you make a mistake and encounter the white screen of death!
Edit the functions.php file for the Antler & Rose theme (go to Appearance >> Editor and click on functions.php). Find and delete or comment out:
//* Remove Post Content From Blog Page
add_action('genesis_before_content', 'anr_remove_content_blog');
function anr_remove_content_blog() {
if ( is_page_template( 'page_blog.php' ) ) {
remove_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'genesis_do_post_content' );
}}
Q. How do I get that nifty Instagram widget in my sidebar?
You can generate your own at Snap Widget. Make a free widget using these settings. Click on the “Get Widget” button and copy and paste the code into a Text widget on the Appearance >> Widgets page in WordPress.