We all love Tumblr for its ease of use and unique social blogging features. But we really love Tumblr because the right theme can turn your humble cat musings into sophisticated works of web literature. Just click that “install” button and, “Look Ma, I’m a web designer!” (Our judges would have also accepted, “Mmm, I loves me some gradients.”)
Tumblr’s theme garden grows bigger by the day thanks to the contributions of some premier developers. Whether you’re looking to pimp your existing blog or arrive on the Tumblr scene in style, we thought it helpful to highlight a few of the themes we find beautiful, compelling and feature-rich.
See below for staff-picked Mashable favorites, and let us know which theme(s) you’re using in the comments.
1. Savory
Josh Catone: One of the things that makes Savory so nice is that it clearly defines different Tumblr post types while still cohesively tying them together. It also has a massive amount of customization options and built in support for Disqus and Typekit.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: $49
2. Field Notes
Lauren Rubin: Field Notes FTW. Not only do I love the products, I love how they’ve kept the branding consistent in the digital space.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
3. Plaid
Brenna Ehrlich: The theme that started my hipster media empire.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
4. Brutal Simplicity
Christina Warren: Brutal Simplicity, as the name implies is simple. It’s also elegant and easy to customize.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
5. Chunky
Lauren Drell: I love Chunky, which I use for my typo blog (#nerdalert). For a lot of Tumblrs, you have to keep scroooooolling down to see older posts. For my purposes (flaunting people’s careless spelling on signage), Chunky provides a collage aesthetic that makes the images super easy to consume — barely any scrolling necessary! Plus, I love bright colors, and this theme is “slabby, colorful, fun.”
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
6. Solaris
Matt Silverman: Few Tumblr themes make good use of white space while keeping posts organized. Solaris is modern, super clean, and instantly digestable. Well worth nine bucks.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: $9
7. Effector
Christina Warren: Lots of options, color styles and built-in social tools make Effector a great theme to use and tweak.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
8. Chalkdust
Stephanie Buck: I’ve always wanted to paint my apartment walls with that chalkboard paint. The “Chalkdust” Tumblr theme allows me to virtually paint – without inciting the wrath of my landlord.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
9. Rubber Cement
Stacy Green: I love the Rubber Cement theme from SleepoverSF, because thats what I use — in purple of course. 😉
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: Free
10. Storybook
Christina Warren: This illustrated Tumblr theme is just beautiful to look at.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: $49
11. Blank Slate
Christina Warren: Blank Slate indeed! I love the fixed sidebar and the textured background.
Preview it: here.
Install it: here.
Price: $49
More About: blogging, List, Lists, social media, tumblr, tumblr themes, web design, Web Development
For more Dev & Design coverage:
- Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter
- Become a Fan on Facebook
- Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel
- Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad