# Glendon Place — Custom WordPress Theme

> Glendon Place is a US cross-stitch design company that sells charts, thread packs and embellishment packs to stitchers and needlework shops. I developed a custom WordPress theme for its online store, rebuilding a large catalogue site with a cleaner layout. The current live site still runs the older platform.

- Author: Sami Ullah (https://samiullah.tech/about)
- Type: Client project
- Role: WordPress theme
- Stack: WordPress, PHP
- Year: n/a
- Updated: 2026-11-15
- Canonical: https://samiullah.tech/work/glendon-place-wordpress-theme
- Live: https://www.glendonplace.net/

## Overview

Glendon Place designs cross-stitch and counted-thread charts for experienced stitchers, along with thread packs, embellishment packs, fabric and floss. It sells to two groups: retail customers and needlework shops, which register separately and buy wholesale. The catalogue runs to more than 500 items.

## My role

I developed a custom [WordPress](/skills/wordpress) theme for the store. The live site at glendonplace.net still runs the client's older platform; the screenshots below show my WordPress theme.

## The problem

Glendon Place's store has grown over many years into a large catalogue with frequent new releases, promotions and two kinds of customer. Moving it to WordPress needed a theme that keeps all of that and gives the client one system they can manage themselves.

## Approach & architecture

The theme is built from scratch rather than on a page builder, so the store's templates (home, category, product and account pages) are written in PHP with WordPress template files.

The home page leads with the brand header and a full-width thread banner, then a welcome section, featured product cards, release sections such as the 2026 Needlework Marketplace releases, and a paginated "Most Recent" product grid. Category navigation, the mailing list sign-up and product search stay in a left sidebar on desktop.

## Key challenges

**A large catalogue that stays browsable.** With hundreds of products, the grid shows price, SKU and an add-to-cart button on each card and paginates in sets of 20.

**Two kinds of customer.** Retail customers and shops register through separate flows, and the header gives quick access to account, order tracking and cart.

**Keeping the brand.** Glendon Place has a strong existing identity: the ironwork logo, the rainbow of floss and bright section colours. The theme keeps these while tidying spacing and type.

## Tech stack

- **WordPress** — content and product management the client can run themselves.
- **PHP** — custom theme templates written from scratch.

## Results

I delivered a custom WordPress theme covering the store's home, catalogue and account pages, ready to replace the client's older site.

## Screenshots

<Figure src="/work/glendon-place-wordpress-theme/cover.webp" alt="Glendon Place header with the ironwork logo, a rainbow thread banner and the welcome section" width="1600" height="900" caption="The header and welcome section of the custom theme." />

<Figure src="/work/glendon-place-wordpress-theme/full-page.webp" alt="Full Glendon Place home page with sidebar categories, release banners and a product grid" width="1000" height="5602" caption="The full home page in the custom WordPress theme." />