Child Theme

A child theme lets you customise Blocksy without modifying the parent theme’s files directly. Your changes remain separate from Blocksy itself, which means you can continue updating the main theme without overwriting your custom code.

For most websites, a child theme is not required. Changes made through the WordPress Customiser and Blocksy’s built-in options are already preserved during theme updates. A child theme becomes useful when you need to add custom PHP, maintain your own stylesheet or override files from the parent theme.

How Child Themes Work

A child theme inherits the functionality and styling of its parent theme. In this case, Blocksy remains the parent theme while the child theme contains only the customisations you want to maintain separately.

The most commonly used files are:

• style.css – identifies the child theme and can contain your custom CSS.
• functions.php – lets you add custom PHP functionality. The child theme’s functions.php is loaded alongside the parent theme’s file rather than replacing it.
• Template files – files copied from the parent theme can be modified inside the child theme to override their parent-theme equivalents.

Installing the Blocksy Child Theme

1. Download the Blocksy Child Theme.
2. From your WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Appearance → Themes.
3. Click Add New, then select Upload Theme.
4. Select the blocksy-child.zip file and click Install Now.
5. Once the installation is complete, click Activate.

Important
The main Blocksy theme must remain installed. The child theme depends on it and will not work correctly without its parent theme.

Copying Your Customiser Settings

WordPress stores Customiser settings separately for parent and child themes. If you activate the Blocksy child theme on an existing website, your previous Blocksy configuration may therefore appear to be missing.

You can transfer those settings using Blocksy’s Copy Options feature from the Manage Options pane. The Blocksy Companion plugin must be installed and activated for this option to be available.

Loading the style.css File

Blocksy does not load the child theme’s style.css file by default. This avoids an additional stylesheet request when the file is only being used to identify the child theme.

If you want to add custom CSS directly to the child theme’s style.css file, add the following snippet to its functions.php file:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', function () {
	wp_enqueue_style( 'blocksy-child-style', get_stylesheet_uri() );
} );

Overriding Parent Theme Files

A child theme can override supported files from the parent theme by including customised versions of those files in the corresponding locations inside the child theme.

Keep in mind that these overrides do not automatically receive changes made to the equivalent files in future Blocksy releases. If a parent-theme file you have overridden is updated, you should review the differences and incorporate any relevant changes into your customised version.

This is particularly important for template overrides, as keeping an outdated copy in the child theme can eventually cause compatibility or functionality issues.

Video Tutorial

If you prefer a visual overview, the video below explains how parent and child themes work and how to get started with Blocksy’s child theme.