Jonah Lehrer on How to Be Creative. How to Create a Custom Theme for Your WordPress Blog with Minimal Coding Required. Simpler than the method outlined above is to install a child theme of an existing well coded theme.
After installing your blank child theme, your default is the mother theme. You then make all your changes to just two files (style.css, functions.php) in your child theme without touching anything else (and most especially you don't touch files of the mother theme). How to Give Your Million Dollar Idea Away So It Actually Gets Made.