Have you ever used Webflow? When it comes to web design, starting with a template can be a great way to speed up the process while still allowing room for customization. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how I adapted a Webflow template for a client project, making subtle changes to the template to fit their individual needs.
I’ve included a video from my YouTube channel at the end which will hopefully be helpful to see onscreen what I’m doing.
Choosing the Right Template
For this particular project, I used a Webflow theme called “Conceptualize.” Out of the box, the template had a clean and modern look, but like any pre-designed layout, it needed some tweaks to align with my client’s needs. Webflow offers a great selection of both free and paid templates, and even the free ones can serve as a strong foundation for professional websites.
Customizing the Design
The great thing about Webflow is how easy it is to change and remove elements – you’re able to make big or small changes, depending on your needs. In my case, the client wanted to remove the colour on one of the blocks in the header and have it be transparent. This can easily be done by navigating to that particular element, and in the design editor, just removing the colour from the setting.
Another modification was the footer. Webflow themes often come with multiple footer styles, so instead of designing one from scratch, I selected a pre-existing footer within the theme and adjusted its styling.
Small tweaks like font changes, color adjustments, and slight reconfigurations make a significant difference in ensuring the website feels more unique than using a template straight out of the box as it comes.
Keeping the Template Intact
One of the most important steps when working with Webflow templates is to duplicate the original theme before making changes. This allows you to keep a backup of the untouched template in case you ever need to revert to it. To do this, you simply:
- Go to your Webflow dashboard.
- Locate the template project.
- Click on the three-dot menu and select “Duplicate.”
This creates a copy that you can freely edit without worrying about losing the original structure.
Editing Content and Layout
Webflow makes it easy to modify content directly in the design view. By double-clicking on a text element, you can adjust headings, paragraphs, and call-to-action buttons instantly. Additionally, the styling panel on the right side of the interface allows you to change fonts, colors, and spacing without affecting the overall structure of the site.
For elements that repeat across multiple pages, Webflow uses reusable components (indicated by a green highlight when selected). For example, the site’s navigation menu was a reusable element, meaning any changes I made to it would be reflected across the entire website. This is particularly useful for ensuring consistency in branding.
Managing Sections and Containers
Understanding Webflow’s section and container system is important to correctly editing your templates. Every webpage is structured with sections that contain elements like images, text blocks, and buttons.
Containers help keep these elements in place and prevent them from stretching across the full width of the screen unless intended.
For instance, in this project, the homepage had a two-column section that the client wanted to remove. Using Webflow’s Navigator tool, I was able to:
- Identify the section containing the unwanted elements.
- Confirm that deleting it wouldn’t impact other essential components.
- Remove it with a simple press of the delete key.
Moving and Reordering Sections
Webflow also allows for easy reordering of sections. If a client wants a particular section moved up or down the page, you can simply:
- Click on the section in the Navigator.
- Drag it to the desired position.
- Ensure that it doesn’t accidentally nest within another section.
This flexibility ensures that the website layout can be quickly adjusted without rewriting any code.
Publishing and Finalizing Changes
Once you’re happy with the modifications, you can click the Publish button to make the changes live. If any mistakes were made along the way, Webflow’s undo function (Ctrl + Z) will come in handy to revert to the previous step.
Final Thoughts
Customizing Webflow templates is a great way to create a more unique website while having a lot of the design work done for you, and build correctly and efficiently in a pre-built design.
With just a few adjustments—such as modifying fonts, colors and layouts — you can transform a template into something that feels bespoke and professionally tailored to a your needs.
For this project, my client needed a simple, modern site with subtle animations and a clean layout. By making a few strategic changes to the “Conceptualize” template, I was able to capture all of the deliverables that the client had requested in the website and meet their deadline (due to the fraction of the time it would have taken to build from scratch).
If you’re working with Webflow templates, my advice is to experiment with small changes first, get comfortable with the platform’s structure, and always keep a backup of the original theme. With practice, you’ll be able to customize templates efficiently and create stunning websites!
Check out my YouTube video here for a video demo of the Webflow template I used to build the client site in: