Wooden Backgrounds

I’ve had some time off work recently, and whilst I’ve had a spare minute, or nothing better to do, I spent it looking around the web: I browsed CSS galleries, and looked through web designer’s portfolios at the sites they had designed for both inspiration and just for something to do.

I noticed that a lot of people are using a wooden grain as a background on their blogs and websites.

It seems to be quite popular on the ol’ t’internet these days.

I think that the following five websites I have chosen using the ‘wood grain style background’ have certain additional qualities which make them easy to use, clear, simple and generally well designed.

So I present to you: Carly’s Top 5 Websites, Featuring The Wooden Background.

1. Shape Shed - http://shapeshed.com

This (and the next) website uses the wood as a repeating background, which makes a nice change from stripes, and other generic patterns. I used to visit this site a lot when I first installed Illustrator, as I liked the tutorials, and found them very useful. The design is clean, simple and you are not presented with information overkill - the designer has a lot of information to present, but it’s all in easy-to-read sections.

2. Floopy.nu - http://floopy.nu

I found this site after perusing the perfection web gallery, and clicked on it straight away. I love everything, from the rounded corners to the colours used. For SEO purposes I would have changed the words on the tabs at the top from images, to text, and I’d add the links again in the footer at the bottom. It just increases chances of googlebot crawling through your entire site. There is some great content on this site too, from the desktop backgrounds to articles about dogs, and puppies.

3. Dairien.com- http://www.dairien.com

This time a darker stain on the wood! This, and the following sites move from using the wood as a background, to using it as a header. I think I found this website in a CSS web gallery whilst looking around for inspiration. This site implements a grid system, which works very well. In fact, the site is so well presented instead of worrying what to look at first, I just want to stay for ages, and look at everything. For some reason, I love the form at the bottom of every page.

4. Third and Grand - http://thirdandgrand.com

Third and Grand boast that they create amazing websites. I have to 100% agree with them. I cannot even do this site justice by describing all of the fantastic design features: all I can suggest is you visit it and look for yourself. I like the use of colour, and like how to wooden panel is used across the top for navigation purposes.

5. Enrichmint - http://enrichmint.com

I am about 100% sure that this site is owned and maintained by the above company. The design is of the same high quality. I like how to wood is larger in this header, but it isn’t obtrusive and ‘in your face.’ I adore the site name and tagline too! I admire how every header (excluding the header image) is text, and how this must help in terms of Search Engine Optimisation.

Feeling Inspired?

So, you have just seen five lovely designs, all featuring the popular ‘wood’ theme. Each site is easy to read, and does not overload the visitor with information. Perhaps you would like to download a wood grain for yourself, and try to replicate a similar design?

Want To Download Dark Wood Grain For Your Website: ~zygat3r provides one here, on deviantArt.

Update: Bittbox offers lots of hi-res wood texture photographs for use on your website.

Also: Try searching for wood, or woodgrain on http://www.sxc.hu for free images. I found quite a few good ones when I had a look earlier!!

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