Checkered Cottage

The Checkered Cottage is a one-of-a-kind shop established in 1999, located at 135 West Jefferson in Kirkwood, Missouri. This quaint, historic St. Louis suburb is an ideal home for the Checkered Cottage's blend of art, craft, and home products, including a wide selection of paper crafting supplies alongside beautiful home decor.

Beyond retail, Checkered Cottage also runs classes, which meant their website needed to support two different kinds of visitors: shoppers browsing products and customers signing up to learn a craft.

The Checkered Cottage needed a site that was easier to read and, just as important, easier for their own team to manage, especially the process of creating and updating classes. We had originally built them a custom backend to handle class creation and subscriber emails, which worked, but it meant every new class or update depended on custom code rather than a system the team could run themselves. On top of that, the team wasn't especially tech-savvy, so any new system needed to come with real training, not just a handoff.

We worked with the Checkered Cottage to redesign their existing site and move it onto modern, standard tools: WordPress with optimized plugins, rather than a fully custom backend. That shift meant the team could rely on well-supported tools instead of code built just for them, while still getting the specific functionality their class-based business needed.

Because the team wasn't deeply technical, we built in time specifically for training. Rather than rushing them to a deadline, we deployed the redesigned site to a demo environment first and spent several hours making sure the team was genuinely comfortable with the new workflow before anything went live to production.

Modernized WordPress redesign

We redesigned the Checkered Cottage's site to modernize it using WordPress and optimized plugins, replacing a fully custom backend with a system built on standard, well-supported tools.

Custom class management

We implemented the Events Manager plugin to let the Checkered Cottage create and manage their own classes, backed by custom PHP integration in the backend for additional functionality the plugin didn't cover out of the box. We also built a custom function giving them the ability to add new teachers and associate them with specific classes, a workflow specific enough to their business that no off-the-shelf plugin handled it directly.

Content management

Through the WordPress CMS, the Checkered Cottage team can now update pages and upload PDFs, images, and other media attachments themselves, without needing a developer for routine content changes.

Website training

We trained the Checkered Cottage team on how to use their new system, taking the time to make sure they understood the workflow rather than treating training as a formality. The demo deployment gave them a safe space to practice before the site went live.

The Checkered Cottage moved from a fully custom backend, requiring outside help for class updates, to a WordPress-based system their own team can run. Class creation, page updates, and media uploads that once depended on custom development now happen directly through the CMS. The training-first approach, including a demo environment and hands-on time before launch, meant the team was genuinely ready to manage their own site by the time it went live, rather than left to figure it out after the fact.

We've managed the Checkered Cottage's website for years, a relationship that continues today.

The Checkered Cottage project shows what a redesign can look like when the goal isn't just a new look, but a system the client can genuinely run themselves, with training that actually sticks. If your business needs a WordPress site built around a specific workflow like class or event management, along with hands-on training for your team, explore: