I have been at it since 9 AM. Now it’s 4:30 PM, and I have finally accomplished what I set out to do—with the help of AI.
A Bit About My Background
I’m not new to website building. I started back in the GeoCities era with the Yahoo Pagebuilder. Shortly after that I discovered some free html lessons on the website by a professor in California :). It was probably around 2003 and I taught myself basic html from his website. So I would really write in html, and I thought it was real magic!
When CSS emerged, I taught myself the basics and created personal projects using both. Later, I transitioned to WordPress, which was faster and easier.
For over two decades, I’ve had WordPress blogs, but I never learned PHP or any deeper programming concepts. Over time, CSS became increasingly complex, and I started noticing that modern templates felt overly intricate, probably because much of the code is now generated by programs.
I stopped actively building websites when responsive design became standard. Creating a fully responsive site from scratch seemed overwhelming, and I no longer had the time to maintain it as a hobby.
So I chose WordPress templates that handled responsiveness automatically.
But that came with a price: customization now required tweaking.
The AI That Helped Me
First, let’s be honest about what “AI” means here. It’s ChatGPT. I was testing it to see if it could help me build this very website that you’re looking at. What started as a simple attempt to set up a site quickly spiraled into something much deeper than I expected.
After brainstorming about style, aura, and content, I embarked on a quest for a theme that matched my vision. I knew exactly what I wanted, but ChatGPT couldn’t find it. Instead, it kept suggesting similar themes, assuring me that with some tweaking, we could achieve the desired result.
So I kept tweaking… and asking how to tweak… even though I hadn’t touched CSS in ages! Somehow, I still remembered how to read it. The real problem was that every theme had its most useful settings locked behind a paywall, missing entirely, or just fell apart aesthetically after too many modifications.
It was frustrating.
At times, we had breakthroughs, but I wasn’t happy with the overall look. My previous website had the perfect design. No matter how much I tried, nothing felt quite right.
From Tweaks to Desperation
After hours of trial and error, I began questioning everything.
Maybe I was going about this the wrong way?
So I asked ChatGPT:
“What if we just create a theme from scratch? How many files does a WordPress theme even have?”
All I wanted was a clean, simple design that was responsive. We even started planning how to create the theme from the ground up.
Then, I had a breakthrough moment.
I went to the Wayback Machine to retrieve a screenshot of my previous website and showed it to ChatGPT. That’s when I discovered a link to the original theme’s developer. Could we identify the theme from this?
Excited, I shared my discovery with ChatGPT and explained the new possibilities. But before we even had to reverse-engineer anything, I had another realization:
I HAD A FULL BACKUP OF MY SITE.
Not just files—the entire database too. 😆
I had saved it without ever expecting to need it, but thanks to ChatGPT, I opened up the SQL file and searched for the theme name. And there it was!
To make things even better, the theme was still available in WordPress’s official theme library.
What Did I Learn About AI?
ChatGPT didn’t find the theme for me.
It didn’t directly solve my problems (though to be honest it did directly give me brilliant css code later).
But it organized my thoughts, kept me moving forward, and made problem-solving smoother.
It was like having a logic assistant, keeping me on track when frustration could have easily made me give up.
The Final Stretch: Colors, Images, and… Frustration
Once the theme was in place, I moved on to images and colors.
I finally settled on a design after what felt like an eternity. Feeling confident, I made a crucial mistake:
I asked ChatGPT to critique the website objectively by analyzing a screenshot.
Big mistake. 😆
Suddenly, it started suggesting all kinds of enhancements—shadows, glows, image fading, blending effects. Some ideas were great, but when we spent an hour trying CSS fixes that refused to work, I had an epiphany:
“Man, can’t I just edit the image in Photoshop and create this gradient effect?”
ChatGPT: “Yes.”
And that was a game-changer.
A Breakthrough in Photoshop
ChatGPT taught me how to do it quickly, guiding me through the exact steps. It turned out to be way faster and easier than trying to force CSS to do something unnatural.
This was one of the most valuable discoveries of the entire process.
The Hardest Battle: Rounded Corners
Navigation bar? Rounded.
Main container? Absolute nightmare.
We tried everything to get the content boxes to have rounded corners.
One of the biggest discoveries I made: ChatGPT can analyze uploaded CSS files, but not always. It couldn’t process zip files and, for some reason, struggled to identify what was controlling the main container’s borders.
No matter how many times I inspected elements, copied styles, and uploaded screenshots, ChatGPT kept missing the key CSS rule.
But here’s the thing: ChatGPT kept pushing me in the right direction.
It insisted repeatedly that I needed to inspect elements with F12 and check the container IDs. I didn’t think much of it at first, but after some time, I realized:
It was right.
Had it not kept nudging me back to the inspection tool, I would have never found the right element to modify.
Instead of giving me the answer, it led me to figure it out myself—and that made the victory even more satisfying.
Eventually, we found the culprit line together—and it worked! I finally had rounded corners and a massive chat history that now lags when loading. 😂
Was It Worth It?
The hours of trial and error?
The frustration?
The loop of breaking and fixing things?
Honestly? Yes.
I just hope I don’t decide to change the design again anytime soon. 😆
Final Thoughts
This was one of the longest but most satisfying projects I’ve worked on with AI. It pushed my patience, my problem-solving skills, and even my Photoshop knowledge.
I don’t think anyone else would have gone to these lengths just to recreate a website’s aesthetic—but for me, it mattered.
And thanks to AI, I didn’t just get the look I wanted—I learned something in the process.