After downloading the zip file, there are two possibilities for installing your new theme:
- Navigate to “Appearance -> Themes” and switch to tab “Install Themes -> Upload”. Click the “Choose File” button and navigate to the downloaded zip file. Click the “Install Now” button and wait a few seconds till WordPress does its job.
- The second approach involves unzipping the file first and uploading the theme folder to your WordPress installation. More precisely – to the “wp-content/themes/” folder, so the result structure looks like “wp-content/themes/theme-name/”.
After you’ve finished any of the previous procedures, go to “Appearance -> Themes” and activate the newly installed theme. That’s all.
If you are installing the theme on a site with already existing content (like posts), you probably need to recreate all image thumbnails! Otherwise they won’t be displayed with the correct sizes on the new theme. The good news is that you don’t need to do it manually – there are plugins that can do the job for you. A good one is Regenerate Thumbnails. Just run it AFTER installing and activating the new theme and wait till it completes its job.