Tumbleweed Stained Glass — Website Redesign

A full website redesign for Tumbleweed Stained Glass, a locally owned Mesa art glass shop specializing in custom stained and leaded glass, retail supplies, repairs, restoration, and classes.

The goal of the redesign is to create a warmer, clearer, and more visually immersive online presence that reflects the beauty of the work while making it easier for customers to explore services, view examples, and get in touch.

ROLE

Web Design, Visual Design, Content Structure, WordPress Development

Focus

Artisan visual direction, service clarity, gallery organization, local business trust-building

built with

WordPress, Elementor, Custom CSS, Responsive Design

Overview

Tumbleweed Stained Glass is a long-standing stained glass shop offering custom stained and leaded glass, retail supplies, repairs, restoration, and classes.

The existing website had a lot of useful information, but the redesign was an opportunity to make the online experience feel more like the work itself: textured, detailed, colorful, warm, and rooted in craft.

Rather than treating the site as a simple local business page, the redesign centers Tumbleweed as part gallery, part service business, part learning space, and part neighborhood resource.

The existing website holds a lot of useful information, but the redesign is an opportunity to better match the online experience to the quality, texture, and history of the physical work. Rather than treating the site as a simple list of pages, the redesign centers the shop as a craft-based local institution: part gallery, part service business, part learning space, and part neighborhood resource.

The need

The site needed to speak to several different audiences at once: homeowners looking for custom glass, artists looking for supplies, people interested in classes, and customers looking for repairs or restoration.

The main challenge was creating a clearer path through all of those offerings without losing the personality and history of the shop.

The redesign needed to make the business feel established and trustworthy while giving the work more room to shine visually.

Redesign goals

01 Make the work feel as beautiful online as it does in person.
The site needed larger imagery, stronger visual rhythm, and design details that echo the feeling of stained glass.

02 Clarify the service paths.

Visitors should be able to quickly understand whether they are looking for custom windows, repairs, supplies, classes, or inspiration.

03 Create a more usable gallery experience.
Because stained glass is highly visual, the gallery needed to feel like a central part of the site instead of an afterthought.

04 Build trust quickly.
The site needed to highlight the shop’s experience, local presence, and hands-on knowledge early in the browsing experience.

Approach

01 — Lead with the craft

The redesign starts with stronger visual impact. Large images, decorative framing, and warm colors help communicate the feeling of stained glass before visitors read through the details.

Instead of opening like a generic service site, the homepage is designed to feel handmade, local, and visually specific.

02 — Organize the services around customer needs

I structured the site around the main reasons someone would visit: custom stained glass, repairs and restoration, retail supplies, classes, and gallery browsing.

This makes the site easier to navigate for different types of visitors without overwhelming them with too much information at once.

03 — Use the gallery as proof of trust

For a stained glass business, the work itself is one of the strongest trust-builders. The redesign gives project images more space and treats the gallery as a key part of the customer decision path.

The goal is for visitors to quickly understand the range, detail, and quality of the shop’s work.

Visual direction

The visual direction is inspired by stained glass, desert color, handmade craft, and vintage ornamental design.

The redesign pulls from warm earth tones, glassy jewel colors, textured backgrounds, and decorative borders. The goal is not to make the site feel old-fashioned, but to create a modern local business website that still honors the history and materiality of the craft.

Design references include Art Nouveau curves, Art Deco framing, desert light, solder lines, glass texture, and hand-drawn ornamental details.

Design Decisions

A MORE VISUAL HOMEPAGE

The homepage is designed to lead with beauty and clarity. Strong imagery, a clear intro, and direct service pathways help visitors understand the business quickly.

SERVICE CARDS FOR DIFFERENT CUSTOMER NEEDS

Custom windows, repairs, supplies, classes, and gallery browsing are separated into clear sections so visitors can find the path that matches their needs.

DECORATIVE FRAMING AND TEXTURE

Borders, layered image treatments, and subtle background details help the site feel more connected to stained glass without making the layout difficult to use.

GALLERY-FIRST CREDIBILITY

The redesign treats the gallery as evidence of skill, not just decoration. Larger images and clearer categories help customers imagine what is possible for their own homes or projects.

CLEARER CONTACT FLOW

The contact path is simplified so visitors can quickly call, visit, email, or request more information without digging through the site.

outcome

The final redesign will give Tumbleweed Stained Glass a more polished and visually expressive online presence while making the site easier to use for homeowners, artists, students, and local customers.

The new site will better reflect the quality of the shop’s work, clarify available services, and create a stronger bridge between browsing online and visiting or contacting the shop.

This section will be updated with final screenshots, responsive views, and client notes once the redesign is complete.

What This Project Reinforced

This project is an opportunity to design for a business with real history, visual richness, and local trust.

The challenge is not inventing an identity from scratch, but translating an existing craft practice into a website that feels more organized, beautiful, and alive.

A strong local business website does not need to feel generic. It can be useful, easy to navigate, and still feel deeply connected to the material, place, and people behind the work.