Behind the Scenes: Designing Templates That Feel Like Home
Why I choose soft colors over stark layouts, and how I test every template before it reaches you.
When I first started making Notion templates, I looked at what was popular: a lot of dark mode, heavy icons, and dense databases. They looked productive, but they didn't feel like me. I wanted to open my dashboard and feel a little exhale, not a rush of adrenaline.
So I started from a different place. I picked a palette of warm cream, dusty rose, and soft sage. I chose simple, rounded fonts. I reduced the number of properties to only what you actually need — because a template with 50 fields isn't helpful, it's overwhelming.
Every template goes through a two-week test period where I use it myself. I note what I skip, what confuses me, what I wish was different. Then I revise until it's intuitive. The goal is that you open it and immediately know where to click, no tutorial required.