HomemadeGuides.com looks like a sister site to Buildables.net previously reviewed as its topics are similar and the design is identical. The latter is also the reason why it's hard to review this site without repeating some of the exact same critiques and advice said for Buildables.net previously, especially given that even the topic doesn't offer enough differentiation to warrant significant changes in advised design improvements.

The nice touches of this theme are the background pattern, search box style, rounded corners, subscription box in the sidebar. Overall however it's still a relatively simplistic design. What it could use is a distinct logo instead of just the textual site title, something perhaps with a "do it yourself" or "homemade" motive, maybe a graphic of a toolbox that looks like a house..

Two blocks at the end of the sidebar could better look if they displayed below each other and expanded to full width of the sidebar because they look a little too squeezed as they currently are, especially the "recent guides" box which has many of its links using two lines of text as a result, which adds to the feel of clutter.

In the content area and article pages a little more margin between the title and the article could be used. Also instead of strong tags heading tags might be a better idea for subsections. Other than that the main issue are ads, their size, number, font size (bigger than the main content) and the fact that they in some articles distort the display of "share and enjoy" buttons (pushing and squeezing them to the side).

The comment form could look a little better if info input fields were closer together and their titles on the right to them and if main text area were styled to match the border of input fields above it.

Design Rating: 6/10

Focus:

"Homemade Guides" as the title of the site already provides a good hint which in combination with article titles immediately visible makes the purpose of the site pretty clear.

Focus Rating: 10/10

Content:

Nearly one hundred articles in eight categories contain instructions on how to make a variety of things at home, with subsections often corresponding to subtypes of what is being made. In some sections a list form could be used to make the instructions more easily readable and attractive. The last publisher article (and therefore first to display on the site) is one large paragraph however which is harder to read. This seems to be an exception however, but since it's the most prominently visible article at the moment it's worth fixing soon.

Overall though, articles don't beat around the bush much, as is usual for this publisher. We are given the introduction to what is being built and instructions on how to do it which make them quite useful.

Content Rating: 9/10