We have just updated all our Drupal themes and created a separate version for each of them that works with the new version of Drupal, Drupal 6. This new release of Drupal is still a release candidate (which means that you should likely not use it in a live site just yet), but that has not stopped us from porting our templates to it. Our free Drupal themes are also available for Drupal 6 now.

At last, after over a year of coding, testing, tweaking and fine-tuning, the new version of Joomla, Joomla 1.5 is finally out and stable. Congratulations to the community for this is a huge step forward. Joomla has become a solid content management system, and 1.5 is going in the right direction.

In a year-end technology recap, the National Public Radio (in the United States) mentioned Joomla and Drupal as two of the top web gadgets of 2007. We at CMS Lounge are extremely happy to be working with both, and we think you should do so too.

So, here’s to a 2008 that will see Joomla and Drupal get better and bigger, while remaining simple and elegant!

We just released two free templates for Joomla 1.5. Tem_lightframe is a clean design, with a dropdown menu, fully-tableless code, minimalist styling and clever design (see live demo). Tem_highergrounds is an adaption of a template with the same name by StyleShout, converted to Joomla by maintaining the clean code and beautiful color scheme (see live demo). You can download both templates for free by clicking on the downloads link.

We have also updated our Joomla 1.5 template features page with more information on our newest features. All templates no include parameters that control several display options.

Tem_petzone is our first Joomla 1.5 only template. It’s a great, simple design, with multiple module positions, a colorful design and beautiful typography. It features an original photo of our office cat, Tessa. It uses a two-column layout and some of the coolest new features of Joomla 1.5 including template overrides for a full tableless layout, template parameters that let you control some design elements, full XHTML/CSS validation and as usual, minimal code that puts your content first.

Check out the template page and play around with its live demo. This template costs only $34.

Tem_design, as the name would suggest, is a template with a creative look. It still has a minimalist layout and a soft color scheme. The frontpage is image-driven, which means that it can be easily customized to use a Flash rotator. Inside pages are clean and use a two-column layout with a right sidebar.

Check out the store page and play around with its live demo. This template costs only $29.

Tem_helix is a soft, creative template for Joomla and Mambo. It has a minimalist layout and a soothing color scheme. It features a prominent homepage image, which can also be used as a Flash rotator module, or an image rotator. The inner pages are clean, and the text is very readable, which makes the template suitable for any site with extensive content.

Check out the store page and play around with its live demo. This template costs only $29.

Tem_okmusic is a creative template for Joomla and Mambo. It features a dark color scheme, a beautifully minimalist front page, and two-column inside pages. It’s a great design for an arts-related website, or as the main image suggests, for a band. (That said, we’re sure you can find countless more creative ways to use it)

Check out the store page and play around with its live demo. This template costs only $29.

I was reviewing the site today, page by page, and I couldn’t believe that we last released a free template in February. So, to fix that, we are releasing our next creative work for free, for both Joomla and Drupal.

The newest creation is called trentco, and it is a minimalist and stylish template. It features a dark background, with a white frame in the middle for content and space for sporadic highlights on the side. It’s a perfect design for a photographic site, or a business that knows the importance of simplicity and ease of use. The template features our clean code, minimalist design and of course, source files for your mix-and-match pleasures. Check out the Joomla live demo, or the Drupal live demo.

Download the Drupal version or the Joomla version (and remember that we have lots more just like it!)

We’ve released a host of new templates for Joomla. Here they go:

Tem_archigreen is a funky little template for Joomla and Mambo. It features a greenish theme, with a boxy design. The layout is centered with two usable columns, and a main banner image on the homepage. This is a design suitable for minimalist and edgy websites, be they commercial, not-for-profit or personal. The code is, as usual, clean, CSS-driven and lightweight.

Check out the template and its live demo.

Tem_centerstage is a beautiful template, initially designed by the creative people over at freecsstemplates.org (html/css package available for free on their site). The template has a gorgeous color scheme, centered layout and impeccable CSS-driven layout. It will definitely make your Joomla site look good and work well. The cool color scheme makes this a very flexible template, suitable for a whole array of purposes.

Here is the store page and its live demo.

Tem_software is a minimalist and classy Joomla template (that doesn’t feel like it’s Joomla at all). It features a smooth, image-driven homepage, great typography and a clean two-column layout for the inner pages. It’s a very well-designed template, that can be used in several effective ways.

Here is the store page and its live demo.

Due to a customer’s request, we’ve just converted 10 templates for Joomla 1.5. They are: tem_neosenics, tem_palado, tem_style, tem_softcom, tem_viva, tem_earthday, tem_cosburg, tem_frankton, tem_greentech, tem_leo. All 10 templates now include versions for Joomla 1.5 as well as for Joomla 1.0.* (so if you’re just testing 1.5 and would like the option to revert to Joomla 1.0, you can still do that with these templates).

Note: If you’re looking to get one of our templates for Joomla 1.5, send us an email and we’ll bump it up and have it ready for you sooner.

Tem_power is a creative template for Joomla and Mambo. It features a funky layout with contrasting colors: white, black and red. The layout is centered with two columns and a product-centric front page. This is a cool design, suitable for tech sites or creative businesses.

Check out the store page and play around with its live demo.

Tem_loulou is a clean, creative template for Joomla and Mambo. It is also our 80th Joomla template (and there are a few more coming next week). Tem_loulou is a light-coded CSS-driven template, with a creative left-aligned frontpage and a two-column layout. This template costs only $29.

Check out the store page and play around with its live demo.

As many eager users know, Joomla published a Release Candidate for its new version, Joomla 1.5 (download here), which is a faster, more robust version of this amazing content management system. We have spent the last week or so trying out the new version, and we’re generally impressed with it.

More importantly, we’ve decided to start porting our templates to Joomla 1.5. In the coming weeks, we will start to update our most popular templates for Joomla 1.5, and with new purchases you will receive two versions of the templates: one for Joomla 1.0.* (all Joomla 1 versions) and one for Joomla 1.5.

In the meantime, be sure to know that our templates work with Joomla 1.5 as is, by using the Legacy mambot (this is essentially a little plugin that allows Joomla 1.5 to use templates from older versions of the software).

Tem_elrancho is a clean, creative template for Joomla and Mambo. It’s a light-coded CSS-driven template, with a creative centered frontpage and a two-column layout. It’s color scheme and general look-and-feel is geared towards sites for restaurants, bars or lounges (but, of course, you can easily use it for other types of sites). This template costs only $29.

Check out tem_elrancho’s store page and play around with its live demo.

Tem_generic is a clean, centered template for Joomla and Mambo. It’s a light-coded CSS-driven template, slightly corporate-looking, with a high-contrast black and white color scheme. This template costs only $25.

Check out this template’s store page and its live demo.

The four small images above here are our newest Drupal themes. They’re all clean, creative designs you can plug into your Drupal site and build something pretty and functional. Here they go, from left to right:

Dru_lonalester: creative three-column template with a nifty layout and cool color scheme.
Dru_homeopathy: clean, minimalist and vibrant bluish design.
Dru_alphainsurance: three-column layout, centered, with the style and cleanliness that’s now a CMS Lounge trademark.
Dru_realestate: creative dark template geared towards real estate agents, but suitable for anybody with a bit of an edge.

For all of the above, the live demos are here.