match WP to existing site

build own theme or change existing?

[smallcompany]

I may get to a point where a part of the website (something like knowledge base) runs on WordPress. The rest of the site is built in Bootstrap, static HTML.
If going ahead with this, I would need to match the appearance of the WP to the rest of the site (maintained in Dreamweaver).

I know I could:

- grab some of the well known flexible (existing) themes, and turn it to be like the site, as much as possible
- build my own (new) theme, based on the existing HTML template

From your experience, I wonder what would be the easiest way of doing it?
The WP part does not need to be identical, but some parts (like main navigation) should be like within the site.
Would it be possible to have some sort of HTML frame and then WP part within?

If building my own theme, are there any implications like security issues or anything else I should be worried about - more than with any other WP installation?

Thank you

[not2easy]

You can use both WP and static HTML together side by side within the root directory and use the same fonts/colors/backgrounds and branding images for both. The WP part of the site will not be identical/indistinguishable to the HTML pages but it can be similar enough that few visitors could spot the differences. Can you get to an exact match? Yes, probably - but with much higher maintenance imo.

Building your own WP theme is a different matter because WP pages are built on the fly using data and you can't just drop in a HTML template or templates. You can use CSS to co-ordinate the look, but WP has many functions which are more difficult to manage on static pages - such as dates, comments, categories and tags to name a few examples. If you have not used WP before, I would suggest a trial run at wordpress.com where you can set up a personal site and try it free.

I have a few sites that are built this way, some have the WP installed in a subdirectory and aliased to the root but there's no advantage in doing it that way, it just happened because I already had many pages doing fine when I added WP to the site. Static HTML pages add no security risk to WP, however WP out of the box is not terribly secure. There are many discussions here about ways you can improve WP security.

[dougwilson]

When I did this I tried a bunch of themes and settled on the bones theme. And yes, as suggested, set up a test site.

[ergophobe]

There are Bootstrap-based Wordpress themes. Why not start with one of those?