When I decided to rebuild my personal website, I had a clear vision: create something minimal, elegant, and blazing fast. After exploring various frameworks, I settled on Astro combined with Tailwind CSS v4.
Why Astro?
Astro offers the perfect balance between static site generation and dynamic components. Its “Islands Architecture” allows me to keep most of the site static while adding interactivity only where needed. This results in incredibly fast page loads and a great user experience.
Design Principles
For the design, I embraced minimalism with these core principles:
- Clean typography with careful attention to hierarchy
- Generous white space to give content room to breathe
- Limited color palette with strategic accent colors
- Subtle animations that enhance rather than distract
Implementation
The implementation process was straightforward:
- Set up an Astro project with Tailwind CSS v4
- Created a design system using Tailwind’s utility classes
- Built reusable components for the site structure
- Added content with a focus on readability and clarity
- Optimized for performance and accessibility
Challenges
One challenge was adapting to Tailwind CSS v4’s new syntax and features. The documentation was incredibly helpful, and the migration was worth it for the improved developer experience.
Results
The final website scores 100 on all Lighthouse metrics: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO. The static-first approach means the site loads almost instantly, even on slower connections.
Conclusion
Building a personal website with Astro and Tailwind CSS v4 was a delightful experience. The combination of these modern tools allowed me to create exactly what I envisioned: a fast, elegant, and minimalist personal presence on the web.
If you’re considering a similar approach for your own site, I highly recommend this stack. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about my implementation!