Rather than simply trying to group together the best WordPress Themes of 2011, I want to focus on the most innovative WordPress themes of the year. This list showcases themes that really pushed the boundaries of WordPress, taking it far beyond simple blogs, and that include creative designs and new features. These are themes that can make your website stand out from the crowd and help you grow your business or blog.

With so many great WordPress themes, it can be tough to check out all of theme, but these are the themes that have really stood out to me this year. Let’s get started!

Theme: Clipper WordPress Coupon Theme

Designer: App Themes

App Themes’ Clipper Coupon Theme is one of the most innovative WordPress themes of 2011. Clipper is a great example of taking WordPress far beyond being blogging software. With online online coupon use increasing 92% over the last couple years, coupon websites have  been a great affiliate marketing business. Clipper makes setting up an outstanding coupon website easy and very affordable. Read the full details of this theme: Clipper WordPress Coupon Theme, or download this theme here.

Theme: Soundcheck

Designer: Press75

Soundcheck WordPress Music Theme from Press75 is a modern WordPress theme built with HTML5 and CSS3, and is perfect for bands, artists, musicians, churches, DJ’s or any one else looking to provide audio to your users. Read the full details of this theme: Soundcheck WordPress Music Theme, or download the theme here.

Theme: Platform Pro 2.0

Designer: Pagelines

Platform Pro is a WordPress theme framework, rather than a specific theme, and the recent 2.0 update brought the framework to a new level. Featuring an innovative and easy-to-use drag and drop interface, Platform Pro 2.0 makes building and customizing your own theme incredibly easy. Read the full details of this theme framework: PageLines Platform Pro Framework, or download the theme here.

Theme: DeCorum WordPress Real Estate Theme

Designer: ThemeShift

DeCorum is an engaging and easy to use WordPress Real Estate Theme from ThemeShift that showcases how powerful WordPress can be for business websites.  Check out this theme’s outstanding advanced search and sorting functionality, which is among the best of all the WordPress business themes available. Read the full details of this theme: DeCorum WordPress Real Estate Theme, or download this theme here.

Theme: BookClub

Designer: Woo Themes

Book Club is a child theme for Woo Theme’s Listing WordPress Directory Theme that greatly expands the functionality of the parent Theme. The theme includes a great ‘featured books’ carousel on the homepage, as well as an outstanding category page layout, which includes thumbnail images of books and the number of listings within each category. Don’t be thrown off by the theme’s name though if you’re business doesn’t sell books. While the theme was designed for books, with a bit of customization it can be a great option for a wide variety of business and directory websites. Read the full details of this theme: WordPress Book Club Listing Theme, or download the theme here.

Theme: Vacation Rental

Designer: Templatic

Templatic’s Vacation Rental is one of the best new WordPress themes of 2011. Vacation Rental is a unique WordPress business theme designed to let people rent out their homes, but it can also be a great option for bed & breakfasts, Inns and small hotels/motels, as well as a variety of other small businesses. Read the full details of this theme: WordPress Vacation Rental Theme, or download the theme here.

Theme: WordPress Daily Deal Theme

Designer: Templatic

With the enormous popularity of Daily Deal and Deal of the Day websites, it was only a matter of time before a creative theme developer built a great WordPress Daily Deal Theme. Tempaltic’s Daily Deal theme lets you easily set up a mid-level deals site where sellers can list their deals (digital products, coupons, vouchers, etc) and you, as an administrator, can approve, reject, edit and manage them. You can now take advantage of the power, flexibility and affordability of WordPress to run your own Daily Deal website, instead of dishing out large sums of cash for complex daily deal software. Read the full details of this theme: WordPress Daily Deals Theme, or download the theme here.

StoreBox WordPress eCommerce Theme

Designer: Templatic

eCommerce and Shopping Themes is one area where I felt WordPress lagged behind, compared to other eCommerce software, but themes like Templatic’s StoreBox are quickly changing that view. The StoreBox Shopping Theme includes many of the features you’d expect from expensive hosted eCommerce software, at a great price. Read the full details of this theme: StoreBox WordPress eCommerce Theme, or download this theme here.

Theme: eList WordPress Directory Theme 

Designer: Elegant Themes

eList is an an elegant and versatile WordPress Directory WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes. The theme is flexible enough to be used for a wide variety of websites, from business directories, to job boards, real estate listings and much more. The theme’s graphical homepage design is among the best of any WordPress directory themes available. Read the full details of this theme: eList WordPress Directory Theme, or download this theme here.

Theme: Quality Control

Designer: App Themes

Quality Control instantly turns WordPress into a simple and straight-forward ticketing and bug-tracking system. The theme lets you use WordPress to track our project development, is one of the first WordPress themes designed to really help the back-end of your business. I’ve continued to be very impressed with the innovative WordPress themes designed by App Themes. Read the full details of this theme: WordPress Quality Control Ticketing Theme, or download this theme here.

Theme: WP Executive

Designer: Contempo

WP Executive is a clean and modern Corporate WordPress Theme from Contempo that uses HTML5 and CSS3 to make navigation very fast and intuitive. WP Executive is flexible enough to work for corporate websites, or even eCommerce or affiliate marketing sites, and is one of the best corporate WordPress themes released in 2011. Be sure to check out the product filter on the theme’s demo. Read the full details of this theme: WP Executive Corporate WordPress Theme, or download the theme here.

Theme: ePhoto WordPress Photography Theme

Designer: Elegant Themes 

The ePhoto WordPress Gallery Theme features eye-popping rollover effects, a star rating system, and a cleverly designed image slider. While this WordPress portfolio theme has some great modern and elaborate graphics, it remains very easy for your visitors to use and navigate. Read the full details of this theme: ePhoto WordPress Photography Theme, or download the theme here.

Theme: Luscious WordPress Blog Theme

Designer: StudioPress

Luscious is a super-clean and eye-catching premium WordPress Blog theme from StudioPress. Luscious is a child theme for the great Genesis WordPress Framework. This blog theme’s colorful design will quickly grab your visitors attention, and the clean and organized layout will get them to stick around and devour your content. Read the full details of this theme: Luscious WordPress Blog Theme, or download this theme here.

Are there any other stand-out WordPress themes from 2011 that I missed? What are your picks for the best WordPress themes of 2011? The quality of WordPress themes has continued to amaze, and I’m looking forward to what 2012 brings!