title: How To Customize a Magento Theme and Retain Its Source
body: <p>Running Magento 1.7.0.2 (latest)</p>
  
  <p>I downloaded a free theme and installed it - no problem.</p>
  
  <p>I wish to start making subtle edits to it but I do not want to touch the source. I want to make the edits in a directory where they will render and override the base custom theme yet not get trashed if I were to upgrade the free theme should a newer version get released.</p>
  
  <p>My theme is installed at:</p>
  
  <pre><code>.../app/design/frontend/default/the_free_theme/
  ../skin/frontend/default/the_free_theme/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What directory structure would I create to copy selected theme files from the custom theme so that they overrode the base file but would not get deleted in the event of an upgrade?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you for helping. </p>