Add widget area to header in TwentyEleven child theme

I am also trying to add a widget area to the header. I want it to go just above the search box. But am having problems!

So far I have…..
(1) registered the widget by adding the following to the functions.php in my child theme:

<!-- adding phone number above search box - This will register the widget area-->
	<?php
    register_sidebar( array(
        'name' => __( 'Header Widget', 'twentyeleven-child' ),
        'id' => 'header-widget',
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget' => "</div>",
        'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
        'after_title' => '</h3>',
    ) );
    ?>

(2) Added the following to header.php in my child theme:

<!-- adding widget to hold phone number above search box-->
            <div><?php techild_header_widget(); ?></div>

just above the following lines that were already there:

<div class="only-search<?php if ( ! empty( $header_image ) ) : ?> with-image<?php endif; ?>">
				<?php get_search_form(); ?>
				</div>

(3)Added some style in the css file of the child theme:

/* for phone number in header widget */
header#branding .widget{
    position: absolute;
    top: 2em;
    rightright: 7.6%;
	color: #c02336; font-size: 18px;
    }

(4) In the admin panel, I can see the header widget area now listed in the widget areas. I drug and dropped the “text” widget over and used it to type in the text I wanted to display (which is a phone number).

But nothing is showing up on the site. (at least I didn’t get any of the dreaded fatal error messages when the page loaded) WHERE DID I GO WRONG?

in step(2) you could just use something like:

<?php if ( is_active_sidebar( 'header-widget' ) ) : ?>
<div><?php dynamic_sidebar( 'header-widget' ); ?></div>
<?php endif; ?>

Hi Jan1979,
Thanks for sharing the child theme. I added a widget on the header (below the navigation/menu) and I want to add a background image to that area. How do I do it? Do I use z-index in css?Thank you and thanks anyone who answers.

@pikpi1965

please start you own topic

– your problem is different as you are not even using the same theme.