diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 674a8ef..37255c1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ typical workflow.
 After ingesting the data with `lieu ingest`, you can also use lieu to search the
 corpus in the terminal with `lieu search`.
 
+## Theming
+
+Tweak the `theme` values of the config, specified below.
+
 ## Config
 
 The config file is written in [TOML](https://toml.io/en/).
@@ -68,6 +72,12 @@ name = "Merveilles Webring"
 url = "https://webring.xxiivv.com"
 port = 10001
 
+[theme]
+# colors specified in hex (or valid css names) which determine the theme of the lieu instance
+foreground = "#ffffff"
+background = "#000000"
+links = "#ffffff"
+
 [data]
 # the source file should contain the crawl command's output 
 source = "data/crawled.txt"
diff --git a/html/head.html b/html/head.html
index 01d5c25..1e54e43 100644
--- a/html/head.html
+++ b/html/head.html
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
         </style>
 
         <link href="/assets/style.css" rel="stylesheet">
+        <link href="/assets/theme.css" rel="stylesheet">
 
         <link rel="icon" href="/assets/favicon.ico">
         <link rel="icon" href="/assets/logo.svg" type="image/svg+xml">
diff --git a/server/server.go b/server/server.go
index a5bec6b..da9a22b 100644
--- a/server/server.go
+++ b/server/server.go
@@ -227,7 +227,23 @@ func (h RequestHandler) renderView(res http.ResponseWriter, tmpl string, view *T
 	}
 }
 
+func WriteTheme(config types.Config) {
+	theme := config.Theme
+  // no theme is set, use the default
+  if theme.Foreground == "" {
+    return
+  }
+	colors := fmt.Sprintf(`:root {
+  --primary: %s;
+  --secondary: %s;
+  --link: %s;
+}\n`, theme.Foreground, theme.Background, theme.Links)
+	err := os.WriteFile("html/assets/theme.css", []byte(colors), 0644)
+	util.Check(err)
+}
+
 func Serve(config types.Config) {
+	WriteTheme(config)
 	db := database.InitDB(config.Data.Database)
 	handler := RequestHandler{config: config, db: db}
 
diff --git a/types/types.go b/types/types.go
index d27e0d9..c9e2b25 100644
--- a/types/types.go
+++ b/types/types.go
@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ type Config struct {
 		URL         string `json:url`
 		Port        int    `json:port`
 	} `json:general`
+	Theme struct {
+		Foreground string `json:"foreground"`
+		Background string `json:"background"`
+		Links      string `json:"links"`
+	} `json:"theme"`
 	Data struct {
 		Source     string `json:source`
 		Database   string `json:database`
diff --git a/util/util.go b/util/util.go
index aa6259d..070a518 100644
--- a/util/util.go
+++ b/util/util.go
@@ -105,6 +105,12 @@ name = "Sweet Webring"
 url = "https://example.com/"
 port = 10001
 
+[theme]
+# colors specified in hex (or valid css names) which determine the theme of the lieu instance
+foreground = "#ffffff"
+background = "#000000"
+links = "#ffffff"
+
 [data]
 # the source file should contain the crawl command's output 
 source = "data/crawled.txt"