What Are Color Themes in Squarespace? (And How to Use Them Like a Pro)

When you're customizing your Squarespace site, it's easy to focus on your main color palette—those five core colors that define your brand’s look and feel. But behind the scenes, there's another powerful design tool working to keep everything cohesive and beautiful: color themes.

If you’ve ever changed a color in your palette and noticed your buttons, headings, or background sections shift automatically—you’ve already seen color themes in action.

So, what exactly are color themes? And how can you use them to your advantage? Let’s break it down.

What Are Color Themes?

Color themes in Squarespace are pre-set combinations of your brand colors that are automatically applied to different sections of your website. Instead of manually assigning colors to every heading, button, or background, Squarespace uses these themes to style elements consistently across your site.

Each color theme adjusts things like:

• Headings and paragraph text

• Section background colors

• Buttons (text and background)

• Text links

• Accordion or FAQ styles

• Bullet points and list items

• Carousel cards (like testimonials in sliders)

• And more

Every theme pulls from your main color palette in slightly different ways—some are lighter, some darker, and some spotlight your accent color. This helps you create contrast and variation while maintaining a polished, on-brand look.

Where to Find Color Themes

To access and explore your color themes:

1. Click the paintbrush icon in your Squarespace editor to open Styles

2. Click Colors in the Styles panel

3. At the top, you’ll see your color palette—and just below, several color themes with names like Light 1, Dark 2, Accent, etc.

Most templates come with around 5–6 pre-set color themes. These are the options you’ll assign to individual sections of your site to control their visual style.

How Color Themes Work with Sections

Each section on your Squarespace site can be assigned one color theme. This theme determines how elements within that section are styled—no need to adjust colors manually one by one.

Here’s how it works:

• Want a bold call-to-action section? Use the Accent theme to make your buttons stand out.

• Looking for a clean, minimal About section? Try Light 1 or Light 2 for soft backgrounds.

• Want a high-contrast testimonial section? A Dark theme will make quotes and text pop.

How to Apply a Color Theme to a Section:

1. Hover over a section and click EDIT SECTION

2. In the left panel, find the Color Theme dropdown

3. Choose the theme that best fits the vibe of that section

NOTE: You can quickly preview different themes in real-time to see what works best—great for testing layout contrast and visual balance.

Can You Customize Color Themes?

Yes! While you can’t rename or create entirely new color themes, you can customize how each theme pulls from your palette—right inside the editor.

To customize a theme:

1. In the Colors Style panel, click on the color theme you'd like to adjust

2. Scroll through the editable elements—text, buttons, links, accordions, and more

3. Click on any element to edit its color

NOTE: For most elements you can even click directly on an element on your page (like a heading or button) to jump straight to that styling option in the panel after opening the color theme in Step 1.

Most commonly customized elements include:

• Headings and paragraph text

• Linked text (hover and default states)

• Button background and text colors

• Accordion icons and dividers

• List Item Carousel card backgrounds (used in testimonials)

How to Know Which Color Theme Is Applied

To see which color theme a section is using:

1. Open the Color Styles panel (click the paintbrush → Colors)

2. Hover over a section on your site

3. Look in the top-right corner of the section—the active color theme name will appear

This makes it easy to edit or fine-tune the correct theme without guessing.

A Note on Custom Overrides

Squarespace gives you some flexibility to override color theme styles directly within a section—but not for everything.

You can override:

• Heading and paragraph text colors (great for special one-off designs)

You cannot override:

• Bullet point styles

• Some button colors and icons

These still pull directly from the assigned color theme. To keep things cohesive and frustration-free, it’s best to make changes within the color theme panel whenever possible.

Final Thoughts

Color themes are one of Squarespace’s most powerful (and underrated) design tools. They help you:

• Create visual contrast without chaos

• Draw attention to the right sections

• Keep your site clean, consistent, and professionally styled

• Save serious time when building or updating your pages

By understanding how color themes work—and how to customize them—you’ll have more creative control over your site’s look, without getting lost in endless manual tweaks.

Need Help Customizing?

Want a professionally styled site without the overwhelm? We’ve got you covered.

• Essentials Setup – Perfect for small businesses who need a polished, quick launch with light customization

• Custom Pro – Ideal for brands that want a fully personalized look, extra flexibility, and custom functionality

Explore our setup packages or browse our template shop to find the perfect fit for your next launch.

Happy designing!