diff --git a/bin/bl-reload-gtk23 b/bin/bl-reload-gtk23
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..3864d38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/bl-reload-gtk23
@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#
+#    bl-reload-gtk23: Make GTK2/3 reload settings file changes
+#    Copyright (C) 2020 2ion <twoion@bunsenlabs.org>
+#
+#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+#    (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#    GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+from argparse import ArgumentParser, Namespace
+import Xlib.display # type: ignore
+import Xlib.protocol # type: ignore
+import logging
+import os
+import psutil # type: ignore
+import shutil
+import signal
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+DESCRIPTION = ("""
+After changing GTK2 and GTK3 configuration files, notify running GTK2 and GTK3
+clients to apply those changes. The notification mechanism used by GTK3 requires
+that xsettingsd is running. If it is installed and not running, the program will
+launch it. Note that xsettingsd does not read settings from GTK3's settings.ini
+- if information is changed, it must be changed in xsettingsd config files as well.
+
+EXIT CODES:
+   0 - both gtk2 and gtk3 clients notified successfully
+   1 - failed to notify gtk2 clients
+   2 - failed to notify gtk3 clients
+   3 - failed to notify gtk2 and gtk3 clients
+
+""")
+
+LOG_FORMAT = "%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(module)s %(funcName)s() : %(message)s"
+
+def getopts() -> Namespace:
+    ap = ArgumentParser(description=DESCRIPTION)
+    ap.add_argument("-d", "--debug", action="store_true", default=False, help="print debug information")
+    ap.add_argument("-f", "--force", action="store_true", default=False, help="ignore all errors")
+    opts = ap.parse_args()
+    if opts.debug:
+        logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, format=LOG_FORMAT)
+    else:
+        logging.basicConfig(level=logging.WARN, format=LOG_FORMAT)
+    return opts
+
+def sync_gtk2() -> None:
+   """ Tell GTK2 X11 clients to reload the GTK RC files and update their
+   appearance/settings if required. This implements this process without GTK/GDK
+   in order to be able to drop the dependency on the obsolete pygtk library.
+   GTK3/pygobject does not support GTK2.
+
+   This function will always fail on non-X11 platforms as the GTK2 client
+   notification mechanism is based on X.
+
+   This implementation is based on the following resources:
+      * From libgtk2 2.24.18:
+         * gdk_event_send_client_message_to_all_recurse()
+         * gdk_screen_broadcast_client_message()
+      * From kde-gtk-config https://github.com/KDE/kde-gtk-config/blob/a5d4ddb3b1a27ec2ee4e1b6957a98a57ad56d39c/gtkproxies/reload.c
+   """
+   display = Xlib.display.Display(display=os.getenv("DISPLAY"))
+   wm_state_atom = display.intern_atom("WM_STATE", False)
+   gtkrc_atom = display.intern_atom("_GTK_READ_RCFILES", False)
+
+   def send_event(window) -> bool:
+      """ Send a _GTK_READ_RCFILES client message to the given X window.
+      Returns true unless an exception occurs. """
+      window.send_event(
+         Xlib.protocol.event.ClientMessage(
+            window      = window,
+            client_type = gtkrc_atom,
+            data        = (8, b"\0" * 20),
+         ),
+         propagate = 0,
+         event_mask = 0
+      )
+      return True
+
+   def recurse_windows(window, parents) -> bool:
+      """ Given a X window, recurse over all its children and selectively
+      apply the send_event function to them. Returns true if an event got sent
+      to at least one window equal or below the given one. """
+      sent = False
+      wm_state = window.get_property(wm_state_atom, wm_state_atom, 0, 0)
+      name = window.get_wm_name()
+      level = len(parents)
+      if wm_state is not None:
+         sent = send_event(window)
+      else:
+         tree = window.query_tree()
+         for child in tree.children:
+            if not recurse_windows(child, parents + [window.id]) and level == 1:
+               sent = send_event(window)
+      logging.debug("%10s %s %s [%24s] [%s]",
+            hex(window.id),
+            "W" if not not wm_state else " ",
+            "S" if sent else " ",
+            name[:24] if name else "",
+            ",".join(map(hex, parents)))
+      return sent
+
+   for sno in range(0, display.screen_count()):
+      screen = display.screen(sno)
+      recurse_windows(screen.root, [])
+
+def sync_gtk3():
+   """ GTK3 applications can be notified of changes to their theming via
+   xsettingsd. This requires that the GTK3 theming information has been updated
+   in settings.ini as well as the gsettings schema, managed either by a
+   standalone xettingsd implementation or the gnome-settings-daemon. As for now,
+   we only support reloading `xsettingsd`: Send SIGHUP if we find it running, or
+   start it if it is installed and not running.
+      * https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki/GTK-3-settings-on-Wayland
+      * https://github.com/KDE/kde-gtk-config/blob/a5d4ddb3b1a27ec2ee4e1b6957a98a57ad56d39c/kded/configeditor.cpp#L285
+   """
+   found = False
+   for proc in psutil.process_iter():
+      if proc.name() == "xsettingsd":
+         proc.send_signal(signal.SIGHUP)
+         found = True
+         logging.debug("Found xsettingsd process and sent SIGHUP: PID %d", proc.pid)
+         break
+   if not found:
+      xsettingsd_binary = shutil.which("xsettingsd")
+      if xsettingsd_binary is not None:
+         proc = subprocess.Popen([xsettingsd_binary], cwd="/", start_new_session=True)
+         logging.debug("xsettingsd not running; started from %s; PID: %d", xsettingsd_binary, proc.pid)
+      else:
+         raise RuntimeError("xsettingsd not running and not in PATH, no settings changes propagated")
+
+def main() -> int:
+   opts = getopts()
+   ret = 0
+   try:
+      sync_gtk2()
+   except Exception as err:
+      logging.warning("Failed to reload GTK2 settings: %s", err)
+      ret |= 1<<0
+   try:
+      sync_gtk3()
+   except Exception as err:
+      logging.warning("Failed to reload GTK3 settings: %s", err)
+      ret |= 1<<1
+   return 0 if opts.force else ret
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/bin/mb-obthemes b/bin/mb-obthemes
index a36134b..1fa2799 100755
--- a/bin/mb-obthemes
+++ b/bin/mb-obthemes
@@ -617,6 +617,19 @@ function getMenuPanel() {
 	echo "configdir: $CONFIGDIR"
 	cp "$HOME"/.config/mabox/mabox.conf "$CONFIGDIR"/
 }
+function setXsettingsd() {
+	mkdir -p $HOME/.config/xsettingsd
+
+gtk_theme="$(grep "^[^#]*gtk-theme-name" "${HOME}/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini")"
+gtk_theme="${gtk_theme/gtk-theme-name*=}"
+echo "Net/ThemeName \"$gtk_theme\"" >> "$HOME/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf"
+
+gtk_theme_icons="$(grep "^[^#]*gtk-icon-theme-name" "${HOME}/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini")"
+gtk_theme_icons="${gtk_theme_icons/gtk-icon-theme-name*=}"
+echo "Net/IconThemeName \"$gtk_theme_icons\"" > "$HOME/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf"
+
+bl-reload-gtk23
+}
 function checkTint2(){   # kill or restart tint2s for screenshot, if necessary
     if [[ $1 = stop ]];then
         if ! cat "$SETTINGS" | grep "TINT2" &>/dev/null;then
@@ -1100,6 +1113,7 @@ function restoreSettings(){
     #mb-regenerate-menu
     restoreMenuPanel "$FPATH"
     restoreSettings
+    setXsettingsd
 }
 
 ### END FUNCTIONS ######################################################