diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index c6aea52e98..4eb030ed43 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1240,6 +1240,11 @@ everything older than one year blue, recent changes between one month and
 one year old are kept white, and lines introduced within the last month are
 colored red.
 
+blame.coloring::
+	This determines the coloring scheme to be applied to blame
+	output. It can be 'repeatedLines', 'highlightRecent',
+	or 'none' which is the default.
+
 color.ui::
 	This variable determines the default value for variables such
 	as `color.diff` and `color.grep` that control the use of color
diff --git a/builtin/blame.c b/builtin/blame.c
index 35104e4160..f95aac7468 100644
--- a/builtin/blame.c
+++ b/builtin/blame.c
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ static int abbrev = -1;
 static int no_whole_file_rename;
 static int show_progress;
 static char repeated_meta_color[COLOR_MAXLEN];
+static int coloring_mode;
 
 static struct date_mode blame_date_mode = { DATE_ISO8601 };
 static size_t blame_date_width;
@@ -702,6 +703,20 @@ static int git_blame_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	if (!strcmp(var, "blame.coloring")) {
+		if (!strcmp(value, "repeatedLines")) {
+			coloring_mode |= OUTPUT_COLOR_LINE;
+		} else if (!strcmp(value, "highlightRecent")) {
+			coloring_mode |= OUTPUT_SHOW_AGE_WITH_COLOR;
+		} else if (!strcmp(value, "none")) {
+			coloring_mode &= ~(OUTPUT_COLOR_LINE |
+					    OUTPUT_SHOW_AGE_WITH_COLOR);
+		} else {
+			warning(_("invalid value for blame.coloring"));
+			return 0;
+		}
+	}
+
 	if (git_diff_heuristic_config(var, value, cb) < 0)
 		return -1;
 	if (userdiff_config(var, value) < 0)
@@ -1037,6 +1052,9 @@ parse_done:
 
 	blame_coalesce(&sb);
 
+	if (!(output_option & (OUTPUT_COLOR_LINE | OUTPUT_SHOW_AGE_WITH_COLOR)))
+		output_option |= coloring_mode;
+
 	if (!(output_option & OUTPUT_PORCELAIN)) {
 		find_alignment(&sb, &output_option);
 		if (!*repeated_meta_color &&
diff --git a/t/t8012-blame-colors.sh b/t/t8012-blame-colors.sh
index ae9aa79d4e..ed38f74de9 100755
--- a/t/t8012-blame-colors.sh
+++ b/t/t8012-blame-colors.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ PROG='git blame -c'
 
 test_expect_success 'colored blame colors contiguous lines' '
 	git -c color.blame.repeatedLines=yellow blame --color-lines --abbrev=12 hello.c >actual.raw &&
+	git -c color.blame.repeatedLines=yellow -c blame.coloring=repeatedLines blame --abbrev=12 hello.c >actual.raw.2 &&
+	test_cmp actual.raw actual.raw.2 &&
 	test_decode_color <actual.raw >actual &&
 	grep "<YELLOW>" <actual >darkened &&
 	grep "(F" darkened > F.expect &&
@@ -18,6 +20,8 @@ test_expect_success 'colored blame colors contiguous lines' '
 
 test_expect_success 'color by age consistently colors old code' '
 	git blame --color-by-age hello.c >actual.raw &&
+	git -c blame.coloring=highlightRecent blame hello.c >actual.raw.2 &&
+	test_cmp actual.raw actual.raw.2 &&
 	test_decode_color <actual.raw >actual &&
 	grep "<BLUE>" <actual >colored &&
 	test_line_count = 10 colored