diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index f976f7a2a..4b4629276 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 ## Unreleased (in master)
 
+- Added support for custom user fonts (place them in <CONFIG-DIR>/fonts, e.g.
+~/.howl/fonts)
+
 - Added `project-switch-buffer` command that displays open buffers within
 the current project.
 
diff --git a/lib/howl/application.moon b/lib/howl/application.moon
index ac064b2ff..662080a48 100644
--- a/lib/howl/application.moon
+++ b/lib/howl/application.moon
@@ -328,6 +328,10 @@ class Application extends PropertyObject
       @_load_core!
       if @settings.dir
         append bundle.dirs, @settings.dir\join 'bundles'
+        fonts_dir = @settings.dir\join('fonts')
+        if fonts_dir.exists
+          C.FcConfigAppFontAddDir(nil, fonts_dir.path)
+
       bundle.load_all!
 
       unless @args.no_profile
diff --git a/lib/howl/init.lua b/lib/howl/init.lua
index eca2c5580..8919f6fa4 100644
--- a/lib/howl/init.lua
+++ b/lib/howl/init.lua
@@ -170,8 +170,6 @@ local function main()
   set_package_path('lib', 'lib/ext', 'lib/ext/moonscript')
   require 'howl.moonscript_support'
   table.insert(package.loaders, 2, bytecode_loader())
-  require 'howl.cdefs.fontconfig'
-  ffi.C.FcConfigAppFontAddDir(nil, table.concat({app_root, 'fonts'}, path_separator))
   require 'ljglibs.cdefs.glib'
 
   howl = auto_module('howl')
@@ -189,6 +187,8 @@ local function main()
     print("Copyright 2012-2017 The Howl Developers\nLicense: MIT License")
     os.exit(0)
   else
+    require 'howl.cdefs.fontconfig'
+    ffi.C.FcConfigAppFontAddDir(nil, table.concat({app_root, 'fonts'}, path_separator))
     -- set up the the GC to be more aggressive, we have a lot
     -- of cdata that needs to be collected
     collectgarbage('setstepmul', 400)