Luckily, Google has made it easy for those blessed with an abundance of creativity to make Google Chrome themes available that can spice up the boring new tab with something more personal to your taste. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, these aesthetic Chrome extension customizations are either extremely popular, visually attractive, or preferably both.
These themes change your homepage background, the color scheme of your browser, address bar, menus, bookmark bar, and other visual elements of Chrome. We’ve provided a Chrome Web Store link for each theme, so you can try them out right away and decide which option is the best for your personal browsing experience.
Midnight Train Dark Blue
Created by Oleg Filonenko, Midnight Train Dark Blue offers an amazingly atmospheric urban theme based on a photograph of diverging train tracks with a cityscape in the distance. This high-resolution theme is suitable for displays up to 2560×1440 in resolution, and if you love trains or cold and gritty urban imagery, it’s perfect for you.
Material Incognito Dark Theme
This theme by Fiddle N is surprisingly popular, with over half a million users choosing to make their standard Chrome window look like incognito mode. That’s all this theme does – closely change the window color to match the colors of Incognito Mode. We don’t know why so many people love this theme, why they want all of their Chrome experience to look incognito, or why they don’t simply use dark mode, but half a million people know something we don’t. Just don’t accidentally forget to activate Incognito Mode when you’re supposed to!
Nordic Forest
The wide world is filled with wonderful natural scenery, but sadly most of us never get to see it in the course of our lives. Thankfully Dmitry Mev created this unique theme showcasing a nordic forest seen from above partially bathed in light. The shades of green are unparalleled, and the light play gives this image a sense of depth that makes it feel exceptional. Dmitry has also chosen a sensible solid color for the tabs.
Lone Tree
A fantastic blend of photography and digital art, the titular Lone Tree sits between a dazzling dark and light starscape, creating a magical image that will stick in your imagination even when you aren’t at your computer. There’s a minor downside to this theme, though. It does make the forward and back arrows somewhat invisible, but since you already know where they are, it’s not a big deal at all, and they would spoil the view anyway.
Iron Man-Material Design
There’s no denying that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken the world by storm, and it all started with a little film called Iron Man. Brought to life by Robert Downey Jr, billionaire Tony Stark has a close shave with death caused by his own company’s weapons. He builds himself a suit of powered armor to protect others rather than destroy them. You’ll find plenty of Chrome themes featuring stills from the various Iron Man films, but this theme shows a little more style and effort. A beautiful silhouette of Iron Man flying above the city, it’s a subtle nod to both the films and the comic books. More than 100,000 Iron Man fans have noticed its charms.
Sahara
This is a theme by Peter Noordijk of the night sky over the Sahara. It’s a spectacular shot of the Milky Way constructed from several different photos. Thanks to virtually no light pollution over the Sahara, this piece of masterful astrophotography gives you a view of the sky that’s incredibly rare anywhere on the planet, right there in your browser. It’s the perfect theme for those who don’t have the opportunity to hitch a ride on a desert caravan ourselves.
Beauty Landscape Theme
Sometimes the view out of the window (and on the news) isn’t as pleasant as it could be. While there are many moody and dark themes to choose from, Beauty goes in the opposite direction. This theme shows us a scene that’s probably very rare in the real world. With a beautiful mix of greens, blues, and reds, Beauty brings something pure and colorful to a reality that’s mainly shades of gray.
Raindrops (Non-Aero)
As you can tell by the name mentioning the old Windows Aero theme, this is quite an old theme. Yet despite its age, it’s a long-time favorite of Chrome users all over the world. There’s just something about the rain-drenched glass that’s visually appealing in a way that many other similar themes have failed to capture. It may not be the best choice if you have a modern 1440p or 4K display, but if you’re still happy with a 1080p screen, this is a beautiful theme.
Blue/Green Cubes
Photos are likely the most popular type of theme, but not everyone wants the distraction of pretty pictures while trying to work. Still, the gray void of a blank browser window isn’t your only option.
The Blue/Green Cubes theme offers a pleasing pattern of shaded cubes, with subtle complexity in how the facets are shaded and colored with gradients. While it may seem simple, if you look closely, you’ll notice that this is very much a carefully hand-crafted theme, and as long as the colors on offer match your taste, it’s a beautiful minimalistic theme option.
Night Time in New York City
New York is one of the most iconic cities in the world and has featured in countless films, books, video games, and songs. It may not always be the nicest place to live (or so we hear), but there’s no arguing that it has stunning views steeped in history. Night Time in New York City might be one of the most perfect encapsulations of the city at night. With the buildings lit up in stark white and tungsten lighting, it’s a slick view of a place that’s rather gritty in actuality, but the point of a theme like this is to show us the romantic side of a real place. In that regard, it succeeds.
Flying Paint Wallpapers HD New Tab Theme
Most people are happy to roll with the same theme for weeks, months, or even years. However, if you’re the type of person who likes to see something new frequently, the Flying Paint theme might be the perfect theme for you. The theme contains several colorful hand-picked wallpapers whenever you open a new tab. A new image greets you. The color scheme of every wallpaper varies, but they are all united in being exceptionally colorful.
Earth in Space
The number of space themes in the Chrome Web Store sometimes seem to rival the actual number of stars in the sky, but for the most part, they all seem more or less the same. Earth in Space stands out from its less-than-stellar companions by looking back toward the pale blue dot itself. Putting up Earth against the vast, starry backdrop of space makes you feel parts of something essential and minimal.
Dark Theme V3
Sometimes even a dark theme isn’t dark enough for some people. In which case, this black theme has virtually perfected the art of perfect blackness. This is the third attempt at making a theme just black for Chrome. If you like to browse in the dark or just want to feel like your screen is made of a matte black material, give Dark Theme V3 a try.
Rose
The last theme we’re highlighting here might appeal to those who opted for a Rose Gold MacBook or at least wish that you did. This theme changes the color scheme of Chrome to something very close to the acquired taste color Apple computer color that’s often so hard to find for those of us who want something different.
What About Chrome for Android?
In our opinion, these are the best themes for Google Chrome’s Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac versions. Yet you’re most likely using the Chrome mobile browser more often than the desktop version. Sadly, however, there is no equivalent set of themes for the Android or iOS apps. If you go to Settings > Themes you’ll find that your only option is a Light or Dark theme. That, and a setting to make Chrome switch automatically between the two based on your current global device settings.
