diff --git a/config/mako/.gitignore b/config/mako/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04204c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/mako/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+config
diff --git a/config/mako/config b/config/mako/config.template
similarity index 84%
rename from config/mako/config
rename to config/mako/config.template
index 2e8b467..bbafcb2 100644
--- a/config/mako/config
+++ b/config/mako/config.template
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 sort=-time
 layer=overlay
-background-color=#0a070c89
+background-color=$background_color
 width=300
 height=110
 border-size=2
-border-color=#E88889
+border-color=$border_color
 border-radius=4
 icons=0
 max-icon-size=64
diff --git a/config/mako/update_theme.sh b/config/mako/update_theme.sh
index 7c4d528..942866e 100755
--- a/config/mako/update_theme.sh
+++ b/config/mako/update_theme.sh
@@ -2,19 +2,10 @@
 
 . "${HOME}/.cache/wal/colors.sh"
 
-conffile="${HOME}/.config/mako/config"
+export background_color="${background}89"
+export text_color="$foreground"
+export border_color="$color13"
 
-# Associative array, color name -> color code.
-declare -A colors
-colors=(
-    ["background-color"]="${background}89"
-    ["text-color"]="$foreground"
-    ["border-color"]="$color13"
-)
-
-for color_name in "${!colors[@]}"; do
-  # replace first occurance of each color in config file
-  sed -i "0,/^$color_name.*/{s//$color_name=${colors[$color_name]}/}" $conffile
-done
+envsubst <$HOME/.config/mako/config.template >$HOME/.config/mako/config
 
 makoctl reload