diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index c53144d91..4d9a68c03 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ New features
   submodule documentation. Thanks to Wes Turner and Luc Saffre.
 * #1434: Provide non-minified JS files for jquery.js and underscore.js to
   clarify the source of the minified files.
+* PR#252: Windows color console support. Thanks to meu31.
 
 Bugs fixed
 ----------
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a0004197e..4ebdc81fc 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ requires = [
     'six', 'Jinja2>=2.3', 'Pygments>=1.2', 'docutils>=0.10', 'snowballstemmer>=1.1'
 ]
 
+if sys.platform == 'win32':
+    requires.append('colorama')
+
 # Provide a "compile_catalog" command that also creates the translated
 # JavaScript files if Babel is available.
 
diff --git a/sphinx/util/console.py b/sphinx/util/console.py
index 508d895fc..64eb4e478 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/console.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/console.py
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ import os
 import sys
 import re
 
+try:
+    # check if colorama is installed to support color on Windows
+    import colorama
+except ImportError:
+    colorama = None
+
 _ansi_re = re.compile('\x1b\\[(\\d\\d;){0,2}\\d\\dm')
 codes = {}
 
@@ -42,6 +48,9 @@ def term_width_line(text):
         return text.ljust(_tw + len(text) - len(_ansi_re.sub('', text))) + '\r'
 
 def color_terminal():
+    if sys.platform == 'win32' and colorama is not None:
+        colorama.init()
+        return True
     if not hasattr(sys.stdout, 'isatty'):
         return False
     if not sys.stdout.isatty():
@@ -55,12 +64,7 @@ def color_terminal():
 
 
 def nocolor():
-    # check if colorama is installed to support color on Windows
-    try:
-        import colorama
-        colorama.init()
-    except ImportError:
-        codes.clear()
+    codes.clear()
 
 def coloron():
     codes.update(_orig_codes)