--- title: Customize a Select Element with CSS | daily.dev description: With Chrome 135, developers can now fully customize native HTML `<select>` elements using the new `appearance: base-select` CSS property, enhancing design... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/customize-a-select-element-with-css-8uhgltdvh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Customize a Select Element with CSS | daily.dev og:description: With Chrome 135, developers can now fully customize native HTML `<select>` elements using the new `appearance: base-select` CSS property, enhancing design... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/customize-a-select-element-with-css-8uhgltdvh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8uHGltdVh.png og:image:alt: Customize a Select Element with CSS og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Customize a Select Element with CSS **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary With Chrome 135, developers can now fully customize native HTML `` elements using the new `appearance: base-select` CSS property, enhancing design flexibility without additional JavaScript libraries. This update allows for rich HTML content within `` elements, provides numerous styling options, supports progressive enhancement, and includes safety measures via a Finch experiment to ensure smooth integration. ## Content # Customizing HTML Select Elements with CSS in Chrome 135 and Beyond With the introduction of Chrome 135, developers now have the ability to fully customize the native HTML `` element using CSS, thanks to the new `appearance: base-select` property. This enhancement offers greater design flexibility, allowing you to align select elements with your design system without relying on additional JavaScript libraries. ## Key Features 1. **Rich HTML Content**: You can include custom HTML inside `` elements, which will be rendered as authored if the browser supports the new property. 2. **Styling Flexibility**: Numerous styling options are available, enabling you to have complete control over the look and feel of the `` and `` elements. This includes minimizing default styling to offer maximum customization. 3. **Progressive Enhancement**: The feature is designed to support progressive enhancement, meaning that you can opt-in easily and it will degrade gracefully in browsers that do not support the new styling property. 4. **Safety Measures**: Chrome has implemented a Finch experiment to disable the feature if needed, ensuring a smooth integration process. If successful, it will be fully integrated into the browser. ## Developer Impact This new capability is a significant step forward in web development, providing a native way to achieve highly customizable and accessible `` elements. By leveraging `appearance: base-select`, developers can create more engaging and visually appealing forms, enhancing user experience without sacrificing performance or accessibility. Overall, Chrome 135 brings a robust, flexible method to style and customize select elements, marking an important milestone in the evolution of web design standards. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#css](https://daily.dev/tags/css), [#frontend](https://daily.dev/tags/frontend), [#html](https://daily.dev/tags/html), [#google-chrome](https://daily.dev/tags/google-chrome) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/customize-a-select-element-with-css-8uhgltdvh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Customize a Select Element with CSS","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/customize-a-select-element-with-css-8uhgltdvh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/customize-a-select-element-with-css-8uhgltdvh"},"datePublished":"2025-03-25T14:12:37.577Z","dateModified":"2025-03-28T17:53:01.779Z","description":"With Chrome 135, developers can now fully customize native HTML `` elements using the new `appearance: base-select` CSS property, enhancing design...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cba133b1f1dfd216f368fc329caa672b?_a=AQAEuj9","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cba133b1f1dfd216f368fc329caa672b?_a=AQAEuj9","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/customize-a-select-element-with-css-8uhgltdvh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"webdev,css,frontend,html,google-chrome","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Customize a Select Element with CSS"}]} ```