diff --git a/config.def.h b/config.def.h
index 0be3ad0..d80d80c 100644
--- a/config.def.h
+++ b/config.def.h
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ static const float fullscreen_bg[]         = {0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f, 1.0f}; /* You ca
/* bar */
static const int showbar        = 1; /* 0 means no bar */
static const int topbar         = 1; /* 0 means bottom bar */
+static const int user_bh		= 1; /* 0 means that dwl will calculate bar height, >= 1 means dwl will use user_bh as bar height */
static const char *fonts[]      = {"monospace:size=10"};
static const char *fontattrs    = "dpi=96";
static pixman_color_t normbarfg = { 0xbbbb, 0xbbbb, 0xbbbb, 0xffff };
diff --git a/dwl.c b/dwl.c
index 6c0dd79..adf58e3 100644
--- a/dwl.c
+++ b/dwl.c
@@ -2746,7 +2746,7 @@ setup(void)
 		die("Could not load font");
 
 	lrpad = font->height;
-	bh = font->height + 2;
+	bh = user_bh ? user_bh : font->height + 2;
 
 	status_event_source = wl_event_loop_add_fd(wl_display_get_event_loop(dpy),
 		STDIN_FILENO, WL_EVENT_READABLE, status_in, NULL);