diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance/default.nix
index ea64b75214f6..edadb4f08fa0 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, intltool, pkgconfig, libX11, gtk2, withGtk3 ? false, gtk3 }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, intltool, pkgconfig, libX11, gtk2, withGtk3 ? true, gtk3 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "lxappearance-0.6.3";
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
index ff4051310745..cd5ff4b789b2 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ mapAliases ({
   lua5_1_sockets = lua51Packages.luasocket; # added 2017-05-02
   lua5_expat = luaPackages.luaexpat; # added 2017-05-02
   lua5_sec = luaPackages.luasec; # added 2017-05-02
+  lxappearance-gtk3 = throw "lxappearance-gtk3 has been removed. Use lxappearance instead, which now defaults to Gtk3";  # added 2020-06-03
   m3d-linux = m33-linux; # added 2016-08-13
   man_db = man-db; # added 2016-05
   manpages = man-pages; # added 2015-12-06
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index c37d7359ad0d..6394a3bc2182 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -9536,12 +9536,11 @@ in
     nodejs = nodejs-13_x;
   };
 
-  lxappearance = callPackage ../desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance {
-    gtk2 = gtk2-x11;
-  };
+  lxappearance = callPackage ../desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance { };
 
-  lxappearance-gtk3 = lxappearance.override {
-    withGtk3 = true;
+  lxappearance-gtk2 = callPackage ../desktops/lxde/core/lxappearance {
+    gtk2 = gtk2-x11;
+    withGtk3 = false;
   };
 
   lxmenu-data = callPackage ../desktops/lxde/core/lxmenu-data.nix { };