diff --git a/misc/Makefile b/misc/Makefile
index 714223d10..6a6762d6a 100644
--- a/misc/Makefile
+++ b/misc/Makefile
@@ -1,25 +1,31 @@
 PYTHON = python3
-DESTDIR = /
+PREFIX = /usr/local
+DESTDIR =
 ICONSIZES = 16 24 32 48 64 128 256 512
 
+SETUPTOOLSOPTIONS =
+ifdef DESTDIR
+SETUPTOOLSOPTS = --root="$(DESTDIR)"
+endif
+
 .PHONY: install
 
 doc/qutebrowser.1.html:
 	a2x -f manpage doc/qutebrowser.1.asciidoc
 
 install: doc/qutebrowser.1.html
-	$(PYTHON) setup.py install --root="$(DESTDIR)" --optimize=1
+	$(PYTHON) setup.py install --prefix="$(PREFIX)" --optimize=1 $(SETUPTOOLSOPTS)
 	install -Dm644 doc/qutebrowser.1 \
-		"$(DESTDIR)/usr/share/man/man1/qutebrowser.1"
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/man/man1/qutebrowser.1"
 	install -Dm644 misc/qutebrowser.desktop \
-		"$(DESTDIR)/usr/share/applications/qutebrowser.desktop"
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/applications/qutebrowser.desktop"
 	$(foreach i,$(ICONSIZES),install -Dm644 "icons/qutebrowser-$(i)x$(i).png" \
-			"$(DESTDIR)/usr/share/icons/hicolor/$(i)x$(i)/apps/qutebrowser.png";)
+			"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/icons/hicolor/$(i)x$(i)/apps/qutebrowser.png";)
 	install -Dm644 icons/qutebrowser.svg \
-		"$(DESTDIR)/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/qutebrowser.svg"
-	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)/usr/share/qutebrowser/userscripts/" \
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/qutebrowser.svg"
+	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/qutebrowser/userscripts/" \
 		$(wildcard misc/userscripts/*)
-	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)/usr/share/qutebrowser/scripts/" \
+	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/qutebrowser/scripts/" \
 		$(filter-out scripts/__init__.py scripts/__pycache__ scripts/dev \
 		  scripts/testbrowser scripts/asciidoc2html.py scripts/setupcommon.py \
 			scripts/link_pyqt.py,$(wildcard scripts/*))