My practice is to build the DOM programmatically with jQuery, and add styles to the elements directly $("<div>") .css({width: 100, height: 20, color: '

My practice is to build the DOM programmatically with jQuery, and add styles to the elements directly $("<div>") .css({width: 100, height: 20, color: 'red'}) .appendTo(container); Then, since these are just values in normal javascript code, you can refactor as normal. Pull commonly used patterns out into functions (e.g. `importantText(16, "size 16 important text goes here")`). Most styles in the applications I write tend to be inextricably linked to the layout and function of a component (e.g., tabs should be next to each other); in the rare case that a style needs to be customized in different locations or at different times, it becomes a parameter (e.g. `confirmDialog(textStyle, message, onOk, onCancel)`) No extra tools are needed, beyond jQuery (building up the DOM without jQuery or something like it is awful).