diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3444b28e86..fd50e48931 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 ggplot2 0.9.3.1.99
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+* Add a `direction` argument to brewer scales to be able to reverse the order of
+  colours. In many diverging scales, the warm colours get associated with lowest
+  values in an ordered factor. (@jiho, #924)
+
 * `stat_ellipse()` adds data ellipses. It supports bivariate normal and t distributions,
   as well as a euclidian distance circle. (@jofrhwld, #926)
 
diff --git a/R/scale-brewer.r b/R/scale-brewer.r
index 9fc8d632a9..071e647565 100644
--- a/R/scale-brewer.r
+++ b/R/scale-brewer.r
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@
 #' d + scale_colour_brewer(palette = "Blues")
 #' d + scale_colour_brewer(palette = "Set1")
 #'
+#' # The order of colours in the palette can be swapped
+#' d + scale_colour_brewer(palette = "Blues", direction = -1)
+#'
 #' # scale_fill_brewer works just the same as
 #' # scale_colour_brewer but for fill colours
 #' ggplot(diamonds, aes(x = price, fill = cut)) +
@@ -51,41 +54,41 @@
 #' v + scale_fill_distiller(palette = 2)
 #' v + scale_fill_distiller(type = "div")
 #' v + scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Spectral")
-#' v + scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Spectral", trans = "reverse")
+#' v + scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Spectral", direction = -1)
 #' v + scale_fill_distiller(type = "qual")
 #' # Not appropriate for continuous data, issues a warning
-scale_colour_brewer <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1) {
-  discrete_scale("colour", "brewer", brewer_pal(type, palette), ...)
+scale_colour_brewer <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, direction = 1) {
+  discrete_scale("colour", "brewer", brewer_pal(type, palette, direction), ...)
 }
 
 #' @export
 #' @rdname scale_brewer
-scale_fill_brewer <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1) {
-  discrete_scale("fill", "brewer", brewer_pal(type, palette), ...)
+scale_fill_brewer <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, direction = 1) {
+  discrete_scale("fill", "brewer", brewer_pal(type, palette, direction), ...)
 }
 
 #' @export
 #' @rdname scale_brewer
-scale_colour_distiller <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, values = NULL, space = "Lab", na.value = "grey50") {
+scale_colour_distiller <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, direction = -1, values = NULL, space = "Lab", na.value = "grey50") {
   # warn about using a qualitative brewer palette to generate the gradient
   type <- match.arg(type, c("seq", "div", "qual"))
   if (type == "qual") {
     warning("Using a discrete colour palette in a continuous scale.\n  Consider using type = \"seq\" or type = \"div\" instead", call. = FALSE)
   }
   continuous_scale("colour", "distiller",
-    gradient_n_pal(brewer_pal(type, palette)(6), values, space), na.value = na.value, ...)
+    gradient_n_pal(brewer_pal(type, palette, direction)(6), values, space), na.value = na.value, ...)
   # NB: 6 colours per palette gives nice gradients; more results in more saturated colours which do not look as good
 }
 
 #' @export
 #' @rdname scale_brewer
-scale_fill_distiller <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, values = NULL, space = "Lab", na.value = "grey50") {
+scale_fill_distiller <- function(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, direction = 1, values = NULL, space = "Lab", na.value = "grey50") {
   type <- match.arg(type, c("seq", "div", "qual"))
   if (type == "qual") {
     warning("Using a discrete colour palette in a continuous scale.\n  Consider using type = \"seq\" or type = \"div\" instead", call. = FALSE)
   }
   continuous_scale("fill", "distiller",
-    gradient_n_pal(brewer_pal(type, palette)(6), values, space), na.value = na.value, ...)
+    gradient_n_pal(brewer_pal(type, palette, direction)(6), values, space), na.value = na.value, ...)
 }
 
 # icon.brewer <- function() {
diff --git a/man/scale_brewer.Rd b/man/scale_brewer.Rd
index ffcc0e9f2b..a76765b501 100644
--- a/man/scale_brewer.Rd
+++ b/man/scale_brewer.Rd
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@
 \alias{scale_fill_distiller}
 \title{Sequential, diverging and qualitative colour scales from colorbrewer.org}
 \usage{
-scale_colour_brewer(..., type = "seq", palette = 1)
+scale_colour_brewer(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, direction = 1)
 
-scale_fill_brewer(..., type = "seq", palette = 1)
+scale_fill_brewer(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, direction = 1)
 
 scale_colour_distiller(..., type = "seq", palette = 1, values = NULL,
   space = "Lab", na.value = "grey50")