diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 314353a1..fa82f4d3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
     * Fixed user login / remember me triggering before admin gets initialized
     * Fixed a bug when deleting files via AJAX
     * Fixed error page not to be the frontend version
+    * Added `merge_items` option for `field.selectize` to allow storing custom items [#1461](https://github.com/getgrav/grav-plugin-admin/issues/1461)
 
 # v1.9.0-beta.6
 ## 11/12/2018
diff --git a/themes/grav/templates/forms/fields/selectize/selectize.html.twig b/themes/grav/templates/forms/fields/selectize/selectize.html.twig
index 3b8eb1b6..c2d0d403 100644
--- a/themes/grav/templates/forms/fields/selectize/selectize.html.twig
+++ b/themes/grav/templates/forms/fields/selectize/selectize.html.twig
@@ -1,7 +1,15 @@
 {% extends "forms/field.html.twig" %}
 
 {% block global_attributes %}
-    data-grav-selectize="{{ (field.selectize is defined ? field.selectize|merge({'create': true}) : {'create': true})|json_encode()|e('html_attr') }}"
+    {% if field.selectize is defined %}
+        {% set fieldSelectize = field.selectize|merge({'create': true}) %}
+        {% if field.merge_items %}
+            {% set fieldSelectize = fieldSelectize|merge({'items':value}) %}
+        {% endif %}
+    {% else %}
+        {% set fieldSelectize = {'create': true} %}
+    {% endif %}
+    data-grav-selectize="{{ fieldSelectize|json_encode()|e('html_attr') }}"
     {{ parent() }}
 {% endblock %}