diff --git a/lib/middleware/proxy.js b/lib/middleware/proxy.js
index b741a19b8..35bdbe0af 100644
--- a/lib/middleware/proxy.js
+++ b/lib/middleware/proxy.js
@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@ var parseProxyConfig = function (proxies, config) {
     return []
   }
 
-  return _.sortBy(_.map(proxies, function (proxyUrl, proxyPath) {
+  return _.sortBy(_.map(proxies, function (proxyConfiguration, proxyPath) {
+    if (typeof proxyConfiguration === 'string') {
+      proxyConfiguration = {target: proxyConfiguration}
+    }
+    var proxyUrl = proxyConfiguration.target
     var proxyDetails = url.parse(proxyUrl)
     var pathname = proxyDetails.pathname
 
diff --git a/test/unit/middleware/proxy.spec.js b/test/unit/middleware/proxy.spec.js
index 04fef3804..f04eba800 100644
--- a/test/unit/middleware/proxy.spec.js
+++ b/test/unit/middleware/proxy.spec.js
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ describe('middleware.proxy', () => {
     expect(parsedProxyConfig[0].proxy).to.exist
   })
 
-  it('should set defualt http port', () => {
+  it('should set default http port', () => {
     var proxy = {'/base/': 'http://localhost/'}
     var parsedProxyConfig = m.parseProxyConfig(proxy, {})
     expect(parsedProxyConfig).to.have.length(1)
@@ -291,6 +291,22 @@ describe('middleware.proxy', () => {
     expect(parsedProxyConfig[1].proxy).to.exist
   })
 
+  it('should accept object for proxy config', () => {
+    var proxy = {
+      '/base/': {target: 'http://localhost:8000/'}
+    }
+    var parsedProxyConfig = m.parseProxyConfig(proxy, {})
+    expect(parsedProxyConfig).to.have.length(1)
+    expect(parsedProxyConfig[0]).to.containSubset({
+      host: 'localhost',
+      port: '8000',
+      baseUrl: '/',
+      path: '/base/',
+      https: false
+    })
+    expect(parsedProxyConfig[0].proxy).to.exist
+  })
+
   it('should handle empty proxy config', () => {
     expect(m.parseProxyConfig({})).to.deep.equal([])
   })