{ WordPress Appearance Access for Editors }

We often use the “Editor” role for clients so they don’t have access to the full array of options in the left sidebar including plugins. Here’s a way to modify a user role’s capabilities to access the Appearance section without having to add a plugin.

In functions.php (or plugin – make sure the action is after_setup_theme):

function the_function_name() {
  // get the the role object
  $role_object = get_role( 'editor' );

  // add $cap capability to this role object
  $role_object->add_cap( 'edit_theme_options' );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'the_function_name' );