diff --git a/framework/src/play/PlayLoggingSetup.java b/framework/src/play/PlayLoggingSetup.java
index 03d59331..33d58de1 100644
--- a/framework/src/play/PlayLoggingSetup.java
+++ b/framework/src/play/PlayLoggingSetup.java
@@ -12,7 +12,13 @@ public void init() {
     String log4jPath = Play.configuration.getProperty("application.log.path", "/log4j.xml");
     URL log4jConf = PlayLoggingSetup.class.getResource(log4jPath);
     if (log4jConf == null) {
-      log4jPath = Play.configuration.getProperty("application.log.path", "/log4j.properties");
+      // try log4j.properties from the "conf/" directory/classpath
+      log4jPath = "/conf/log4j.properties";
+      log4jConf = PlayLoggingSetup.class.getResource(log4jPath);
+    }
+    if (log4jConf == null) {
+      // falling back to "/log4j.properties"
+      log4jPath = "/log4j.properties";
       log4jConf = PlayLoggingSetup.class.getResource(log4jPath);
     }
     if (log4jConf == null) {
diff --git a/framework/test/conf/log4j.properties b/framework/test/conf/log4j.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4b862743
--- /dev/null
+++ b/framework/test/conf/log4j.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, PropertiesConsoleAppender
+
+log4j.appender.PropertiesConsoleAppender=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
+log4j.appender.PropertiesConsoleAppender.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
+log4j.appender.PropertiesConsoleAppender.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %-5p [%t] %c: %m%n
+
+
+
+log4j.logger.logtest.confdir=ERROR
diff --git a/framework/test/play/PlayLoggingSetupTest.java b/framework/test/play/PlayLoggingSetupTest.java
index 301b0c46..31e89289 100755
--- a/framework/test/play/PlayLoggingSetupTest.java
+++ b/framework/test/play/PlayLoggingSetupTest.java
@@ -6,8 +6,10 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeAll;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import play.libs.Files;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
@@ -57,4 +59,21 @@ public void init_with_xml() {
     Logger log4jLogger = Logger.getLogger("logtest.xml");
     assertThat(log4jLogger.getLevel()).isEqualTo(Level.ERROR);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void init_with_conf_dir() {
+    loggingSetup.init();
+    Logger log4jLogger = Logger.getLogger("logtest.confdir");
+    assertThat(log4jLogger.getLevel()).isEqualTo(Level.ERROR);
+    assertThat(Logger.getRootLogger().getLevel()).isEqualTo(Level.DEBUG);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void init_with_default_config() {
+    // delete the conf/log4j.properties from test classpath and fallback to the framework log4j.properties
+    File confProp = new File(getClass().getResource("/conf/log4j.properties").getFile());
+    assertThat(confProp.delete()).isTrue();
+    loggingSetup.init();
+    assertThat(Logger.getRootLogger().getLevel()).isEqualTo(Level.INFO);
+  }
 }