The issue is caused by the fact that the drop down button has its own theming in RadDock, which gets applied to the newly added button. To reproduce: protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) { base.OnLoad(e); RadDockEvents.TabStripItemCreating += RadDockEvents_TabStripItemCreating; AddDock(); ThemeResolutionService.ApplicationThemeName = "VisualStudio2012Dark"; } void RadDockEvents_TabStripItemCreating(object sender, TabStripItemCreatingEventArgs args) { RadDropDownButtonElement btn = new RadDropDownButtonElement(); btn.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(80, 5, 5, 5); btn.MinSize = new System.Drawing.Size(50, 20); btn.Items.Add(new RadMenuItem("asasda")); args.TabItem.Children.Add(btn); } Workaround: use the themes in the attachments