Focus state themeing is accomplished by separating the processing of the focus state from the processing of an operative state of a control element. The operative states of the control element are entered or exited based upon the detection of input from a user or the detection of control availability by the operating system or by an application running on the operating system. Once an operative state is determined for a control element, the focus state of the control element is detected and merged with the operative state to generate a theme state for the control element. The theme state is a combination of the operative state and the focus state. There is one combined theme state for each operative-focus combination. Various display configurations may be used to represent a control element with a combined operative-focus state. The control element is then rendered on a display based on the operative state theme and the focus state theme.