diff --git a/src/ui/frames.c b/src/ui/frames.c
index d69224ece..13633c938 100644
--- a/src/ui/frames.c
+++ b/src/ui/frames.c
@@ -44,8 +44,6 @@
 static void meta_frames_destroy       (GtkWidget       *object);
 static void meta_frames_finalize      (GObject         *object);
 static void meta_frames_style_updated (GtkWidget       *widget);
-static void meta_frames_map           (GtkWidget       *widget);
-static void meta_frames_unmap         (GtkWidget       *widget);
 
 static void meta_frames_update_prelit_control (MetaFrames      *frames,
                                                MetaUIFrame     *frame,
@@ -134,9 +132,6 @@ meta_frames_class_init (MetaFramesClass *class)
 
   widget_class->style_updated = meta_frames_style_updated;
 
-  widget_class->map = meta_frames_map;
-  widget_class->unmap = meta_frames_unmap;
-  
   widget_class->draw = meta_frames_draw;
   widget_class->destroy_event = meta_frames_destroy_event;  
   widget_class->button_press_event = meta_frames_button_press_event;
@@ -231,6 +226,7 @@ meta_frames_init (MetaFrames *frames)
 
   frames->style_variants = g_hash_table_new_full (g_str_hash, g_str_equal,
                                                   g_free, g_object_unref);
+
   update_style_contexts (frames);
 
   gtk_widget_set_double_buffered (GTK_WIDGET (frames), FALSE);
@@ -522,13 +518,26 @@ MetaFrames*
 meta_frames_new (int screen_number)
 {
   GdkScreen *screen;
+  MetaFrames *frames;
 
   screen = gdk_display_get_screen (gdk_display_get_default (),
                                    screen_number);
 
-  return g_object_new (META_TYPE_FRAMES,
-                       "screen", screen,
-                       NULL);  
+  frames = g_object_new (META_TYPE_FRAMES,
+                         "screen", screen,
+                         "type", GTK_WINDOW_POPUP,
+                         NULL);
+
+  /* Put the window at an arbitrary offscreen location; the one place
+   * it can't be is at -100x-100, since the meta_window_new() will
+   * mistake it for a window created via meta_create_offscreen_window()
+   * and ignore it, and we need this window to get frame-synchronization
+   * messages so that GTK+'s style change handling works.
+   */
+  gtk_window_move (GTK_WINDOW (frames), -200, -200);
+  gtk_window_resize (GTK_WINDOW (frames), 1, 1);
+
+  return frames;
 }
 
 /* In order to use a style with a window it has to be attached to that
@@ -635,22 +644,6 @@ meta_frames_unmanage_window (MetaFrames *frames,
     meta_warning ("Frame 0x%lx not managed, can't unmanage\n", xwindow);
 }
 
-static void
-meta_frames_map (GtkWidget *widget)
-{
-  /* We override the parent map function to a no-op because we don't
-   * want to actually show the GDK window. But GTK needs to think that
-   * the widget is mapped or it won't deliver the events we care about.
-   */
-  gtk_widget_set_mapped (widget, TRUE);
-}
-
-static void
-meta_frames_unmap (GtkWidget *widget)
-{
-  gtk_widget_set_mapped (widget, FALSE);
-}
-
 static MetaUIFrame*
 meta_frames_lookup_window (MetaFrames *frames,
                            Window      xwindow)
diff --git a/src/ui/ui.c b/src/ui/ui.c
index aa1d3bdfd..7d023dc8f 100644
--- a/src/ui/ui.c
+++ b/src/ui/ui.c
@@ -298,9 +298,12 @@ meta_ui_new (Display *xdisplay,
   g_assert (gdisplay == gdk_display_get_default ());
 
   ui->frames = meta_frames_new (XScreenNumberOfScreen (screen));
-  /* This does not actually show any widget. MetaFrames has been hacked so
-   * that showing it doesn't actually do anything. But we need the flags
-   * set for GTK to deliver events properly. */
+  /* GTK+ needs the frame-sync protocol to work in order to properly
+   * handle style changes. This means that the dummy widget we create
+   * to get the style for title bars actually needs to be mapped
+   * and fully tracked as a MetaWindow. Horrible, but mostly harmless -
+   * the window is a 1x1 overide redirect window positioned offscreen.
+   */
   gtk_widget_show (GTK_WIDGET (ui->frames));
 
   g_object_set_data (G_OBJECT (gdisplay), "meta-ui", ui);