Silverlight: Does UserControl Have a Background Property?

I created a BarMenuItem UserControl in a Silverlight class library, and try to used in my main Silverlight application.

BarMenuItem.xaml:

<UserControl x:Class="ButtonControlLibrary.BarMenuItem"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"开发者_StackOverflow
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400">

</UserControl>

BarMenuItem.xmal.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;

namespace ButtonControlLibrary
{
    public partial class BarMenuItem : UserControl
    {
        public BarMenuItem()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
    }
}

So in the MainPage, I have xmlns:blib="clr-namespace:ButtonControlLibrary;assembly=ButtonControlLibrary" defined

Tried to use BarMenuItem:

<blib:BarMenuItem Width="100" Height="150" Background="Red"/>

Compile and run it, and I expected to see a Red background, but I see nothing.

What happenend?

I'm so confused. I googled a lot, finding there is a workaround, but very ugly: Put a Grid container inside the UserControl, and then binding its Background property to the UserControl's Background:

Background="{Binding Background, ElementName=guiUserControl}"

But this is not the solution. Please advice.

In Adobe Flex, it's so natural to change a UserControl's background like what I do in the above code.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks.

---

The property is there but it doesn't seem to work in Silverlight. Your next best bet is the solution you said you already know. Binding layoutroot's background with usercontrol's background.