diff --git a/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs b/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs
index 35ef0c40..1bab2eef 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ impl EditorView {
     ) {
         let area = Rect::new(OFFSET, 0, viewport.width - OFFSET, viewport.height - 2); // - 2 for statusline and prompt
         self.render_buffer(view, area, surface, theme);
+
+        // clear with background color
+        surface.set_style(viewport, theme.get("ui.background"));
+
         let area = Rect::new(0, viewport.height - 2, viewport.width, 1);
         self.render_statusline(view, area, surface, theme);
     }
@@ -51,9 +55,6 @@ impl EditorView {
         surface: &mut Surface,
         theme: &Theme,
     ) {
-        //  clear with background color
-        surface.set_style(viewport, theme.get("ui.background"));
-
         // TODO: inefficient, should feed chunks.iter() to tree_sitter.parse_with(|offset, pos|)
         let source_code = view.doc.text().to_string();
 
diff --git a/helix-term/src/ui/picker.rs b/helix-term/src/ui/picker.rs
index 4190e548..d4e4d46d 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/ui/picker.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/ui/picker.rs
@@ -197,9 +197,12 @@ impl<T> Component for Picker<T> {
         // -- Render the frame:
 
         // clear  area
+        let background = cx.editor.theme.get("ui.background");
         for y in area.top()..area.bottom() {
             for x in area.left()..area.right() {
-                surface.get_mut(x, y).reset()
+                let cell = surface.get_mut(x, y);
+                cell.symbol.clear();
+                cell.set_style(background);
             }
         }