The Khokhloma style generally exhibits a combination of the red, gold, and black colours typical for the decorative painting of that region in late 17th century and first half of the 18th century. The three colours had a profound symbolism for decorating the sacred church vessels and the dishes and cups used in the monasteries and nunneries, as well as in icon ornaments. The red colour represented the beauty, the gold colour symbolized the spiritual heavenly light, while the black colour signified the gracious grief cleansing the human soul. The religious symbolism of colours was lost in the Khokhloma art but the precise and solemn scheme of colours inherent in the festive design of the "gilded" dishes grew to be traditionally used for decorating all wooden Khokhloma articles and made them especially favoured by the customers.

 The most popular themes of paintings are flowers, strawberries, branches of mountain ash, sometimes birds, fish, and animals. The beautiful pieces of tableware give you an impression of being painted with gold, but Kokhloma masters had an interesting secret of 'gilding'. Dishes were rubbed with tin powder, coated with linseed oil, and heated in an oven. As a result of heat, the linseed oil turned yellow, and the tin started to shine like gold. The method of creation yields not only has a beautiful result, but the one which is both practical, durable and long-lasting. Khokhloma can be used for utilitarian purposes such as eating, and drinking, as well as display.

The whole process is extremely individualistic and never are two pieces exactly the same.