You can decorate any control by adding some graphical rendering to it. This is done by handling the event
System.Windows.Forms.Control.Paint or overriding the virtual method
System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnPaint in a derived class.
Don't repeat a common mistake: don't create an instance of
System.Drawing.Graphics! — take an instance from event arguments.
Please see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.aspx[
^].
One finer hint: as you need a border, it will be very helpful to adjust the
DisplayRectangle. You can override this virtual property in derived class to prevent overlapping of the children with your border which will take up some room near the edges.
Please see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.displayrectangle.aspx[
^]. [EDIT: this link fixed — SA]
For more advanced information on rendering, please see my past answers:
What kind of playful method is Paint? (DataGridViewImageCell.Paint(...))[
^],
Drawing Lines between mdi child forms[
^],
capture the drawing on a panel[
^].
—SA
Submit an article or tip