Custom ListView in Winforms?

You can't just override the OnPaint() method. That method doesn't do anything in a ListView. Similarly, OwnerDrawn lets you custom draw each cell, but doesn't let you paint over the control as a whole.

Use an ObjectListView (an open source wrapper around .NET WinForms ListView) and use its Overlay feature. That lets you effortlessly do something like this:

This was produced by this code:

this.olv1.OverlayText.Alignment = ContentAlignment.BottomRight;
this.olv1.OverlayText.Text = "Trial version";
this.olv1.OverlayText.BackColor = Color.White;
this.olv1.OverlayText.BorderWidth = 2.0f;
this.olv1.OverlayText.BorderColor = Color.RoyalBlue;
this.olv1.OverlayText.TextColor = Color.DarkBlue;

 class MyCustomlistView : ListView
    {
        public MyCustomlistView()
            : base()
        {
            SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, true);
        }
        protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnPaint(e);
            e.Graphics.DrawString("This is a custom string", new Font(FontFamily.GenericSerif, 10, FontStyle.Bold), Brushes.Black, new PointF(0, 50));
        }

    }