Resumee of Richard Fearn's answer , to make each second line gray:
jTable.setDefaultRenderer(Object.class, new DefaultTableCellRenderer()
{
@Override
public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected, boolean hasFocus, int row, int column)
{
final Component c = super.getTableCellRendererComponent(table, value, isSelected, hasFocus, row, column);
c.setBackground(row % 2 == 0 ? Color.LIGHT_GRAY : Color.WHITE);
return c;
}
});