Make sure all your internal JTable components have the opaqueness property set to false. Setting the JTable opaque property to false won’t work as the table is added to a JScrollPane. Extend the JScrollPane class and override the paint method to paint the image every time an event occurs where a repainting is necessary.

Main.java:

import javax.swing.table.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
 
public class Main extends JFrame
{
   public Main() {
      JTable table = new JTable(100, 5) {
         public Component prepareRenderer(TableCellRenderer renderer, int row, int column) {
            Component c = super.prepareRenderer(renderer, row, column);
            if (c instanceof JComponent) {
                ((JComponent) c).setOpaque(false);
            }
            return c;
         }
      };
 
      ImageJScrollPane isp = new ImageJScrollPane(table);
 
      isp.setBackgroundImage(new ImageIcon("c:\mong.jpg"));
 
      getContentPane().add(isp);
 
      addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we) {
            System.exit(0);
         }
      });
   }
 
   public static void main(String [] args) {
      Main main = new Main();
      main.setSize(400, 400);
      main.setVisible(true);
   } 
} 
 
class ImageJScrollPane extends JScrollPane 
{
   private ImageIcon image = null;
 
   public ImageJScrollPane() {
      this(null, VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED, HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);
   }
 
   public ImageJScrollPane(Component view) {
      this(view, VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED, HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);
   }
   
   public ImageJScrollPane(Component view, int vsbPolicy, int hsbPolicy) {
      super(view, vsbPolicy, hsbPolicy);
      if (view instanceof JComponent) {
         ((JComponent) view).setOpaque(false);
      }
   }
 
   public ImageJScrollPane(int vsbPolicy, int hsbPolicy) {
      this(null, vsbPolicy, hsbPolicy);
   }
 
   public void setBackgroundImage(ImageIcon image) {
      this.image = image;
   }
 
   public void paint(Graphics g) {
      // Do not use cached image for scrolling
      getViewport().setBackingStoreEnabled(false);
 
      if (image != null) {
         Rectangle rect = getViewport().getViewRect();
         for (int x=0; x<rect.width; x+=image.getIconWidth()) {
            for (int y=0; y<rect.height; y+=image.getIconHeight()) {
               g.drawImage(image.getImage(), x, y, null, null); 
            }
         }
 
         super.paint(g);
      }
   }
}

Here’s the image I used:

The trick is to contrive a custom DefaultTableCellRenderer and apply it to individual columns provided by the table’s backing column model. The following snippet demonstrates rendering the first column of the table so it displays with grey background and blue foreground highlighting:

Main.java:

import javax.swing.table.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
 
public class Main extends JFrame
{
   public Main() {
      JTable table = new JTable(100, 5);
 
      TableColumn tm = table.getColumnModel().getColumn(0);
      tm.setCellRenderer(new ColorColumnRenderer(Color.lightGray, Color.blue));
 
      getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(table));
  
      addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we) {
            System.exit(0);
         }
      });
   }
 
   public static void main(String [] args) {
      Main main = new Main();
      main.setSize(400, 400);
      main.setVisible(true);
   } 
} 
 
/**
* Applied background and foreground color to single column of a JTable
* in order to distinguish it apart from other columns.
*/ 
class ColorColumnRenderer extends DefaultTableCellRenderer 
{
   Color bkgndColor, fgndColor;
 	
   public ColorColumnRenderer(Color bkgnd, Color foregnd) {
      super(); 
      bkgndColor = bkgnd;
      fgndColor = foregnd;
   }
  	
   public Component getTableCellRendererComponent
	    (JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected,
	     boolean hasFocus, int row, int column) 
   {
      Component cell = super.getTableCellRendererComponent
         (table, value, isSelected, hasFocus, row, column);
 
      cell.setBackground( bkgndColor );
      cell.setForeground( fgndColor );
     
      return cell;
   }
}

Main.java:

import javax.swing.table.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
 
public class Main extends JFrame 
{
   public Main() {
      super("Table example, Wines from Bordeaux");
 
      Object[][] tabledata = {
            { "Chateau Meyney, St. Estephe", 	   new Integer(1994), "$18.75"},
            { "Chateau Montrose, St. Estephe", 	   new Integer(1975), "$54.25" },
            { "Chateau Gloria, St. Julien", 	   new Integer(1993), "$22.99" },
            { "Chateau Beychevelle, St. Julien",   new Integer(1970), "$61.63" },
            { "Chateau La Tour de Mons, Margeaux", new Integer(1975), "$57.03" },
            { "Chateau Brane-Cantenac, Margeaux",  new Integer(1978), "$49.92" },
      };
 
      String columnheaders[] = { "Wine", "Vintage", "Price" };
 
      JTable table = new JTable(tabledata, columnheaders);
      table.setPreferredScrollableViewportSize(new Dimension(500, 70));
 
      // right align 2nd column
      TableColumnModel columnModel = table.getColumnModel();
      TableColumn column = columnModel.getColumn(1);  
      DefaultTableCellRenderer renderer = new DefaultTableCellRenderer();
      renderer.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.RIGHT);
      column.setCellRenderer(renderer);
 
      // right align 2nd column when editing
      JTextField tf = new JTextField();
      tf.setHorizontalAlignment(JTextField.RIGHT);
      column.setCellEditor(new DefaultCellEditor(tf));
 
      JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);
      getContentPane().add(scrollPane);
 
      addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we) {
            System.exit(0);
         }
      });
 
      pack();
   }
 
   public static void main(String []args) {
      Main main = new Main();
      main.show();
   }
}