>>>One thing you can do is set up the base grid the way you want it on a scratch form then open the x.Designer.cs file and copy the >>relevant bits of the Form designer generated code into the InitLayout() of the subclass. You'll need to delete the 'this.grid1 (or >>whatever) from each property but it's probably better than trying to do it all manually.
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>tried that but got myself in an awful mess, will give it another go.
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>I have found that if I create a "user control" with the grid, I can amend the user control class and that updates in the form. Is this an acceptable method of coding? don't quite understand the difference between a "User Control" and a straight forward class.

That can work. But the UserControl is a bit of a black box. If you want to access items inside the UserControl (such as the grid) when it is sited on a form then you have to surface them as properties of the UserControl.