Crear JPanel Degradado

hola a todos a veces al programar en java, 

especialmente con swing  se nos hace muy monotono 

tener que utilizar los clasicos JPanel

Que te pareceria poder crear los siguientes Jpanel

Bien elegantes no el codigo para crearlo esta  aqui

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GradientPaint;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.LinearGradientPaint;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import javax.swing.JPanel;


/**
 *
 * @author Edisoncor
 */
public class JPanelGradient extends JPanel{

    private Color color1 = new Color(0x666f7f);
    private Color color2 = new Color(0x262d3d);
    private float x1=0;
    private float y1=0;
    private float x2=getWidth();
    private float y2=getHeight();

    public JPanelGradient() {
    }

    @Override
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g.create();

        Rectangle clip = g2.getClipBounds();
        float x=getWidth();
        float y=getHeight();
        g2.setPaint(new GradientPaint(0.0f, 0.0f, color1.darker(),
                0.0f, getHeight(), color2.darker()));
        g2.fillRect(clip.x, clip.y, clip.width, clip.height);
    }

    public Color getColor1() {
        return color1;
    }

    public void setColor1(Color color1) {
        this.color1 = color1;
    }

    public Color getColor2() {
        return color2;
    }

    public void setColor2(Color color2) {
        this.color2 = color2;
    }

}