When you are customizing a SharePoint list with a custom schema.xml file, you may also want to set the ViewStyle for your View.

You do that by adding a <ViewStyle ID="xx"/> element within the <View> element. For exampl ID 17 corresponds to the "Shaded" view style.

Here’s a table with the common ViewStyles available, as defined in the <12 HIVE>\TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\VWStyles.xml