Recent changes to the TypeDescriptor mean that properties are not
necessarily ordered in the same way every time. Automatic generation of
columns depends on property order in the list of PropertyDescriptor objects
but I'm not sure as to the situation with columns created in the designer.
Maybe they follow property order to some extent too.

You can specify that the grid should not auto-generate columns and
explicitly create them yourself or you can create a custom property order
using the new TypeDescriptionProvider system and order your properties in
any way you desire.

In an implementation that I designed I defined an Index attribute that
enables me to sort properties that come from the TypeDescriptor into a
specific numerical order. I'd give you code but it's for a client but
hopefully you get the picture... These solutions are heavily based on a good
knowledge of reflection.