To do this you'll have to use a technique we call "shadowing". If I understand you correctly, this is the same as what happens with a Control's Enabled and Visible properties -- changes to these at design time don't actually hide or disable the control in the designer.
For an explantion of shadowing, go to the Articles section of this website, the "Designers" heading, and look for the article on Creating Custom Designers (by me).
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