Should I owner draw this type of status bar or is there simpler way?

Hello everyone!
 
I would like to start by saying thanks to everyone who takes some time to view this thread and try to help.
 
I need to create a status bar with following characteristics:
 
- It has blue background;
- Instead of text it has two push buttons;
- It has an icon;
 
So far I was able to learn how to create status bar, set number of its parts, set an icon, and set its text.
 
I have tried setting background with following code

SendMessage( hsbStatus, SB_SETBKCOLOR, (WPARAM)0, (LPARAM) RGB( 0, 0, 255) );

in WM_CREATE, but had no success.
 
I have checked MSDN API documentation and couldn't find anything like " WM_CTLCOLOR-like " thing to use, as I would have used if static control or button was the issue.
 
Also, the reason I think I should use buttons, is because user must go to certain links when certain text in status bar is clicked, and background of that text is an image, so buttons are first thing that came to my idea, but I will accept other suggestions as well.
 
So my question is:
 
Should I owner draw the status bar ( if so please provide some guidance in view of code example or straightforward instructions ) or is there another way to achieve all this?
 
I work in MS Visual Studio Express 2008, on Windows XP, in C++, using WIN32 API.
 
If any other information is required ( source code or something similar ), please ask for it, I will more than gladly supply it.