DIY of the week: Calendar Wall

Living Etc

Here's a super easy craft project you can knock over in a weekend and it'll help you keep track of the families engagements and activities. We love a bit of organisation don't we?

All you need it a tin of blackboard paint, a little white paint (leftover ceiling paint will do - but check to make sure you're mixing acrylic with acrylic or enamel with enamel or you'll end up with a marble wall - which could be good, but not what we're trying to do...), a ruler, a pencil, a roller and chalk.

1. To set up you'll need to measure out your grid and mark it on the wall using your ruler and pencil. Remember the bigger your family schedule - the bigger your squares will need to be to contain all that info. Whatever the space you're dedicating to the project divide the width by 7 (for the days of the week), and divide the height by the number of rows you want. You'll need at least 5 rows to fit all the dates for each month, but this example has made 6 rows, using the bottom row as a spot to stick notes, invitations, permission slips etc.

2. Hardest part is done! Using a roller paint the entire square with blackboard paint. (Don't worry - you'll still be able to see the pencil markings through the paint in the right angled light).

3. Measure out a small amount of blackboard paint and mix in enough white paint to make a dark grey.

4. Carefully roller this new colour onto randomly selected squares. (you can follow this example for where to put each shade of grey if you aren't feeling confident about ad-libbing)

5. Follow steps 3 & 4 two more times to create another 2 lighter shades of grey and paint them on until you have a similar grid as the one above.

6. Once it's all dry, add a border of straight-up black blackboard paint to create a frame and a spot to write in the days of the week.

7. With chalk, add your dates and activities!

You can customize this design to suit your family too. You might want to add a black panel down one side for the weekly shopping list, or a list of dates for the birthdays of family and friends so nobody is ever forgotten or missed! This project would be as big a success in the office as in the kitchen too.

I'd love to see yours if you decide to give it a go! I wish I had a blank wall in my kitchen so I could do one! I guess cupboards are good too...

Project found via Living Etc