How To: Dry Erase Calendar

Time to wrap up this week’s worth of Back to School stuff- ministry style! Want to see what we were up to? Click here to see the post about B2S care packages, here to see a Youth Room makeover, and here to see how we communicate with parents and students throughout the year. Today, we’re rounding things out with a fun DIY project that anyone can do. Remember our “In the Know” center from yesterday?My favorite part of that command center is the life-size calendar that we created to display all sorts of happenings for each month. This project was sort of on a whim and turned out to be one of the coolest additions to the space. I love it because anyone can put something like this to use- teachers, parents, college students, even kids for their bedrooms. Let me be up front by saying that I did not come up with the idea (I saw it first on the Home Depot website when I was reading about the RustOleum Dry Erase kit from yesterday’s post). However, the picture I saw did not come with instructions, so that part I made up on my own and figured I’d share just in case someone else would ever want to do something similar.Supplies Needed:

• Background paint color
• Roller for regular paint
• RustOleum Dry Erase Paint Kit (we used some that was leftover from a larger project we were doing- you definitely won’t use anywhere near a full can for this project)
• Foam roller for DE paint
• Painters’ tape (I recommend something that you really trust to make CRISP lines!)
• Tape measure
• Level

Step 1: You’ll need to create a colorful background (it doesn’t have to be a bright color- it can just be the color of your walls like the picture on the website). Because our walls are white, I had to create a darker backdrop so that the dry erase squares would be visible. Note to anyone who can’t paint directly onto the walls: You can still do this project! Simply get a sheet of thin plywood, cut to size, create calendar on that, and attach it to your wall. I taped off a 30″x30″ square and used some leftover teal paint from our Spare Bedroom as the base color.Step 2: Using painters tape, create a grid for your calendar. I used the picture from the HD website as my guide and made up my own measurements.

Helpful Hint: Use the width of your painters’ tape to your advantage! For my 30″x30″ square, I decided on 7 rows and 7 columns of boxes (with the top not divided to allow space for writing the month), each 3″ wide and high. The outside border is 1.5″ (I just used the width of the tape I had) and the inside “dividers” are 1″ (again, just using the width of a different roll of tape). This step is more tedious than hard. My advice: USE THAT LEVEL! Not all of our boxes ended up being perfect, but they’re close enough for me.

Step 3: Cover the entire surface with Dry Erase paint. I did at least 3-4 coats because I wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t be able to see the teal behind it. The HD website recommends putting a coat of primer first when covering darker surfaces, but for such a small space (and lack of time), I just added a few extra coats of DE and that seemed to do the trick.Step 4: Remove the tape right after the last coat goes on. This will prevent peeling paint, as opposed to removing after the paint is already dried. Side Note: Predictably, this is the most exciting part so soak it up!

Step 5: Let it dry and cure (the instructions say for three days) before writing on the DE surfaces. Even thought it’s hard to wait, at least you have something pretty to look at!

We debated going over some of the less-than-crisp edges with a small paint brush, but decided that it wasn’t worth the time (maybe sometime in the future I’ll tackle it) and you really couldn’t tell unless you’re up close and staring.

Step 6: Go ahead and add your dates……and other calendar “fillings”!

And you’re done! How fun is that? I can’t wait to be able to have a space that is so large to visually represent what’s coming up in our calendar year- here’s to hoping that it’s a helpful tool for both our students and our leaders! If nothing else, it looks cool and draws you over to take a closer look and maybe even sign up for a trip or event!

Well, that about wraps it up for today- and the week! Thanks for hanging out with us… have a great weekend! Oh, and HAPPY BACK TO SCHOOL!

-Leslie