DIY Chalkboard Calendar

EADW contributor Juel is stopping by EADL today to share her DIY chalkboard calendar, inspired by (who else) Martha!

{ image from Martha }

Anyone else get Martha’s daily emails? Well, I stored this one in my “collection” a while back and I’ve been excited to do it ever since. We were in serious need of a calendar for our new house and so I decided to give it a shot!

It was rather time consuming but the most difficult part was making the checkerboard. If I had just done a solid color it would have taken me like half an hour, most of which would be waiting for the paint to dry.

So…here’s my final product:

Now, I didn’t do it exactly the way Martha said to do it. Instead, there were some comments to her original directions that I followed instead. What I used:

For each paint color:
4 tsp acrylic paint
1/2 tsp unsanded tile grout

Other than that, I followed what Martha said and taped off the calendar, and put on several coats of each color. After the whole thing was done, I sanded it lightly, rubbed the whole thing with chalk, and then wiped it down with a damp cloth.

I love it! The best part is that you can use any color you’d like so there are lots of possibilities!

Have you tried to make your own chalkboard paint? How did it turn out?