DIY Chalkboard Calendar

Considering our office shares its home with our guest room, it only has one wall to call its own.  I have long envisioned this wall being our calendar wall, a place where we could plot all of our family happenings and keep ourself organized.  So, with Colton battling the ickies, I had my chance to knockout my chalkboard calendar. 

Calendar wall, you ask?   First, my list of trusty supplies:

• 1 can chalkboard paint (I used black, but there is also some you can tint to any color you want)
• 1 moulding brush
• painter's tape
• level
• ruler
• the top of one of my kitchen canisters to use for tracing

The first part was by far the hardest part of this whole process: measuring and taping off a grid for my calendar.  After measuring the size of my wall, I decided to break the space into 6 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch squares.  After marking these spots going across and down the wall, I whipped out the painter's tape.  Carefully using my old-fashioned, pathetic level, I made sure to keep the tape level all the way across and down the wall, over and over again...well 7 times across and 6 times down.

Note: the tape looks uneven because it was 2 inches wide, but I tore it in half.
Since I was using it more as a grid than to block off the wall, it worked!

With my grid in place, I used a green pen to trace the top of one of my kitchen canisters into each taped off square.  I used a green pen because it blended into my teal walls the best, but was still visible up close.

Once the 42 circles were drawn, the real fun began: the painting.  Using my moulding brush (absolutely crucial by the way), I just outlined each circle by rotating the brush along the line.  Then, I just had to fill the circle in.  Oh, and don't forget to mix the paint first...I forgot this crucial step at first and had major drippage going on (which I then had to promptly touch up with my Rendezvous Bay...wasted step).  After two coats of chalkboard paint, I had my calendar.

 As for the day labels, I just handpainted them on with the same chalkboard paint.  But as you can probably tell from the above picture, I was feeling a little womp womp about my wall calendar.  As Josh kindly pointed out, it looked kindof like a dalmation:(  I was pretty sure just adding the dates and filling in some of the circles with our happenings would help, but I decided to take it to the next level.
But this is where everyone loves a good teaser...wanna see my bold next move?  Let's just say it involves ironing ribbon to our wall?!?!  I know you do now, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow.  Come back for all the lovely details of my next DIY project.