Bulletin Board Calendar Transformation!

On a recent walk I stumbled upon (literally ;)) an old wooden bulletin board. I've been trying to work on my time management and thought I could use it to help organize my life a bit more.

You know what they say, "One man's trash is another man's treasure!" With that, I set about to transform this plain, forgotten bulletin board into a beautiful, practical, calendar. On the left side you have a place to put any notes or goals for the month and on the right you can put birthdays, holidays, vacations, and any other plans you might have!

This is especially great for when you're bored or stuck indoors. So, let's get started:

Supplies:

• Bulletin board (duh, mine was 3' by 2')
• Paint (any colors work, I ended up only using black and silver)
• Colorful paper
• Die cut (or hand cut) shapes (flowers for me)
• Wet glue
• Masking tape
• Sharpie, pencil, markers
• Push pins/sewing pins
• Newspaper (for protection)

Tools:

• Paintbrushes
• Paper cutter or scissors

The calendar takes up around 2/3 of the board so draw 2 lines with a pencil~1/2 in. apart where you want the calendar to end. You can just eyeball this but as a reference my calendar was 21 in. wide.

Next, divide your right section into 7 columns, leaving some space at the top for the month and days of the week. You will want to measure for this step. Each of my sections were 3 in. wide. Then make it a grid by drawing 5 lines across your columns; five rows for the dates and one header at the top. Your header can be bigger but make sure that all of your other rows are the same size, otherwise your grid will look wonky.

Finally, whip out your masking tape and create a border between your frame and the start of the cork as well as a barrier around your separating line (see photo).

That's it! You're ready to start painting!

First of all, put some old newspaper underneath your board as painting can get messy.

Use whatever paint color you want for the border and the strip in the middle. You can be as creative or simple as you want. My design was pretty plain, but the sky's the limit!

After you're happy with how it looks, let it dry for 30 minutes-1 hour, depending on how much paint you use.

Peel the tape off (so satisfying!) and voilà! Look at those crisp lines!

Here comes the fun part...decorating!

I had some precut flowers so I glued those to the memo side of the board with some wet glue. If you don't have precut shapes you can 100% cut them out yourself, it will just take longer. You could also paint things on the left side instead of gluing.

For the grid, I used a big chisel tip Sharpie to make thick dark lines where the pencil marks were. I used a Sharpie because I don't trust myself enough with a paintbrush but if you think you're able to, go ahead. It worked well enough that I didn't have to go over it a second time.

Here's why I put a paper cutter in the supplies: there's a lot of straight cutting here and it just makes things go so much faster. But scissors will work in a pinch too, of course.

Using a contrasting color, cut out 31 little rectangles for the numbers (~3/4 by 1 in.), 7 skinny rectangles for the days of the week (~2 3/4 by 1/2 in.), and 12 big rectangles for the months (~12 1/2 by 3 in.) You could also cut out 6 rectangles for the months and use the backs as well.

Write the numbers, days, and months onto their corresponding slips. I colored the months based on their time of year just to add some seasonal flair.

Glue the days of the week onto the board and pin the other papers on as well to where they belong. Store the extra months/numbers in an envelope so you don't lose them before next month ;)

Now you can add any personal plans, notes, or events to the board to have it reflect exactly what is going on in your life right now.

Hang it up with some hooks and screws on the wall and you're done!!!

This was such a simple project yet the board looks 10x prettier and more is practical too. I'm glad I was able to give new life to this lonely orphaned bulletin board. Thanks for crafting along with me <3