How To Make Dry Erase Wall Calendars With Old Windows

I stole my grandson's sleepover room and he isn't happy. Grandma needed more square footage for her home office. He got the smaller room and I sold him on nice and cozy. On the wishlist for my new office was adding functional workspace on the walls with repurposed finds. After a trip to a local salvage yard, I found just what I was looking for and I'm excited to show you how to make a dry erase wall calendar with old windows.

Home Reuseables only had three salvaged windows the size that worked for my wall but one was missing the glass. I took it anyway and turned it into a chicken wire note board. I may eventually get glass cut for it so I can have three months at-a-glance to map out blog post ideas for each quarter.

DIY Dry Erase Wall Calendars From Old Windows

Here are the old 24" x 28" sash windows with original hardware. I paid $15 per window and $10 for the one missing the glass. Can't beat those prices considering a plain run of the mill dry erase board this size costs well over $15.

Affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience so you can see what products I used or recommend to make this project. See my disclosure policy.

After a good scrub with vinegar water and a toothbrush, I lightened the windows with a wash of Old White chalk paint. I simply dipped the tips of my round brush into water and then the paint and moved the paint with the grain of the wood until just a wash of paint covered the original wood.

I liked the aged patina of the window sash hardware so all I did was give them a scrub with warm water to remove the dust and called it a day.

Old Window Chicken Wire Note Board

Now for the fun part, starting with the note board. I had a roll of chicken wire in my stash leftover from the Farmhouse Cupboard makeover. I figured because the windows would be hanging on the wall no one will notice that I didn't bother painting the back.

Using a pneumatic staple gun I stretched the chicken wire across the back of the picture frame, stapled it in place and cut off the excess with wire cutters. It's that simple guys but be warned, wear gloves or you'll be wearing band-aids.

Old Window Dry Erase Wall Calendars

Onto the salvaged windows repurposed into dry erase wall calendars. The hardest part was doing the math for the grid.

I wanted a nice crisp white background for the dry erase board so the writing would pop. I used one sheet of white bristol board for each calendar cut to fit flush with the back of the glass.

Tip: Cutting the bristol board to go across the back of the window frame and not flush with the glass creates annoying shadow lines.

I'm not going to lie, it took a bit to figure out the spacing for the seven-day grid. All that math was making my head hurt so I asked Mr. Frugalista for help. The Bristol board was cut 19 3/4" wide x 23 3/4" long. No matter how hard we tried to get an equal measurement across when divided by seven using the imperial measurement, we couldn't get it precise.

When we switched to measuring in millimeters we got it right. I won't bore you with the calculations considering the chances of you finding the same window size may be slim but the boxes are 71.4 mm wide x 3 1/2 inches tall - how's that for mixing things up! If you're a math whiz, just humor me, please.

The weekday header is half an inch high leaving lots of room for notes on the top half of the calendar.

If you are fortunate enough to have a die cut machine, cut vinyl for the weekday headings. I, unfortunately, do not nor could I find self-adhesive letters that fit within the header space so I used a small stencil that I had on hand.

Then I went over all the pencil marks with a fine tip black marker.

Tip: Wipe the straight edge with a paper towel after drawing each line with the marker or you'll have pretty ink marks all over your crisp white calendar.

I did find self-adhesive letters to label the Notes section at the top of the calendar.

I slipped the bristol board calendar behind the window pane and used white tape to hold it in place. The windows are hung on the wall with two of these picture hangers per window.

Prior to repurposing the old windows, I had one of those large paper month-at-a-glance wall calendars hanging on my office wall with colored sticky notes that I could move around as needed. While the calendar was functional it wasn't so pretty, especially considering my office is on the main floor of our home.

With color dry erase markers I can easily categorize and shuffle my editorial calendar around as needed. Not only are my calendars super functional, but I'm also no longer embarrassed if guests see them from the hallway en route to the powder room.

Using an old window for a calendar doesn't have to be just for an office. With its lovely farmhouse charm, is a wonderful idea for a family activity calendar with a spot at the top for writing reminders and notes to one another. I could see this hanging in a kitchen, mudroom or child's bedroom.

The next step to my home office makeover is painting the walls and I have big plans for the dark brown one.

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