Paint Chip Calendar

After a recent trip to Lowe's with my sister, we ended up with a stack of paint chips in every color imaginable. What could we do with these paint samples? Well, she inspired me to create a paint chip calendar!

This project was quick and easy, but also very cheap! My frame was under $10 and paint chips are free at the hardware store!


Supplies Needed:
Paint chips (at least 35)
Picture frame with glass (mine was 12"x16")
Dry erase markers
Scissors, glue, and tape

The first step of this project is the most difficult... That's when you have to decide what color pattern you want to put your paint chips in. I was torn between doing similar shades of the same color, alternating between two different color hues, and going for the whole color spectrum. After a bit of deliberation, I went with the color spectrum. There need to be 7 chips per row, and 5 per column (35 total).

 Once you have decided on your color pattern, it's time to start gluing them down! The frame that I had came with a piece of cardboard backing and I attached my paint chips directly to that. I used glue to secure each one to the backing, and then taped along the bottom of each row for some extra support.

It's important to make sure that as you're attaching the chips, you know how much of each chip you want to be visible. The chips that I used were 3 1/2" tall, but to make 5 rows of chips I could only use about 2 1/2" of each chip. Instead of cutting each chip down to size, I overlapped the first few rows and trimmed off the excess along the bottom.

Here it is once everything was glued and taped into place and before I trimmed the bottom row:

Next I trimmed the bottom and put everything back into the frame:

The only thing left from there was to add the dates with my dry erase markers and hang it on the wall!

 

And there you have it, a re-useable dry erase calendar made for nearly nothing! This is a fun and easy project which anyone can find a use for. I have seen a few different styles of this around the web, so if you have any other examples, share them! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the paint chips that I have left from this project...