Make your own Pottery Barn inspired acrylic wall calendar for a third of the price! By using some painting pens and my free cut file, you can whip one up in no time!
Hi Friends! Do you get the Pottery Barn catalogs in the mail and drool over some of their products?? It happened to me last month, when I got the teen PB catalog and saw this cool acrylic wall calendar, but it was definitely out of my price range!
I knew I could DIY something similar and I did for about a third of the cost!!
It’s not as big, but it works perfectly in my daughter’s room and she loves it! This is how my DIY acrylic wall calendar came out (it is not the easiest thing to take pics of!!) It really is pretty easy to make.
Materials Needed For Acrylic Wall Calendar
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- Plexiglass/Acrylic Sheet – You can get them at a hardware store like Lowe’s or Home Depot. I got a 0.22 inch thick – 18×24 inch clear acrylic sheet for around $25
- Standoffs – this is the hardware I used to attach the calendar to the wall. I couldn’t find them at a local store so I got these ones off Amazon. You might want smaller ones if you are going to do a smaller acrylic wall calendar.
- Sharpie painting pens – These are oil based paint pens.
- Drill and glass drill bit – I love my Ryobi cordless drill! I used a 5/16 inch bit because that’s what I had, but I ended up having to drill it bigger with regular drill bits. This pack on Amazon has a larger size (3/8″) that probably would work perfect!
- Cricut or other Cutting Machine (optional) – You could use a ruler and free hand this but I love my Cricut and use it for everything!!
- File – Scroll down to download my FREE file
Drilling Holes in Acrylic
The first thing I did was drill holes through the acrylic sheet.
I used a 5/16 inch glass drill bit because that’s what I had on hand, but if you are going to use the same standoffs I used, I would recommend getting a 3/8″ glass drill bit so you don’t have to use extra drill bits to get the hole big enough.
I measured in 3/4″ from each side and dotted it so I knew where to drill. Clamp the sheet and board to a table.
Don’t let your drill get too hot. Stop every few seconds and remove the debris and let the drill bit cool.
Once I was pretty much through the plexiglass, I removed the board and clamped the sheet to my table and drilled the rest of the way through.
My hole wasn’t big enough, so I used a regular drill bit the next size up and drilled through with that. Then I kept increasing the size until it was big enough.
The regular drill bits will sometimes stick, so I alternated between reversing and forward direction.
If you want, you can check out a quick video of me drilling through the plexiglass (sorry for it being off-centered and being able to see my socks!!)
Cutting the Calendar File
So, now you’ll need to download the file and cut it out. There are two options here.
You can cut and add the vinyl onto the glass or you can make a stencil and color it in with Sharpie paint pens like I did. I just used contact paper from the Dollar Tree as my stencil and as transfer paper.
Cricuts are amazing!! You can check out my ultimate list of what to use a Cricut for here!.
To open the file in Cricut Design Space click here. The stencil is already sliced in half so it will fit on a 12×24 mat.
I also have the file in SVG and PNG format if you want to apply it as vinyl:
To download an SVG click here. Or if you need a PNG file, click here.
If you are making a large acrylic wall calendar you will need to slice the image in half to cut it out.
If you are using it as a stencil, once it’s cut out, weed all the lines and letters out.
Apply your clear contact paper or transfer tape.
Center the top half on your plexiglass and tape it down.
Then flip the top layer over and peel off the paper backing. Lay the sticky side on the plexiglass slowly while smoothing it out. (It sticks quickly so make sure it’s lined up correctly!)
Scrape it down and then peel off the transfer tape.
Line the bottom half up and tape it down.
Do the same thing. Flip up the contact paper and peel off the backing. Place it down slowly and scrape everything down really well.
This is what you’ll have when the calendar stencil is applied to the acrylic sheet!
Now, you’re just going to paint in the lines and letters with a Sharpie painting marker (Oil Based!). You might have to paint on 2-3 layers.
You can pick it up and look at the back of it and see how dark the paint is. (Sharpie paint pens are so fun to use!! Check out how I painted a canvas with one here and how I made personalized dishwasher safe mugs here!)
Once it’s kind of dry, peel off all the vinyl. I don’t like it fully dry, because if there are leaks then I can wipe them up with a qtip.
I also use a weeding tool to gently scrape off any dried paint.
Mounting the Acrylic Wall Calendar
I like to make a template for mounting. I just grabbed an extra newspaper and used paper and taped it together to make a piece that was bigger than the plexiglass.
Lay the acrylic wall calendar on top of the paper and put dots inside the 4 holes.
Center and level the paper on your wall. Tape it on. Then drill pilot holes in the center of your dots.
Take down the paper and hammer in the anchors (if needed).
Then screw in the standoffs into the anchors.
My top two screws went in easily.
One of the bottom ones was a little off but I just loosened the wall screw and pushed it over with my finger. Line it up and insert the front screw.
That’s it! Not too hard, right? Make sure you let the paint cure for 3 days or so before putting water or cleaner on it.
Use dry erase markers and plan away on the acrylic calendar DIY!! When the month is over, simply wipe off the dry erase markers and start again!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a creative day!
If you’d like to save this tutorial for later, PIN it now if you’d like!
