How to Make a Wall Perpetual Calendar

6 Materials
$20
1 Day
Medium
I work in aged care and our activities office asked me if I could try to make a wall calendar for our residents. Our residents are always asking her what day and date it is, so she thought it would help them to have one that would be updated everyday for them to see.
For this project I used all recycled materials which were scraps left over from other projects.  My plywood was 58 cm x 53 cm.  I sanded the board with an orbital sander using 180 grit sandpaper.
I used a compass to mark an area that I wanted to removed to give the board a better cosmetic look.  And used a jigsaw to cut the corners off my board.
Because all the blocks are not in use all the time, I wanted to make a box that attached to the board that stored the excess blocks so they would not get misplaced when not in use.


To make the storage box I cut 2 pieces of plywood 32 cm x 12 cm for the bottom and lid of the box.  And for the sides I cut 2 pieces 11 cm x 11 cm, and for the front piece I cut 32 cm x 11 cm. I used a nail gun and glue to join all the sides together.  I used small hinges to attach the lid to the box.
To make the blocks for the months I cut  3 x pieces of wood 31 cm x 4 cm squared on the table saw.  They should be made long enough to accommodate the length of the longest month of the year.  I printed out the months, days of the week and numbers so I had an idea of the size. I used the table legs for the days of the week blocks, and  squared them off on the table saw and the final size was 28 cm x 4 cm squared.
I sanded all the blocks using 180 grit sandpaper and used a router to remove all the corners from my blocks to get a better look.
The date blocks needed to be a lot bigger than the rest so they would stand out and not get lost on the board.  To make my blocks I used scraps from my wine barrel tables and joined them together to get a bigger block.  My blocks were cut to 7 cm square. I used a router to remove all the corners.
To make my shelves for the blocks to sit on I cut 2 x pieces of plywood 31 cm x 4 cm and for the date 16 cm x 8 cm. I stain the board dark mahogany and gave it 2 coats of gloss varnish. 
I knew I would end up with lots of different colours because I was using scrap wood but felt if I stained the board dark mahogany  the blocks would stand out better.
Perpetual Calendar
I added some corner decoration to give the box a nicer look.
To do all my wording on the blocks I used temporary tattoo paper because this is the easiest and the best way to transfer images that I have found.  To see how to use tattoo paper for image transfer you can see the process on this tutorial that I did using PVC pipe.
To do the block numbers, block 1 was numbered 0,1,2,3,5,6 and block 2 was numbered 0,1,2,4,7,8 the number 6 doubles up as a 9.
These are my completed blocks.  Which were given 2 coats of gloss varnish.
Storage box for blocks not in use.
Perpetual Calendar
The color looks so different depending on the light.
Perpetual Calendar
To see more of my unique projects


To see this tutorial in more detail click on my website link www.uniquecreationsbyanita.com
Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Unique Creations By Anita
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 27 comments
  • Mea13901620 Mea13901620 on Apr 09, 2018

    Beautiful....they must love it!

  • Alla Alla on Nov 10, 2022

    Wow this calendar is very impressive, but I like to use regular calendars as they seem more practical and convenient to me. Therefore, I would like to recommend you a very good site that I use constantly with various templates with printable calendar I am sure that you will like them, as they are very high quality and practical to work

Next