Conditional Formatting based on Dates

[notexcellent]

Hello,

I am trying to develop a timeline that colours in cells under each month based on a variety of date criteria.

For example, there is a Build Period that runs from 12/01/16 to 13/04/2016. I therefore want the cells under 01/2016, 02/2016, 03/2016 and 04/2016 to be coloured in (i.e. there is activity in those months). There is also a category which is just an event ("Launch") which I can work out how to do (using MONTH(XX)=MONTH(XX)). It's the periods that I'm struggling with.

It probably makes more sense by looking at the attached. I have manually coloured the timeline but I would like to try and automate it, perhaps by using conditional formatting, by comparing the dates along the top to the dates to the left.

I have tried a variety of > < = etc. but can't get the right result.

Any help hugely appreciated.

Thank you.