My husband and I have been keeping the kids heights on a door frame in our kitchen for the past 5 years. We realized that when we sell this house (hopefully soon!) that we won't be taking that with us. I had seen a "giant ruler" growth chart on a Facebook yard sale page but she was charging $40 for one. I decided I would just try to make one myself instead. It was surprisingly easy and I'm SO happy with the results! I measured the existing heights on our wall and transferred them over to the growth chart. It fits perfectly on the small section of wall beside our patio doors and I love it!
Continue reading to see what you need to make your own ruler growth chart!
- A piece of lumber (Mine was cedar, 6 feet tall, 6" wide and 1" thick) This cost me around $3 at Home Depot
- Stain (optional) The cedar was pretty, but I had some beautiful chocolate stain on hand. I lightly stained it to give it a warm tone
- Sealer top coat (I LOVE Varathane's water based diamond finishes)
- Pencil, measuring tape, craft paint brush, black craft paint, a square (or something similar)
- A printer to print a template for numbers, OR a number stencil
Getting started:
Stain your wood (if you're staining it!), let it dry fully and get ready to create your growth chart.
I started at 6" at the bottom as I planned to hang it 6" off the floor. The wall space will account for that first 6". I stretched my measuring tape from top to bottom of my lumber and made a small tick on the edge for every inch..Then a large tick at every foot mark. I then used an old shelf bracket (this is where most people would use a square..haha!) and used it to make lines at all my tick marks. Short lines at every inch and longer, thicker lines at every foot. In the end, I had 6 1/2 feet marked out.
Next, I printed off the numbers 1-6 (in Century font, size 175) and cut them out into rough squares. I rubbed the backs of the numbers with pencil, laid them pencil side down beside my foot marks and traced over each number firmly with a pen. This created a transfer and I was left with perfect pencil outlines of the numbers on my wood.
*If you're using a stencil, skip this step of course and simply stencil on your numbers!
Once the numbers were traced, I used some black craft paint to basically colour them in! I also went over all my measurement lines.
Once the paint was dry, I did 3 coats of the Varathane top coat.
The result is beautiful, practical and special! I transferred my girls' heights over and wrote them on with a Sharpie marker.
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