I know these Growth Chart Rulers are all the rage right now on Pinterest and Etsy, so I decided to jump on that bandwagon and make one for my son's room. Our niece moved out a few weeks ago and I have been slowly working on his room ever since. It has been soooo awesome not having him sleeping in our room and it's an added bonus because I have an empty canvas to decorate!!!
I love the idea of tracking the growth of both of my kids on something I can not only use as room décor, but keep it for years to come as room décor! This Growth Chart Ruler is the perfect thing for that!
So let's begin...
I bought a standard 1 X 8 X 72 pine board from Home Depot and using our miter saw I cut it to 5 feet (60 inches) in length. Since I was going to hang the ruler just above our 6 inch tall baseboard and I wanted the ruler to be 5 1/2 feet tall, I only needed a 5 foot long piece of wood. Make sense?
After I cut my ruler, I sanded the edges up a bit and it was time to stain it. I used Minwax Espresso stain and mixed in a little vegetable oil. Mixing the stain with vegetable oil (or even baby oil) allows for a smoother application. Instead of the wood soaking up the stain immediately, it allows time to spread the stain evenly, thus avoiding any smudges or streaks.
Even though I had the help of the vegetable oil, I still applied the stain using vertical strokes in order to go along the grain. I stained both sides as well as the edges so that the wood didn't bow (disclosure: in my first attempt to make this ruler, I didn't stain the back and my wood bowed. It was not repairable so I had to start over!!) I then left the ruler to dry over night.
The next day I started out by painting my numbers. I had some Valspar flat white spray paint left over from a previous project, so I used that. I made sure I coated them really well!
While the numbers were drying, I brought out the tape measure and began making my measurement marks. I wanted my ruler to have lines at every foot, 1/2 foot (6") and a 1/4 foot (3"), so I measured accordingly. I made my marks in pen along the side I was going to put my lines so that my pen marks would be covered up.
Next, I grabbed my handy Gorilla Glue and glued the numbers onto the ruler.
To make sure the numbers were placed in the correct area, I laid out the tape measure along the opposite side of where I was going to glue the numbers.
After the numbers were glued on and dry, I brought the ruler into the house to apply the vinyl lines along the foot, half foot and quarter foot marks I had previously made with my pen. I laid out the tape measure again to make sure I placed the lines on the right measurements, even though I already marked them with pen. You can never be too careful ;) I used 3 different lengths of vinyl lines since I was marking 3 different measurements.
Once all the lines were on the ruler, I attached these sawtooth hangers.
I attached two of them since they were the smaller size hangers and the wood I used was a heavier wood so 2 hangers allowed for more support.
Then we hung it to the wall! Now I need to get to marking their heights! Still trying to figure out how I want to do that. Maybe I will share that part with you in my room unveil post!! Stay tuned!!
This project was so simple and didn't take much time to do at all. If this is something you have thought you would like to have in your home or even give as a gift, I encourage you to make one as well. You will be so happy with how it turns out!!!
~ Kerri
