Growth Charts!

When you were growing up, did your parents mark your height somewhere in your house to keep track of how fast you and your siblings were growing?  My grandparents did for us.  My grandpa made little pencil marks on the wall of the laundry room in their house for all of the grandchildren.  Almost everyone I've ever talked to had a growth chart somewhere when they were growing up, and most of them weren't exactly pretty.  I came across the idea of making a growth chart that looked like a ruler on Pinterest, and I thought it was such a good idea.  It's a great way to make tracking the heights of your children pretty, and not just tucked into a hidden corner of your house!

My sister-in-law is pregnant, and for her shower, I decided that a growth chart would be the perfect present.  It can be personalized very easily and is a little more creative than the normal clothes or towels that I'd usually give at a shower. It turned out so cute that I had to make one for Drew too!  They are pretty easy and you can customize it any way that you want, to go with a nursery or bedroom theme, or even with the child's name.

My sister-in-law is not finding out the sex of her baby and she isn't making a nursery right away, so her growth chart was a little more difficult to conceive.  I would have chosen to make it gender specific or go with the theme of their baby room, but no such luck.  As such, I decided to keep it pretty neutral so that when they do make a nursery and know the sex of the baby, it will still go in the room without clashing too much.  I settled on tan, white, and brown, and hopefully it will go with whatever they decide to do.

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, and then modified it to fit my needs.  The Pinterest post suggested using a fence post, which you totally could do, but I wanted mine to be a little bigger and more substantial.  If you're working with not much space, or limited time, the fence post might be just the ticket for you.

I went to Home Depot and bought a 1 in. x 10 in. x 6 ft board.  Once I had the board home, I painted it a neutral tan color and let that dry.  I then used an antiquing technique to make the board look a little weathered.  My sister-in-law likes barn style, country things, so I figured a weathered board would be right up her alley.  The antiquing method was super easy.  I used the dark brown color that I had chosen and applied it to my brush. I then wiped off almost all of the paint until the brush was mostly dry and then drug it along the board.  That way, only a little paint is transferred onto the board and it gives it an old, antique-y feeling.  You can Google, dry brush technique, to get more specific instructions on that.

Once I had the painting done, I used a tape measure and marked one inch sections up the side of the board using a paint pen to make the board look like a ruler.  I made a one inch dash at each inch mark, and a two inch dash at each foot mark.  I started at 1 foot instead of zero because when you hang the board, you have to leave room for baseboards, therefore, you would hang the board one foot off the ground, which should leave enough room for any baseboards that the room might have.  Once the ruler portion is painted on, you can add the numbers for the feet.  On hers, I outlined the numbers using a stencil and then painted them in freehand.  I was planning on using the paint pen that I had used for the ruler part, but the one I used on her growth chart was not very good.  When I made Drew's, I bought Sharpie paint pens instead to see if they were better, and they worked like a dream.  I was able to paint his numbers in completely with the pen, which helped the numbers be more crisp and precise.  So if you plan on using paint pens, I suggest you buy Sharpie brand.  You'll be happy you did!

After painting on the ruler and numbers in white, I painted the phrase, "Our Growing Family," down the right side of the board in brown.  I painted a brown N (for Neil) that I attached to the top of the growth chart with gorilla glue.

I then glued on sawtooth hangers on the back along with felt pads in each of the bottom corners so that the wood wouldn't scrape the wall.  Here's a look at the final product:

With Drew's I was able to customize it more.  His room is decorated in bright rainbow colors, so I knew I wanted to incorporate those colors and possibly his name.  I also decided that I wanted to stain his rather than paint it.  I really lucked out and ended up picking a stain color that matches the wood trim in our house almost exactly.  

I did almost everything identically, except I used black for the ruler and numbers.  I also was able to use the black paint pen for the larger numbers which made them more precise.  I would highly suggest using paint pens for whatever you can. I painted letters corresponding to his name to attach to the side of the ruler.  I also painted the phrase "Watch Me Grow," on the top of his.  Because I wanted to match the colors of the letters in the phrase to the colors of the letters of his name, I had to freehand paint the phrase.  If you look really closely, it's not that great, but from far away it looks fine.  I'm not the best painter in the world and I don't have the steadiest hands, but I think it turned out good enough!  Here's a look at Drew's growth chart:

As you can see, I've marked on the chart his height at birth, 6 months, and a year with the white paint pen.  It's so fun to see how he's growing already, and it will be even more fun to watch as time goes on.

So there you have it, a pretty easy gift idea for a baby or small child.  I'm sorry my instructions were not more step-by-step, but you get the idea and I'm sure you can modify it to make it whatever you like.  This was more to just show you an idea.  I think they are super cute, and who doesn't want a pretty way to track the height of their kids?! Happy crafting!!