Home Made Height Chart

Since the Kiddo is now a big first grader (and speeding himself toward outgrowing our old Ikea height chart decal), I thought it was time to finally get around to the homemade height chart I'd been planning.

It turned out way better (and less expensive!) than I thought.  I'd seen cute ones like this for $60-70, but I made mine for about $20.  

We started with this, if you remember:

I started out with an pine board from Lowes, 6' long, 10" wide.  Nothing fancy, not even the stain-grade lumber.  I don't mind a knot or two for this project.  Gave it a quick sand to get the stamps off and smooth any errant rough bits, and tack-cloth'd the sanding dust.

Then it was time to figure out the size and shape of the numbers.  I thought bigger looked better, here. 

My printer is being cantankerous, so I had to freehand my numbers and cut them out to trace their outlines.

Then I filled in my pencil outlines with a black paint pen.  I had more than enough in one pen to do this whole project.

I'm not above using the tools within easy reach for all projects.  Legos get put to work in this house in some unexpected ways.  Like templates for the inch dashes running up the side.

Then, it was time to address the wood.  My inspiration for this project was an old ruler that used to belong to my great grandfather.  It's an odd heirloom, to be sure, but I love it.

I grabbed the Wheat Rust-Oleum wood stain because the pine sample at Lowes was the closest to what I had in my brain.   

Then I used a foam brush and slopped on a coat over everything.

After a few minutes, I wiped the excess off with a paper towel.

I'd saved the other side of the board in case as a second-try option in case it didn't come out like I'd planned.  Fortunately, it came out exactly as I expected (and I'd say I did pretty well on the color match!), so after an hour, when the front was dry, I repeated the stain on the back.

Then I transferred of all of Kiddo's height markings and hung up the height chart he won't be outgrowing any time soon.

Approximate Cost breakdown for this project:

Pine board - 8
Stain - 5
Paint Pen - 4
Hanging Brackets - 3