There are a ton of tutorials on Ruler
Growth Charts out there, I’m fully aware. I still decided to throw one more
into the mix. I’m sure mine is no different than several others, but Brittany
& I had a blast working on these bad boys and were so thrilled with how
they turned out, I decided to share! So, if you’re interested, here’s what we did, along with a few tips we
learned along the way!
Materials:
Board
Stain
Polyurethane
Paint & brushes
Stencils
The
Process
1.
Buy a board.
Mine is 9 inches wide.
2.
Cut your board
to your desired height. We decided our kids would never grow more than 6’6” so we
cut our board to 6 feet. It will
hang 6 inches off the floor, allowing my ruler to go up to 6’6.” (Well, almost.
You can blame my husband for the missing 1/2 inch.)
3.
Stain your board.
I read somewhere that you are supposed to sand it first or the stain won’t
stick. I’m sure this rule is specific to a certain type of wood. I did not sand
and I was thrilled with just one coat of stain. We used this Dark Walnut stain.
4.
Decide on a stencil.
We checked several stores and could not find what we’d envisioned so decided to
make our own. We printed our numbers (1-6) using Century Font and sized it as big as a ½ sheet of computer paper.
Then we went through the tedious process of cutting them out. If you can find a
stencil you like, you’re going to save SO MUCH TIME. My advice: don’t settle on
a stencil you don’t love just to save time! You’ll be glad you spent the extra
time to get exactly the look you love. Your other option is to order vinyl
online. There are several places you can order vinyl stickers specifically
designed for this project. Just Google, “ruler growth chart vinyl.” I wanted
the painted look, and also wanted to save money, so we decide against the vinyl
option.
5.
Measure & mark your board.
This is the important part! We are going to hang our board 6 inches off the
ground, so our first foot mark was only 6 inches up the board.
First I measured each foot mark,
starting 6 inches up and going every 12 inches from there. I used a piece of
cardboard to make sure each line was the same length and sketched it with a
pen.
Then I went back and marked the 3”,
6”, & 9” mark between each foot. I thought three lines between was enough (as opposed to 11 extra lines - one for each inch).
I used the same process with a marked piece of cardboard to make sure each line
was the same length, and used the 90 degree angle of the cardboard to make sure
the lines were perfectly perpendicular to the edge of the board.
When it’s painted, with just three
lines between the foot marks, it will look like this.
6.
Trace your Numbers.
Place your stencils at the foot marks you’ve made. To make sure my numbers were
evenly spaced, I folded my paper in half (horizontally) and made a mark on the
fold.
Then I lined up the mark with the
dashes. This way I knew the stencil was perfectly aligned with the
corresponding dash.
I also used my same handy dandy
cardboard I used before to make sure the numbers were perfectly spaced from the
edge of the board. I lined up the right side of each number the same distance
from the right side of the board.
Repeat this step with all of your
stencils!
7.
Paint your dashes &
numbers. Obviously, if you have a stencil,
you can just dab your paint into it and whiz through. We didn’t have this luxury so
we carefully & painstakingly filled in each number and detailed each straight
edge with a tiny paintbrush. IT TOOK FOREVER.
You can probably use any type of
paint you have around. I used leftover wall paint from the endless renovations
currently ensuing in my home. It is a high gloss bright white.
8.
Poly it!
The final step will be to add a polyurethane finish. This will protect your
wood & paint from scratching. Here’s the poly we happened to have laying
around. {The photo above of the final product does not yet have polyurethane}.
And voila! You’ve got yourself a
BEAUTIFUL ruler growth chart. This one is for Beckett’s first birthday. I can’t
wait to mark it all up!