DIY Growth Chart

I shared this tutorial last week at The Frugal Girls and I'm reposting it here today in case you didn't see it....

Hi everyone!  I'm so excited to be back here at The Frugal Girls!  The last time I was here, I shared about our frugal mud room storage.  This time the location hasn't changed much....still in my mud room, but it's a new addition about a foot to the right....a DIY Growth Chart...made from materials we already had around the house!  (List of materials needed:  big piece of wood, black paint, white paint, number stencils, sandpaper if you want the distressed look).

I have always loved the idea of a growth chart.  Growing up, I knew a family who dedicated one of the doorframes in their house for this purpose.  It was amazing to see all the friends and family members who had marked their height over the years!  Currently, my mom has a spot in her house where she marks the kid's height when we visit - something my son always looks forward to.  I knew I wanted to have something similar in our home someday, but my main concern was of sentimental value - what would I do if we needed to repaint the room, or even move?  I am way too sentimental to paint over something like a growth chart!

So here's what we did (following the same basic steps as my numbered coat rack):  First, grab a piece of wood.  Any big piece will do!  We found ours in our attic, left here by the previous owners, which is why it is angled at the top - it's really just an old piece of junk wood.  We wanted a distressed look, so we painted the board black and then added several coats of white paint. 

Next it was time to measure.  Sooooo thankful for my helpful husband in times like these....I would much rather just eyeball things, but clearly for this project you need to actually measure, something I really don't have the patience for!  We decided where we wanted the chart to hang on the wall and knew that the first line would be 11 inches from the floor.  He then measured and marked each inch, making the lines longer at 6 inches and again at each foot mark. 

I used black acrylic paint to trace the lines and stencil in the numbers.  Since we were planning to distress it, I knew it was fine if everything wasn't perfect. 

A few coats of paint later and then some extra time to make sure everything was dry and it was time to distress!  We used the palm sander to rough up the edges and go over the whole front, giving it a little character.

All that was left was to attach it to the wall....which took a little extra effort since it is basically ginormous!  The kids were excited to mark their heights immediately...

and I am thrilled to have what is sure to become a treasured piece of family history!

I'm loving this new addition to our mud room!

Linking up to a few of my favorites!

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