Simple wooden growth chart

A growth chart.  This is something that will be so fun to look at 20 years from now.  My sister Brittney made a vinyl growth chart for me a couple Christmas's ago, but unfortunately the vinyl does not seem to be surviving in a home with 4 little boys.  But the kids have had so much fun standing up to it every so often, measuring themselves to see how much they've grown, so I knew we needed one that could withstand the test of time.

This wooden growth chart proved to be a very simple and quick project.  If I had made it 6 years ago, I probably would have sanded it down, used stencils for the lines and numbers, painted slowly and carefully, and stained it.  Maybe I would have even added some kind of mounting device to the back so it could be attached to a wall.  But times have changed, and it can be a challenge to set aside even an hour to work on a project.  So don't look too closely at my crooked lines and hand-painted numbers.

I bought this piece of wood at Lowe's and had someone cut it there to 6 1/2 feet.  Then I did all of my measurements in pencil (this was the most time consuming part) and used my transfer paper technique to draw on the numbers.  Then I went over everything with black paint and called it good.  I guess I went for the natural look, didn't bother sanding it or staining it.  But I quite like how it turned out.


I love the knots in the wood.  I intentionally chose a piece of wood that had them.

All ready to measure these fast-growing kids!  I'm planning on measuring everyone on their birthdays each year.  That way we can compare everyone's height by age.  Now I just need to find a good way to mark their height... markers? paint? wood burning?... I might need to experiment a bit.