It’s about that time again…I’ve got another DIY project to share with you! This is a fun one, very doable for a Saturday afternoon from start to finish. And best of all, it only cost me $10!
There’s something about your oldest child turning 9 that will inevitably make you want to turn back time – or at least pause it – and just slowly breathe in the moments while your kids are still little. Our oldest daughter’s birthday was last week and it made me realize just how fast she is turning into a young lady, and not just a little kid anymore. It also made me realize how much I need to continue to document all three of our children’s exponential growth!
I’ve wanted to create a growth chart for some time now. We have been using a paper one taped to a doorway for the last few years, but it was quickly starting to fill up and get mangled and torn on the edges. I knew I wanted something sturdier and a bit more appealing to the eye.
When me and my siblings were kids, we used a wooden door frame leading down into our basement as our growth chart. It was full of pencil markings from the time we were old enough to stand, all the way to our pre-teen years. I spent almost 15 years growing up on that door panel…and when we moved the summer before my freshman year of high school, I wished we could rip the board off and take it with us. Don’t think the new owners would mind too much? So instead, my mom took a sheet of tracing paper and carefully traced over every single marking on that board, so we could preserve those unforgettable memories.
The board I’ve created here is one I know we can take with us – if we ever move – and all its character and memories will come right along with us. Here’s how I made our simple “loved beyond measure” DIY barn board growth chart.
A few months back, while I was out “picking” at one of my favorite local antique/resale shops, I found two nice pieces of barn board that I thought would work great for this project. Placed together the long way they could create one continuous board. Authentic reclaimed barn wood can be very expensive, but at only $5/each, this was a small price to pay for the look I was after. Love me some rustic charm!
The next step was designing the overall look of the chart. I went into my design software and created numbers and lettering that I also wanted to include on the board. If you like what I did here, feel free to print off the photo below as an 8.5 x 11 size and use it on creating a board of your own.
I used the same transfer method I always do for applying these onto my board, but if you’ve never tried it before, you can read all about it in an older post here. The same method I used on the fabric works great on wood as well!
Before you start applying your numbers, grab a ruler and measure it all out. Since all of my kids are well over 2 ft tall, I chose to start my numbers at 2, but you could certainly start with the 1 ft marker. Just remember wherever you start, you must measure that far up from the ground wherever you install it.
I also wanted to create smaller tick lines for counting in between quarter and half-inch marks between the feet markings, so I used the same length for each varied line to create this effect – 1″ for quarter marks, 1.5″ for half and 2″ for each foot.
I just used a pencil to lightly mark the measured lines. I knew they would be covered up when I went over it with my white paint.
Once all my words, numbers and lines were drawn and transferred, I went back over each one and filled in the lettering with a white paint pen. I love paint pens for just these sort of projects – they make it easy peasy!
When I got to the mid-way point between the 2 boards I just kept on measuring so it would streamline nicely into one.
Next was finding the perfect spot to hang the boards. We chose a narrow wall that sits in our main entryway just off the entrance into the kids’ newly made-over playroom. We made sure to measure up 1 ft before installing our first board.
Then made sure the board was centered and level before installing it with some anchored in drywall screws.
My hubby pre-drilled some holes through the barn wood prior to inserting the screws to prevent any cracking on the already fragile wood.
Once the first board was installed, the second board followed, again making sure it was as even and level with the first board as possible. The result is a seamless transition, and unless you are looking close, you can’t even really tell there are two boards there.
I really love the way our simple little barn board growth chart turned out and I can’t wait to start making our own memories with our kids, marking off their own tally marks over the next several years!
Be sure to stop back here on the blog later this week as I will be sharing all the “magical” details of our daughter’s 9th Harry Potter themed birthday bash!
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