DIY Wooden Growth Chart Tutorial

Growth charts and height charts for kids have been all the rage! They are absolutely perfect for any kid’s room and I LOVE that you can take it with you when you move. My family measured me on the back of my parent’s bathroom door and now… someone else lives there and I’m sure it’s been painted over 🙁 Here’s the solution my friends! A super easy, super cute DIY Growth Chart!

I’m going to share two versions for you. One where you can hand paint the tick marks on the giant ruler and one where you simply paint and apply vinyl to the board! Couldn’t be easier and your kids will love it! Mine sure do; the proof is in that big giant smile on Mr. C’s face!

1. First, you will need a board. You can use a 6 inch or 8 inch x 6 foot board. These are precut and readily available at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and most home improvement stores.

 2. Next, stain or paint your board! I chose to do painted and stained stripes on the one for my boys’ room and you can see that my friends did an all stained look.

*Don’t mind the Relief Society board. That was another project! 😉

3. Next, if you’re painting your tick marks and numbers on, you will start measuring your board and marking every inch. Skip to step number 7 if you are planning on using vinyl.

 4. Then, we used a black paint pen (available at most craft stores) and went over our previously measured tick marks.

It should look something like this when you’re done. I did 1″ markings on the “inch” tick marks and a 2″ marking where each “foot” would be marked.

5. Next, we printed off some numbers (1-6) on a regular inkjet printer and used it as a template for painting on our numbers at each foot.

6.  All you do is take an ink pen and trace the number over top of the paper, pressing firmly to make a light marking in the wood so you know where to paint. It’s okay if some ink leaks through if you are painting the numbers a dark color.

Can you see the “1” lightly marked in the wood? Now, take your paint pen, or your super steady hand and a small paintbrush and paint the numbers on.

7. After my painted marks and numbers dried, I took my sander and distressed the whole piece but that’s totally optional!

If you plan to use vinyl, all you need to do is paint or stain your board then apply the vinyl to it! Couldn’t be easier.

The vinyl decal is available on my etsy shop here.

I also sell this personalized growth chart available in my shop.

Do you keep track of your kids’ height in a special way?