DIY Ruler Growth Chart Tutorial (with Printable!)

IMG_2809Mark your child's growth on a DIY Ruler Growth Chart!  These are very popular and very easy to make.  All you need is a board (2"x10"x 6 ft), black paint and a thin paint brush (or a Sharpie), wood stain (optional), polyurethane to seal, and hardware to hang the board on the wall.

Here are a few helpful tips before you begin...

  • I would suggest you start with the top when you label each foot.  If you anticipate your children being pretty tall, you may want to start the top of your growth chart at over six and a half feet.  For my family, I don't anticipate anyone being over 6'6".  I placed the six foot mark six inches down from the top of the board.
  • Also, this probably doesn't need to be said, but I will say it anyway.  The bottom of your board will read just under one foot.  This means you will need to hang your growth chart off the ground making sure that the one foot mark is exactly one foot off the ground.
  • Paint your family's name, the year you and your spouse got married, a bible verse, your children's names, a family monogram, or anything else to personalize your growth chart!  Don't forget to put your and your spouse's measurements on the chart!  Also, it's fun to put your child's birth date, weight, height, and birth time on your chart.  I hope this helps you capture some wonderful memories with your children throughout the years!
  • If you have a router, consider giving the edges a finished look like I did (take a look at the after picture).
Step 1

Before you begin, print out my Growth Chart Printable here (PDF). I printed it out and verified that the measurements are correct.

Step 2

Cut the left edge off of each page so that you can lay the numbers and tick marks on the left-hand edge of your board.  Then, using a ruler or measuring tape, measure exactly where each foot should go.  Scotch tape the paper template to the spot you measured for each foot.

Step 3

Take a soft pencil and cover it in pencil marks ("B" drawing pencils are better than normal #2 ones).  This will serve as our "transfer paper."

Step 4

Using the piece of paper covered in pencil marks face down underneath the template you taped down, trace the numbers and tick marks on the template with a sharp pencil. 

Tracing the printable template while the penciled transfer paper is underneath will transfer light graphite marks onto the wood. 

This is what the graphite "transfer" marks will look like.  You will paint in between the lines.

Step 5

With my printable template, you will need to add additional tick marks between the marks you created for each foot.  All you need to do is lay one of the printable template pages over the empty space between the markings from the template and the tick marks should line up perfectly for you to trace and fill in the empty space!

Step 6

Using a paint brush and black paint, fill in the spaces! We put a couple layers of clear gloss polyurethane on top.   Take a look at the "After" picture below!  

After

11 Responses

  1. Amanda

    Hi! Now that you’ve had time to use your growth chart, what do you find most effective to mark height? Does the coat of polyurethane make it more difficult to leave a lasting mark?

    Beautiful project!

    • Sarah

      Hi Amanda! I actually am a bit behind! We’ve only marked Gram’s height on our growth chart! We did that with a normal black Sharpie. That worked pretty well. Right after you make the mark, if you try hard enough, you can wipe it off with your finger. Now that it has been at least a month since we marked that on the ruler, it takes a lot of elbow grease to scrub off the mark. I think that marking method is sufficient for us. I think you could easily get a small bottle of craft varnish and paint over it to seal it completely. Maybe down the road, we’ll put a coat of poly over the entire thing.

      I still need to add measurements for myself, hubby, and baby girl. I’ll add a mark for when she was born (I want to include her b-day, her weight, and time!) and her 1st b-day measurement…we’re going to have to use the doctor’s measurement from her appointment since we didn’t get our chart up in time for her to stand there on her birthday. 🙂

      Hope this helps! 🙂

      • Sarah

        P.S. I mentioned that to a friend who wished she had a growth chart…if you still want to make a chart, but your kids are older, just go back to your child’s doctor and get their height measurements from each of their yearly checkups! That way, you won’t have to start the measurements from when they’re 5! You can backtrack! 🙂

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  3. shelly

    Hey, thanks for the template! Could you tell me what font you used to create your family name??

    • Sarah

      Hi Shelly! I can’t seem to find the original file I used to create the stencil, so I’m not sure what the font name is!!! Sorry!!! There are a handful of great free font websites online that may have something similar!

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