Like a Weed.

Ben is growing so quickly and I've been itching to transfer all of the measurements in his baby book onto a growth chart on the wall.

I put a lot of thought into what kind of chart we should do. I ultimately decided that I want one that isn't too "babyish/kiddish," (so it can grow with him), and one that we can use for any future children (so we can easily compare their heights at different ages, etc), which means it needs to be gender-neutral and not too personalized. I decided on one of the giant, vintage ruler growth-charts I've seen online and I whipped it up over the weekend. I love the way it turned out!




I bought a 1x8x6 at Lowes (I believe it was about $7) and went to work. I'd seen some cute charts online that were darker, but I wanted mine to be light so the measurements would be easy to read, so I stained it with two coats of Minwax in "Natural" and then did a little "aging" on the edges with some "English Chestnut." The Chestnut really gave it some good dimension and made it looks a little more "vintage."



Some of the tutorials I've read said to seal it with polyurethane, but I decided not to seal ours. I want it to be easy to write on with pen, so I stopped after two coats of stain.

After the stain dried, I commandeered Tim's carpenter's square (hello, memories of 7th grade woodshop!) and marked off every inch on the board with in pencil and then sharpie. The carpenter's square helped me get the lines nice and straight.



I used "century schoolbook" font (size 250) as a template for the numbers, and finished those in sharpie, too. I started the chart at 6" and it goes up to 6'6". Tim thinks it is a little tall, but we have some tall genes in our family, and yes, I will measure Ben until he stops growing. :)

Finally, I transferred Ben's measurements out of his baby book onto the chart. It is so amazing to see the actual growth he's done in just a little over a year.



I hung the chart in the hall just outside of Ben's bedroom and thanked the Lord for our healthy, growing boy.