Back before the Birthday Boy was born, a good friend gave me a set of cute animal decals for his nursery. I could never make up my mind where I wanted to stick them, and I was afraid that if I changed my mind they would be stuck in that place for the next 50 years. We held on to them, waiting for a sign to use them.

It randomly occurred to me one day that I could stick them on something which could be moved freely around if I changed my mind. One idea was a big canvas, to make a cute zoo scene above his crib. Another was on the side of a toy box. Finally, I settled on a height chart, something we never bought and didn’t receive as a gift. This would be my first birthday gift to my son ( and if I do say so myself, it was quite cheap to make!).

Materials:

1 6 foot long wood plank

Pencil

Tape measure

Number stencils

Wall decals

Paint (I used both extra interior house paint and acrylic craft paint)

Clear spray paint

Unbeknownst to my husband, I took the liberty of rearranging his work bench while he was at work so I could balance the plank on two sawhorses. The background scene was painted with leftover interior house paint we had lying around. I drew a wavy line to separate the green grass from the blue sky. This took about two coats to look nice and bright. I didn’t have enough time to prime the wood, but it helps hide the wood grain if you don’t want it to show.

I painted a sun at the top with more leftover paint (all the house paint I used is actually from painting my son’s room, so at the end of the day the height chart will perfectly match the rest of the decor).

Nothing too fancy, just a simple circle and wiggly sunbeams.

The tape measure was used to mark off the inches on the left side of the board. At every foot I stenciled in the number. The lines and numbers were filled in with red paint. VERY IMPORTANT!!! I did not start at one inch, I started the board at three inches so that I could hang it up off the floor a few inches. If you want little Timmy’s height determination to be accurate, plan accordingly!

Finally, determine where you want the decals and apply them. I moved the sawhorse setup outside to the patio where I sprayed the clear paint to finish and seal the decals permanently onto the chart. I gave it three coats to make sure everything was completely covered, and I waited about 30 minutes in between coats to make sure it was completely dry (I did this step on a rainy day that was pretty humid and I didn’t want to find out the hard way the drying was delayed).

The plank itself cost about $13. The stencils, craft paint and spray paint only cost about $10. All in all I made this for less than $25, not bad at all!

Here my son is modeling how well he can stand up in front of it. Now he stands straight as a board in front of the chart no less than 8 times a day until I check to see if he’s grown. Thankfully, he’s not growing that fast. Yet.