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Pinterest Challenge Project: Room to Grow

OUR 2nd HOUSE

On three different occassions I have seen a DIY growth chart made from a bit of paint and a piece of wood.  And on all three occasions, the owner of the growth chart pointed to the craftastic wall decor and said one word….Pinterest.   So I figure since our winter edition of the Pinterest Challenge (where we have one big party of pin it and spin it!) was pint-sized with Will, Clara and Weston doing our big….err….little? announcement…then it was only appropriate to do something kid-centric.  But first – the inspiration…

If you go on Pinterest, there are TONS of different ways to paint what looks like an oversized ruler.  I loved all the creativity that you can have with this project.  The ones above are from The Creative Imperative, 517 Creations, and Cupcakes & Crinolines.

  

And here are ones by Cozy, Cottage, Cute and Design, Dining and Diapers and last but not least, Silhouette the blog.  You can really personalize this to make it your own with a little font change and paint design for the front.

But you may believe that I was the one completing this Pinterest Challenge.  Oh no.  Nonono.  I figured that if Will was gonna steal my thunder in the PC announcement video with that sweet little voice and some tiger growls and a politicians ‘Good Luck’ thrown in for good measure….well, he would be doing this project himself.  I would be there for management.  MICRO-management 🙂

He started off with a 1x6x6 poplar board from Lowe’s.  It was $16 I believe.  Then he sanded it down with 100 grit sandpaper, followed by 220 grit.  I love my new sander by the way – it produces very little dust and the clips hold the sandpaper in place….unlike our last one that kicked the bucket after we tried to McGyver it back to functionality.

Then he cleaned it off.

Then came time for staining.  I recommend that you use a well ventilated area for staining.  We opened our garage and had the box fan going.

Then he got to staining…he used MinWax’s Dark Walnut.  It’s best to do it in long strokes with the grain and let it soak in for a few minutes before wiping off the excess.  This is like a diaper change – Don’t forget the sides and tops and bottoms too.

Here is the final stained board.  Yummy.

Then came time for measuring the placement of Goliath’s ruler….I…I mean, Will simply leaned a yard stick against the wall to see where bottom should be…I wanted it to hang a little over the trim so 9.5 inches was perfect.

Then came the marking of the feet on the ruler.  The board simply starts at 9.5″ and we marked the 12″ and 24″, etc..

I think someone got a little Frog Tape happy.

Okay…so the perpindicular lines that would go all the way across the boards marked the feet.  The parallel tape was to help mark the inches.  Then I just distributed a little acrylic paint for the markage to begin.

Here is how Will marked the inches.  It helps to do little pencil marks and then just go over it with a bit of paint and a straightedge.

Now it was time to stencil the numbers…

Will did a fine job cutting them out with an X-acto.  And apparently the pultry cutting board is the best one.  Don’t lick these numbers, they could be contaminated.

Weston decided to contribute by laying the numbers out.

A little white paint in the numbers was really really easy.

And some numbers required a little fixing…like the ones with the center solids…

A little white paint fixed those too.  My Will – what a large hand you have!

Then came hanging it.  The measuring stick came out to make sure we had it hung at the correct height from the floor.

Jeremy is always the one in charge of the bolting things to the wall.  He swears by these heavy duty toggle bolts…I think he would probably bolt a piece of construction paper to the wall…he’s all about things not falling.

We kinda like our kids and don’t want them to get smacked in the head with a board.  We’ll save that for when they are teenagers 🙂

So here’s the final product…

I love the fact that it’s right before you get to the ‘kid rooms’.  It’s actually in the hall right outside our room and the two doors you see on your right are Will’s and Weston’s future room.

Oh and I can not tell you how excited Will was to stand next to his creation.  We are big fans of letting our boys participate in home renovation projects but sometimes it’s just possible (because of fumes or danger or whatnot) and this one was a hit because he did get to do a few different things to help out.  Err….I mean, he did it totally himself 🙂

We marked his height and the day (yes, these photos were taken this morning because I am sick in bed and was lazy).

Cute!  I mean that about both the growth chart and the kid 🙂

And now for the best part of this Pinterest Challenge!  The sharing!

Please check out the projects from the other cohosts…

Megan from The Remodeled Life

Sherry from Young House Love

Michelle from Decor & The Dog

 

I’m sure they all have mad git-er-done skills….can’t wait to see what they tackled!  And now for some details before we get to see YOUR projects…Just as a reminder, Pinterest doesn’t know about this challenge (or endorse, sponsor, etc.)…they just simply supply the place for the awesome to gather.

Also, I’d love to see your projects if you played along too so here are the instructions if you are a linky-party newbie…

  • click on the blue “Add Your Link” button at the bottom of this post – it has a blue frog head on it add a link to your PC project blog post in the url field (please do not link to your home page) for “name” write a short descriptive name for your project (e.g. “Easter Egg Craft”)
  • pretty pretty please remember to link in the body of your post to the original source of the photo on Pinterest as well as back to me and this editions hosts above – it’s just a big ole fashioned linky love fest!  Love you forever & thanks.
  • If you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it).

This is a sponsored post brought to you by FrogTape. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

 

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Comments

  6. I looove this! I want to do this so bad! Love how yours turned out! Your little helper is so cute :). Our little man has to always get into the action too!

  10. Wow! This looks SOOOOO good. And way to make Will work for it.

    I love all these growth chart projects. This was actually a project that I hadtohavedoneOMG before I came home from the hospital. (Why I thought a newborn would need a growth chart is beyond me.) I had gotten as far as making the dashes before I ended up bringing Henry home early.

    Then, a week later, my aunt showed up with a custom growth chart made by a local woodworker. It.is.fabulous. Good thing I didn’t get mine done in time. 😉

    Love your version. And thanks for hosting!

  13. Will has got some skills! A+ for sure. I love that it’s not just a bunch of marks on the wall & is actually aesthetically pleasing – in addition to being a great sentimental piece!

  15. I love how it turned out! We have an old unfinished pine board my dad made, and now he adds my kids to the chart too, I love seeing them stacked up against me when I was little:)

    Your white paint on yummy stain looks so modern, and the white paint pen is ingenius!

    Jessica

  16. This is awesome. I love how this turned out. It looks so clean and crisp. I love that you are putting your own measurements on it too. I wish I had known this when B was little 🙂

    Oh and high five on being a homeschooler. Love that 🙂 I am making my own…

  26. I love your take on the growth chart ruler! I made one for my Lil’Man that looks just your second pin image. I rushed to make it just a couple of days before his first birthday. I wanted so badly to get that first year on the chart — it was the best kind of motivation!

  27. SO stinkin’ cute! Will (and Weston) did a great job! haha Thanks for hosting this Challenge, Katie. I am excited to have participated and linked up for the very first time! I hope you feel better right away. xo

  28. Well done! We have a similar board (not nearly so fancy…it’s a piece of oiled maple with a gorgeous grain that my husband picked out) in our kitchen. We’ve watched friends and family move from homes where they charted heights directly on the wall and that was one of the hardest emotional/sentimental things about the moves. Even if this is our forever home, we wanted to be able to move the board around (to accommodate a future renovation that will result in the removal of that wall…).

  30. I’m so glad you did this as your pin. I want to when I have kids. Pinning YOURS right now!!! Thanks for hosting. This was my first time joining in.

  32. I love it! I have been trying to find an easy/easier way of doing one of these and yours is by far the easiest I’ve seen (some of the ones on Pinterest didn’t make sense!)! It looks awesome! My boy Miles will be getting one of these really soon!

  33. I can hold him upright in a standing position…so I’ll probably just steady him as he stands and Jer can mark his height 🙂
    xo – kb

  35. While I think your growth chart ruler is adorable, I really have to comment that I didnt realize your baseboards are 9″ and are AMAZING! I’m obsessed with all of your trim work and moldings. just gorgeous. 🙂

  36. OMG Will is getting so big! He looks like a grown up in that first pic with the board!

    Is it weird to get teary eyed over the growth of a child I’ve never met?

    Whatever. That boy is adorable. Since he is so handy like his mommy, will he be starting his own blog like mommy too? I would totally read the crap out of that thing. I promise to keep my comment cursing to a minimum though.

  38. Goodness! I don’t think your helper could be any cuter! Love the idea too! How tall is Jeremy? And your brothers? Any bets on how tall those boys will be???

  39. I love it! It’s perfect! Your boys are so cute!

    Can I ask you what is the paint color you used on your walls? It’s so fresh and inspiring.

    Thanks for the tutorial!

  41. Did you use a silhouette machine to print out the numbers? How did you get the numbers big enough?

    Oh and Will is soooo stinking cute!

  44. I really love how this turned out. Simple and with clean lines. My mother-in-law uses a wall in her kitchen as an “unofficial” spot to measure the grandchildren. My daughter is so excited to get measured each visit to see how much she has grown.

  45. You could go back and add in Will’s earlier measurements from his well baby checks if you wrote them down somewhere. It would be neat to be able to compare their heights/ages.

  47. Love your growth chart. My mom just had us measure our kids (and now our grandkids) on her white door frame in the kitchen. It now has marks from 1975 all the way thru 2013 (from 2.5 feet “short” all the way to 6 ft tall). Meanwhile after we moved into our house, I hot glued a 4 foot wooden ruler from the lumber yard onto the inside door of my pantry (long cabinet door) 2 feet up starting from the floor. I mark the growth with just a fine point sharpie and write which grandkid and age or date right on the inside door. My three year old granddaughter asks me to “measure me” everytime she comes now.

  48. I love this! Wish I had seen this BEFORE I used a Sharpie on the door frame to mark my little guy’s height! Haha! Tell Will he did a great job! 😉

  49. KB – I had to chime in on Jeremy’s side: I am all about bolting things down. It’s a structural integrity phobia; I need to be sure that nothing is coming down on anyone, ever.

    That said, you have the cutest handyboy ever… and such a great eye for your photos. Love.

  50. Katie – I love it! I came over here fully intending to link to my latest Pinterest project (http://theaveragejess.com/pinterest-for-the-average-girl-diy-his-and-hers-towel-hooks/) and was so excited to see your take on the growth ruler project.

    I did one of those a while ago too (http://theaveragejess.com/pinterest-for-the-average-girl-growth-chart-ruler/) but I love love love your version with the white paint on the dark stain – it looks great. Ours is at the entrance hall to the future kids rooms too and I know I’ll treasure seeing those little marks (so close to the floor right now) for years to come.

  51. So stinkin’ cute! Will did an amazing job. So proud! I have loved that ruler, too, but am worried that I’m too late to do one. Kids are 6 and 13… too late?

    Am I the only one that doesn’t see a linky button?

  52. I have one of these pinned on my boards too – but yours is the CUTEST one I’ve seen. LOVE how it turned out, Katie! You totally rock that Frog Tape. 😉

  53. Love it! I have wanted to make one of these for a while but got worried I’d never get around to it and finally ordered one from a girl on Etsy. Yours turned out really cute!

  55. How awesome! I love this project, and since we don’t have kids yet, I’ve been putting it off. It looks so great on the wall though that I might bump it up on the list! Great work, Will!

  57. Love, love this idea! Great job on the execution too, Will – seriously amazing :). You guys will treasure this as Weston, Will and anyone else who comes along grows up! So clever.

  59. Just wanted to say- I think this has been my favorite pinterest challenge. I love all four projects. I think they are all “doable” but not “cheap” looking. Excellent job ladies!

  60. Maybe this is a silly question, but did you print the numbers on card stock or regular paper? I’d like to do some similar stenciling but I’m not sure if it’ll hold up with regular printer paper.

  62. Hi Katie! I love your ruler and love how many people participated in this! Lots of ideas to be had! Just a FYI…for #72, the sunburst mirror…it is linking to a Facebook page, which I do not believe is the correct link! 😉

  63. It looks great, Katie!

    I also wanted to let you know that your photoshop tutorial on white balancing pictures was super duper helpful as I edited my photos for my Pinterest challenge post on our blog. Thanks!

  65. No way too late! Do it! Kids are gonna grow – sometimes all the way up into their twenties! And the linky button should be on the very bottom of the post 🙂
    xo – kb

  68. That is adorable. We have a friend who has a door in their great grandparent’s cabin that has four generations of ‘sizes’ – It’s AMAZING. You will have that too!
    xo – kb

  69. I just printed them out on my computer and used an x-acto knife to cut them out. I only wish I had a silhouette machine!
    xo – kb

  70. Well, I don’t know what’s more adorable– your project or your little assistant! {Okay, I do know. Even though the project is great, I have to go with the assistant. ;)} Thanks for letting the rest of us link up too! Yay party!

    ~Abby =)
    #116, A Pinspired Baby Gift

  71. Turned out so well!! Also, sort of unrelated, but when is part 3 of Weston’s birth story? 🙂

  72. Okay…. then I absolutely must do this one. You’ve talked me into it! =) Or maybe I’ll make
    Aidan (the 6 yr old) make mine.. LOL

    And turns out the linky thing was my darned work internet browser. Darn them… keeping me from having fun during work hours. The shame.. the shame!

  74. Jers 5’11” and my brothers are 5’11” and 6’1″….jers brother is 6’3″ or 6’4″ I think so there is a probability that they will fit on this chart till adulthood 🙂
    I think Will will be shorter than Weston…
    xo kb

  78. Ooooo…so cute! Great job to Will (and Mom)!

    What sander do you have? I remember you had it on your wishlist on the side, but not which model. I’m actually in the market now for a good one.

  88. Will did such a good job!

    Katie, and what about those pregnant pictures you were taking? the ones with white dress? did you ever finished that project or you stopped in the middle? if you finished it – which i hope so – pleeeeease, post it up.

    love and blessings from Brazil.
    xoxo

  89. We did but it wasn’t as cute as I thought it would end up…mostly because I looked fully cooked at 20 weeks and only barely got bigger after that.
    xo – kb

  90. Helping, I mean making your young one do all the work is good parenting. 😛
    This one’s a very cute post, and congrats on getting that gargantuan ruler done. And oh, great Pinterest links at the end, I’ll browse through them all in a while and maybe pick one out to try while I’m at it. Again, good job. 🙂

  95. Oh my word! I seriously cannot believe my little growth chart made it into your Pinterest Inspiration! THANK YOU KATIE! I’ve been a huge fan of your blog for a long time. I’m sad I missed the winter challenge this go around, can’t wait for the next one 🙂

  96. I’ve been wanting to do this same project for awhile now, too. Maybe this will kick my butt into high gear! Your final product looks great! Thanks for the pinspiration!

  98. We have had our growth chart similar to this in our home for over 5 years. We have Mamma, Daddy, the Grandpas and Grandmas measured and recorded also. My girl’s favorite thing, I am not sure if any other commenter said it because I am too lazy to read through them, anywho, my girls like to write their own name and date when it became legible. They love seeing how their name has changed.

  100. Thanks so much for including my Ruler Growth Chart in your links! It is a little surreal to see a picture of our playroom on your blog. 🙂 I love your take on the growth chart and your little assistant is pretty adorable!

  102. No none because I am going to be adding paint marks as the kids grow. If I was doing other ways of marking it, I probably would use poly 🙂
    xo – kb

  104. You need to check out Ocho in Covington. Twice a year they sell fabric by the pound. It is now $1.99 a pound. I think the sale is on through this weekend and then it will be again in the fall. It might be a drive for you, but it is totally worth it especially if you need enough material for a slipcover. I just got about 24 yards of various materials and a buttload of ribbon for $50. I love that place. It is a giant warehouse and you have to be prepared to hunt, but it is a ton of fun and they have great stuff.

  106. Love your growth chart – getting ready to start the project with my 3 little helpers (my youngest was born Nov 15 – so close to your W). And – haha. I’m Katie too. And – I’ve been blogstalking you for a while, and this is my virgin post! Anywayyyyy! What do you use to actually record the kiddos growth on the chart?! I’m wondering what shows up to track the milestones on your lovely dark wooden board?

  107. And sorry if you’ve already answered this question, in my haste to get to Lowe’s while everyone is happy, awake, and fed – I didn’t go through all of the comments (yet!)

  108. Oooh – just found this comment! Do you have a picture example of what the paint marks look like on it, tracking their growth? 🙂 Or ideas for other ways of tracking their growth? Thanks! Wow, and in just two minutes I went from never posting on this thing to bamming you with a few 😉

  114. Did you take the ruler off of the wall to measure his height so that it aligns with the numbers? I am making one of these and would like to mount it on the wall, but then it won’t show accurate height so I’m a bit confounded…

  115. Ours starts at 1 foot and it is exactly 1 foot from the floor so we don’t have to take it off the wall. I planned for it to be mounted at the height that it actually is so the ruler itself has a number 1 marked two inches from the bottom. Does that make sense?
    xo – kb

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