If you rent a house or aren’t in your forever home a growth chart DIY would be the perfect thing! You can still measure your kids as they grow and be able to take it with you if you move!

Pin image that says DIY Growth Chart with easy line making hack! A picture of a wooden growth chart with numbers 3 to 6 next to the edge of a brick fireplace.

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We’ve been renting for years now, and we’ve moved pretty frequently. As soon as I got pregnant, I knew I wanted a growth chart that I could take with us when we moved.

But they are so expensive! I found this cheap one at Michaels for $3 on sale and decided it would work great.

The growth chart originally started at 1 and only went to 4. So I easily changed it by putting some blocks with new numbers over the old numbers so that I wouldn’t have to redo the whole thing.

A growth chart that is grey in color hanging on a wall next to the edge of a brick fireplace

I never totally loved it, but I thought the number lines would be a pain in the butt to redo. So I put it off for 4 years!

Growth Chart DIY

As I’ve really honed in on my aesthetic at home, I have decided that this growth chart just didn’t match what I wanted for my home. So I changed it!

I really wanted a wood tone chart. I wasn’t sure what this growth chart was made of, so I sanded off a small portion of the back to make sure it was wood.

If you don’t have a piece of wood to work with already, you can get a 1×8 board in whatever length you want!

First, I sanded down the front of the old growth chart to take all the paint off. Then I stained it a dark walnut color, since I felt that would go best with my house.

A piece of board that has been stained a walnut color, can see dirty paper towels covered in stain to the side.

After the stain was dry, I decided to polyurethane it. I’m not sure if this is entirely necessary, but I did it anyway.

There are a number of ways to make the growth chart lines. I chose to make a quick and easy stamp. I wrapped a piece of twine around a block and used this as my stamp.

Just place it in your paint, and then stamp it onto the growth chart. I used a yard stick to make sure my lines were spaced out 1 inch each. On the foot marks, I stamped twice, so the line would be longer.

Then I created a stencil to make the numbers. Did you know it’s really easy to create a custom stencil?

The stained growth chart with a ruler on top showing how to space the stencil numbers

I just traced the numbers onto the growth chart, and then painted them in.

Completed growth chart with the numbers 3 to 6 hanging on the wall next to the edge of a brick fireplace. Can see a kitchen table in the background.

Done! It was so much less time consuming than I thought it was going to be. And now I have a growth chart that matches my decor perfectly!

Yield: 1

Growth Chart DIY

How to make your own growth chart.

Active Time 30 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost $20

Materials

4 foot 1x8 board
Stain
Number Stencil
Twine wrapped block
Paint
Polyurethane
Ruler/Yard Stick/Tape Measure

Tools

Paint Brush

Instructions

Stain your 1x8 board. Wait for it to dry.
Polyurethane your board to ensure it stays nice.
Wrap twine around a block in order to create a stencil for your lines.
Use a ruler/yard stick/tape measure to make sure your lines are spaced out every 1 inch.
Use your number stencils to create numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 on your ruler.
Install your diy growth chart 2 feet off the floor!