As the first day of kindergarten was rapidly approaching, I thought to myself (for the billionth time), "I need some sort of growth chart somewhere in this house!" My mom used to always record our heights on a kitchen wall, and it was fun to see how my brother and I grew over the years. I wanted something like that, but I also wanted to be able to take it with me! We have no plans to move anytime soon (or ever!), but I am also smart enough to know that life is full of surprises. So, I wanted something semi-portable. And I wanted it to look like a giant ruler, like the ones I had seen on Etsy or Pottery Barn for like a million dollars! Only I didn't want it to cost that much.
So, step one... I walked out into the garage and looked around at all the pieces of wood we had just sitting around. I saw one that looked about right... 6 feet long, 1 inch thick, and a foot wide. It looked ruler-ish. I checked with the hubby to make sure it wasn't earmarked for something else, and he gave me the green light. Woohoo!!
Anyway... I sanded it down until it was nice and smooth, then stained it. This was where I really went wrong. I didn't realize just how DARK the "walnut" stain would be! If I had to do this all over again, I would have chosen something much lighter. And I might still do it all over again. I just don't know... But I digress!
Once the stain was dry (I let it sit overnight), it was time to make it look like a ruler. I read lots of great tutorials that were useless to me. Things about cutting out contact paper to make stencils, using fancy Silhouette machines to print the lines on vinyl, blah blah blah. None of that was going to happen. You know what I did? Brace yourself. I... used... a RULER! Gasp! haha!!
My hubby is very handy in his own right, and has some lovely tools (that sounds obscene. I'm sorry). He has this great metal ruler that was perfect for the task. I decided to start my ruler at 10 inches, since I knew that would be putting the ruler far enough off the ground so that it could be mounted above the baseboard. I used a permanent marker and made little dots at every inch.
Then I found another handy tool: a combination square!! (and yes, I just asked my husband what it was called). You could definitely still do this project without one, but it sure made things a lot easier! It looks like this:
Isn't it nifty? I just slid it along the edge of my board and used it to make perfectly straight, even lines at each of the little dots I'd made. At the foot marks, I made lines that were 4 inches long. Then, at the half-foot marks, I made 3.5 inch lines. Then, at the quarter-foot marks, I made 3 inch lines. All the other lines were 2.5 inches. It was totally arbitrary on my part, but it ended up looking pretty good!
Next up, I used the same tools (the ruler and the combination square) to center my number stencils in just the right spots at the foot marks. I taped them down with blue painter's tape, and painted them with regular old black craft paint. Bam.
Then it was a matter of letting the paint dry, then mounting the thing on the wall. It was tricky to get it the exact right height off the ground, but it would have been easier with a second set of hands that I didn't have at the time. And you will definitely want to use drywall anchors, because it's a heavy piece of wood! It looks pretty decent up close, huh??
Yeah... so it looks better up close than from afar. It's just so dark that you can't really see the lines/numbers. So you know what I think I'm going to do? I'm going to paint it white, using the same paint I use on all the wood trim around the house. Then I'll put the lines and numbers back on. It will look a little more modern and a little less like a wooden ruler, but I think it will make me happier. So... there you go! Not a ton of work or money (especially if you use things you already have!), and a cool new (and functional!) piece of wall art. Tada!
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