Chalk Paint Growth Chart {Tutorial}

As promised… here’s the tutorial to make yourself one of these:

You will need:

Pine board (6 feet long, 6 inches wide, 1 inch thick)

Stencils (mine were cut on my Silhouette)

Sandpaper (or electric sander)

Wood conditioner, stain, paint, wax

Sawtooth hangers (available in the picture-hanging aisle)

Instructions:

1.  Prepare your wood by sanding any rough edges, wipe clean, and wipe on wood conditioner.

2.  Once wood conditioner has dried, apply wood stain (I used MinWax stain in Walnut) with a brush or rag.  Wipe off excess stain to achieve the desired color and allow to dry.

3.  I made my stencils with my Silhouette, but you could also cut strips of painters tape for the inch markers.  The smaller lines are 1 inch x 0.3 inches and the longer lines are 2 inches x 0.3 inches.  The numbers are good old Times New Roman, blown up to 278 font size.  (If you don’t have a vinyl cutter, you can trace the number onto painters tape and carefully cut out by hand.)

4.  Now it’s time to mark where your stencils will go.  **Important: Your ruler will begin at 6 inches so it doesn’t have to touch the floor and compete with baseboards.  This also makes for a more symmetrical look on your wall once hung.

I chose to add line markers every two inches for a cleaner look, using the longer 2 inch strips at the 6 inch and foot marks.

The number stencils were placed just left of the foot marker, 2.5 inches from the top edge of the board.

5.  Make sure your stencils are securely in place, and paint with two coats of chalk paint.

6.  Remove stencils.

7.  Distress if desired.  Wax and buff.  (I used Annie Sloan clear and dark wax)

**Optional: If you want to mark on this as a chalkboard, just skip the wax step so your chalk or chalk marker will work.

8.  Add two sawtooth hangers to back of board, being sure they are level.

9.  And that’s it!  Hang, admire, and measure your kiddos…

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