Hellobee

The nursery is just about finished, and I can’t wait to share it with the hive once we have pictures taken this weekend.

One of the many DIY projects we did for the room was to make a growth chart that looks like a giant ruler. I first saw one of these in my neighbor’s home. Theirs was from Pottery Barn, but I knew we could make one ourselves and use the money we saved toward other necessities.

We purchased a plank of pine wood at our local hardware store for $8. It was already the right size, so we didn’t need to cut it, which was nice.

Here it is after the stain, drying in the sun.

The following weekend, I was ready to tackle what I knew would be the hardest part: measuring and drawing the lines.

I started by measuring each foot and drawing three inch pencil lines. We knew we wanted to hang it on the wall, so I did the bottom of the ruler at one foot and continued from there.

Then, I measured the inches and drew 1.5 inch pencil lines for each of those. At this point, I was kind of wishing we had just bought a giant ruler instead, but I soon realized that this was the hardest part and wasn’t all that bad in retrospect.

Next came the paint! I used black acrylic paint and a small brush (leftover from the canvas project) to paint over the lines I had drawn in pencil.

After all the lines were painted – and it took me a foot or two to come to terms with the fact that they wouldn’t be perfect – I was ready to paint the numbers. I used stencils from a craft store ($5) so I wouldn’t have to free hand that part, which was a smart move, I think.

Just a little bit of drying and it was ready to hang!

Before Mr. TTT hung it (by the way, I did this entire project by myself, except for the hanging part – go me!), he decided to have a little fun.

Remember I said that I made the bottom of the ruler one foot? Well, my husband isn’t exactly 6’8″ tall… he’s more like 5’8″. But, he might be able to fool someone with this photo!

We measured one foot off the ground and marked where we wanted to hang it, then…

Ta-da! I love it so much!!! I can’t wait to use it each year as Baby TTT grows!

Here’s a close up of the finished product. I plan to get a light colored paint pen so we can mark the left side of the ruler with little Liam’s height as he grows. Then, if we move one day, we can take it with us to continue recording!

Oh, and just because my husband isn’t over 6 feet doesn’t mean our son won’t be. My dad is 6’4″, so there’s a chance he’ll get my genes and be tall… you never know!

Total cost of this project: $13. Here’s one on Amazon.com for $175. I’d say that was totally worth it!

What projects did you DIY in the nursery to save money?