A Nest for All Seasons

11 April 2012

DIY Metal Tabbed Height Chart

You've all seen the fabulous ruler height chart from Pottery Barn, right? You know the one everybody and their mother has ripped off to make their own. In fact, the DIYers DIYed it so much, that Pottery Barn took the product out of rotation. You can no longer buy it - you MUST make it for yourself...

Pottery Barn Ruler Growth Chart

Well, I wanted to make a version of the chart, but didn't want it to look exactly like everything else out there. SO, I took a few of the little round metal pieces leftover from my MOON PROJECT, and used them to create little personalized tags. I simply punched our names, ages and the year into the circles and gave them a couple coats of spray paint. You could use whatever colors you want -- I used a gold, salmon and bronze.

Forgive the glare on the gold!

My favorite thing about this chart is the tactile quality. I love when you can feel the letters on a gravestone or feel the carvings in the doorframe on classic height charts. The only problem is that those door frames cannot easily come with you to the next house. I wanted that tactile quality for my height chart, and the punched letters and metal pieces do the job, but the piece is removable so it can come us if we ever move.

For the board, I took a scrap piece of wood in the garage, some leftover redwood stain and that was that. Easy enough, right?

I attached the tags to our current heights and each year I plan to either add new tags or perhaps burn lines into the wood to show the height progression.