DIY Giant Ruler Wall Art

We were walking through Hobby Lobby and saw this giant ruler wall art that we thought would be so cute for Theo’s nursery. We thought it would be so fun to mark his height on it as he grows. When we checked the price tag though it was $70! We knew we could make it at home for so much less, so we immediately went to Lowe’s to get some supplies.

Supplies

• Wood in size: 4 foot x 12 inches x 1 inch
• Sanding sponge
• Wood stain of choice– I used Minwax Stain in color Puritan Pine
• Stain brushes or rags for staining
• Measuring tape
• Paint brushes (it’s helpful to have some in various sizes but definitely having one that is a fine tip to have crisper lines)
• Black acrylic paint (I had some at home already but this one is under $1 on Amazon)
• Number template
• Art hanging kit– I used saw-tooth picture hangers and screws that I had at home and then put a nail in the wall to hang it

Steps

1. When I brought the wood home, I used the sanding sponge to smooth out the wood and soften out the corners and edges of the wood

2. I used a rag to stain the wood– I used Minwax Stain in color Puritan Pine because I decided that I wanted a lighter stain than the Hobby Lobby one.

3. Once dried, I used my measuring tape to mark every inch and foot on the wood using a pencil and also used a ruler to mark out how far I wanted each inch line to go out. I tried to reference an old school ruler for how long the dashes look for each inch mark.

• For each inch, I made the lines about a half inch line long
• For 1/4 foot inch marks, I made the lines about 3/4 inch long
• For 1/2 foot inch marks, I made the lines about 1 inch long
• For each foot, I made the lines about 1.5 inches long

4. I choose to do some chunkier numbers when painting mine. I used printable numbers as a template from this website. Below are the cropped versions of the numbers:

I ended up cropping them and printing them in landscape view and at a 740% scale to get the size I wanted. Then I cut out the 4 numbers, arranged them on the wood and made sure they were lined up, and then traced them onto the wood.

5. Then I took my paint brushes and black paint and started painting the lines and filling in the numbers.

6. Once dried, I used a saw-tooth picture hanger and screws on the back of the wood to be able to mount it on the wall.

7. I used my measuring tape to measure out where exactly to mount the art on the wall so that the measurements would be accurate!