Over the years I've known many families to mark their doorways with their children's height marks as they grow. When my niece and nephew were born my dad made up some wooden rulers, a stained board with the inch marks and numbers wood burned into it. One for each of their houses and one for my parents house to keep track of all the grandchildren's heights over the years! These charts are a decorative piece in everyones homes but are great because they can be moved and aren't permanently part of the home like those markings on the doorways.
My friends baby shower was coming up and I knew the perfect gift to give her (okay - maybe she hinted that she wanted one...). My dad had too much going on to make one so I ran up to home depot and purchased a 6 foot board. Soon, I had my own version of the growth chart which included wood-burned inch markers, gray stain, white painted numbers and I went a little further and customized it with their family name and wedding year on the top!
At the beginning of the year I opened an Etsy shop, Ackerman Creative Co, listing some of the things I had created for my wedding. Friends and family that had seen the growth chart questioned why I wasn't listing it in my shop. I listed off a few reasons.. I was nervous about shipping it! How the heck am I going to package up a 6 foot board if someone actually buys it?! Also, if you search "growth chart" on Etsy, there are over 7,000 listings! Who's ever going to buy mine? After many google searches on shipping large awkward packages, I finally said eh, I'll give it a try.
I'm excited to say that the growth charts have quickly become our number one seller! You can find us in the wood aisle of Home Depot and Lowes every weekend digging through to find the perfect boards. We've also become regulars at our local post offices where we get some pretty great looks as we walk in with 6 foot packages.
We offer the growth charts in various stains with customizing options such as family name, established year, quotes and text color. Check them out in our Etsy shop!
Follow @heatherackermancreative on Instagram to see other custom orders!