Map Wall Art

Map Wall Art

Maps belong where people stand still and where they walk slowly — hallways, stairwell landings, studies, downstairs loos, the wall behind a dining table. All of those put a viewer within arm's reach at some point, which is exactly what a map wants, because half the pleasure is finding the street you grew up on. The room they suit least is a large open living space where the only viewing position is a sofa four metres away. At that distance the detail collapses into texture and you have paid for information nobody can read.

That said, texture is a legitimate reason to buy one. A coastal chart, an old survey sheet or a bathymetric plan reduced to two or three tones behaves like an abstract from across a room and rewards you again up close. If your wall is a long-view wall, choose a map with strong graphic bones: a distinctive coastline, a river system, a harbour, something with shape rather than uniform street grid.

City maps and country maps ask for different formats. A city with a river running through it usually has an obvious axis and suits a landscape crop that follows it. Islands, peninsulas and mountain ranges often want portrait. Look at the actual geography before you decide the shape of the wall it goes on, not the other way round.

Colour is where these can go wrong. Antique-toned maps are sepia, ochre and tea-stained, and they sit awkwardly against cool grey schemes; monochrome and blueprint styles do the opposite and can look severe in a warm, soft room. Match the temperature first and worry about the place second.

Before ordering a map of somewhere personal, check the edges. Sentimental maps often crop out the very thing that made them personal — the village, the coastline, the harbour entrance — and it is much better to find that out now than when it is on the wall.