100×140 is the largest format we make: 1.4 square metres of paper, twenty-two times the area of a 21×30. It is the only size in the range that a room has to be chosen for rather than the other way round. Before buying one, three things need checking — the width of the wall, the distance you can stand back, and what the wall is made of.
Is the wall big enough
A large print needs bare wall around it or it looks jammed in. Allow at least 40 cm of clear plaster on each side and the minimum wall widths fall out directly.
| Orientation | Minimum wall width | Edges at 145 cm centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait | 100 × 140 cm | 180 cm | bottom 75, top 215 |
| Landscape | 140 × 100 cm | 220 cm | bottom 95, top 195 |
The portrait row carries a ceiling requirement most people miss. With its centre at the standard 145 cm the top edge lands at 215 cm, which needs a ceiling of at least 240 cm to look intentional rather than crammed against the coving. Under a 230 cm ceiling, hang it landscape or drop the centre. Where the 145 cm figure comes from, and when to abandon it, is explained in the hanging height guide.
How far back you have to stand
A useful rule for prints: the minimum comfortable viewing distance is about one and a half times the longest side. Below that you are reading a detail, not seeing the picture.
| Format | Longest side | Minimum viewing distance |
|---|---|---|
| 21×30 | 30 cm | 45 cm |
| 30×42 | 42 cm | 63 cm |
| 50×70 | 70 cm | 105 cm |
| 70×100 | 100 cm | 150 cm |
| 100×140 | 140 cm | 210 cm |
Peacock by Ohara Koson japansk kunstposter
HILMA AF KLINT - THE TEN LARGEST, ADULTHOOD, NO. 7 PLAKAT
Bauhaus orange on blue poster
Japanese Cranes poster
Bauhaus Weimar 1923 poster
Fashion Brands Poster
Why it rarely belongs in a hallway
Read the last row against a corridor. A domestic hall is typically 90 to 120 cm wide, so the furthest you can get from the wall is a little over a metre — less than half the distance a 100×140 needs. You will walk past it at 80 cm and never once see the whole image. The wall may be long enough; the room is not deep enough. The same objection applies to a narrow galley kitchen and to the wall directly behind a dining chair. For a corridor, 30×42 and 50×70 do the work instead, and the motifs made for it are in the hallway collection.
Where it works is a room you cross rather than pass through: a living room with 3 metres between sofa and facing wall, a stairwell you look at from the landing opposite, a bedroom wall seen from the door.
Weight and fixing
Framed with glass, this is the heaviest thing we sell, and it is not a job for one person or for adhesive strips.
- Two people, always. One takes the weight, one guides it onto the hook.
- Fix into a stud, into brick, or into plasterboard with a plug rated well above the frame's weight — and check the figure on the frame rather than guessing.
- Two fixings side by side, level with each other, hold a wide frame better than one central hook and stop it drifting out of level.
- The only accessory we make is a single wall hook; anything beyond that comes from a hardware shop.
If drilling is not an option, this is the one format where the answer is simply to lean it. A 100×140 resting on the floor against the wall, its bottom edge on the skirting, is a legitimate way to hang it and removes the fixing question entirely.
Frames
Oak or black. The coloured finishes stop at 50×70, so at this size there is no white, no blue, no red — see the frames. Every print available at this scale is in the XL selection, and the exact figures for all five sizes are in the size guide.