70×100 is the format for a single piece that has to carry a wall by itself. It is twice the area of a 50×70 and half the area of a 100×140, and it sits at the point where a poster stops being decoration on a wall and becomes the thing the wall is for. It is also the size at which the practical side — glass, weight, fixings — starts to need thinking about.
What it spans, and against what
The two-thirds rule again: art should cover roughly two thirds of the furniture beneath it. A 70×100 spans 70 cm hung portrait and 100 cm hung landscape.
| Furniture | Two-thirds target | Best 70×100 answer | Actual span |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140 cm bed | 93 cm | one, landscape | 100 cm |
| 160 cm bed | 107 cm | one, landscape | 100 cm |
| 180 cm bed | 120 cm | two portrait, 6 cm apart | 146 cm |
| 180 cm sofa | 120 cm | one, landscape | 100 cm |
| 220 cm sofa | 147 cm | two portrait, 6 cm apart | 146 cm |
| 260 cm sofa | 173 cm | three portrait, 6 cm apart | 222 cm |
The 220 cm row is the one to notice: two 70×100 with a 6 cm gap come to 146 cm against a target of 147. That pairing is the single most exact fit anywhere in the range. The 260 cm row is the opposite — three is too much and two is too little, and this is where a mixed gallery arrangement beats a row of identical frames.
Height and clearance
Portrait, with the centre at the standard 145 cm, a 70×100 runs from 95 cm to 195 cm. That is fine under a 240 cm ceiling and tight under 230. Landscape at the same centre it runs from 110 to 180. Sideways, allow at least 30 cm of clear wall on either side, so about 130 cm of uninterrupted plaster for a portrait piece. The standard height itself, and the cases where it does not apply, are covered in the guide to hanging height.
PH5 af Poul Henningsen som poster til stuen
Amerika by Utagawa Yoshikazu japansk kunstposter
Pink sky by Watanabe Seitei japansk kunstposter
Y-stolen af Hans Wegner som poster til stuen
Matisse inspired orange sun poster
Seated Nude Girl Clasping Her Left Knee (1918) by Egon Schiele
Weight starts to matter here
Below this size you can hang a framed print on almost anything and it stays up. At 70×100 the glass is the heavy component, and the frame's own weight is no longer trivial. Three things follow.
- Hang it with two people. One holds, one marks. A frame this size cannot be lifted onto a hook and adjusted at the same time.
- Fix into something solid. A plasterboard wall needs a proper plug rated for the load, not a pin. In brick or concrete, drill and plug.
- Use a fixing made for pictures rather than a leftover screw — the only accessory we make is a single wall hook, in the accessories.
Adhesive strips are not a solution at this size, whatever the packet claims about kilos. They fail slowly, in warm rooms, over months.
Oak or black — no colours
The coloured frames stop at 50×70. From 70×100 upwards the choice is oak or black, and that is not a stock gap we are about to close; it is where the range ends. Oak reads warmer and lighter and tends to suit larger prints better, because a wide black border at this scale adds visual weight to something already large. Both finishes are shown across the frames.
Where it belongs
A wall you can stand back from — roughly 1.5 metres for a piece this size. That rules out most hallways and small bathrooms and points at the living room. Every format with its exact dimensions is in the size guide.