DIY Printable Map Wall Art

The Meandering Mississippi 

You may not know this yet based on this blog, but I have a slight obsession with maps. This is slightly ironic as I have a terrible sense of direction and an only-just-acceptable understanding of geography, but I love maps to look at. Something about the level of detail, use of text and a pretty, easy-to-read colour palette really draws me in. My dad is your typical, original map lover - they help him navigate and understand the world - and I think he finds my use of maps around my home quite amusing...

Just a few things that stayed still for too long and got covered in maps in my home...

Anyway, if you are reading this the chances are you have at the very least a small appreciation of the way I feel, and so here is how you can create your own map art for the home with minimal effort!

The meandering Mississippi makes for beautiful DIY artwork 

You Will Need

• Access to a computer
• Frame(s) of your choice

That's it!

Method

To begin, you will need to select the map artwork you would like to print. 

The artwork I chose was frames 1-3 of a stunning vintage 22-frame series of maps of the Mississippi River and the courses it has taken over it's long, long history. Each colour on the map represents the route the river took at that given period in time. Beautiful, huh? I came across this map on Pinterest (of course) and if you follow this link to Visual News you too can download and use this map from the ERDC.

See how the plates line up? Mine are hung portrait next to each other due to space, but hanging them portrait one above the other, or landscape next to each other, will give you a stunning display.

After downloading the zip file and choosing the plates I wanted (I just picked 1,2 and 3...) I then uploaded the jpgs to Photobox (other online printers are available, Snapfish, Vistaprint - whoever you prefer). I chose to print mine A3 size on gloss photo paper and then bought cheap plastic (rather than glass) frames from Wilkinsons. You could order different sizes or even create a collage and order three or more of the plates as one linked-up image.

When your prints arrive, simply frame and hang! Decorating your room around them is optional ... But you could use coloured mounts or frames in any of the colours used in the maps. Picking out one of the primary colours would make this look great in a kid's room, or they could look stunning against a slate grey office wall for a more masculine look.

This DIY cost around £30 in total - bargain!

Using different artwork

If you would like to use a different map, there are some other free printable maps suggested over at Maybemej Photography, or you could do a search on Pinterest or Google.

Maybemej free collage sheet of maps

The two main things to bear in mind when choosing your map(s) are Size and Copyright.

Unfortunately, you can't simply save an image displayed on a webpage onto your computer and then print it. To display an image on a webpage clearly an image's dpi (dots per inch) only needs to be very low, around 70dpi, but to print an image clearly the dpi needs to be at least 266. So any image you lift from a website is going to be too small to print from (not to mention likely a copyright infringement). What you need to look for are images that you can download to your computer, like these Mississippi maps, as they are going to be a much larger file size to then print from. As a very broad rule of thumb, I would steer clear of any image that is less than 1MB. 

Copyright isn't something to worry too much about if you are only intending to hang the maps on you own walls, and if someone is offering a map as a free printable then it's highly likely they own or have cleared the copyright so you don't need to worry. If in doubt, ask the website owner as, clearly, you don't want to be ripping off someone's work. 

Send me a pic of how the maps look in your home!

Take a look at other ways to decorate your home using maps in my other blog post here, and on my Pinterest page 'Travel Room' here.