Wall Art Size Guide: Measuring Your Wall for a Morris Print

What you need before you start

Gather three things before you start. Nothing here is expensive and you probably own all of it already.

Your toolkit:

• A tape measure, or a rigid ruler for small spaces.
• A pencil, for light marks on the wall if you want to sketch the print's footprint.
• A phone or notepad, to record the numbers as you go. Write the unit next to each number.

Set expectations in one line: this is a measuring task, not a decorating project. Ten minutes, three numbers, done.

Measuring your wall, step by step

The store advises customers to measure the wall first and then pick a size that leaves some space around the print. The steps below follow that advice in order.

Work through these steps:

1. Choose the zone. Decide whether the print will fill a whole wall or sit in one part of it, such as the space above a sideboard or bed. Measure the zone, not the room.

2. Measure the width. Hold the tape level and record the horizontal distance from one edge of the zone to the other.

3. Measure the height. Record the vertical distance in the same zone. If the print will hang above furniture, measure from the top of the furniture to the ceiling or to a natural stopping point.

4. Note the numbers with their units. Write down both measurements and the unit you used, so nothing is guessed later.

5. Mark the margin. Decide how much space you want to leave around the print and subtract it from your zone. The store's advice is to leave some space around the print rather than filling the area edge to edge, so a print that covers the whole zone will usually look crowded.

6. Check the result. Your remaining numbers are the largest print size that fits with the margin you chose. Anything at or under those dimensions will work.

If you plan a pair or a group of prints, measure the whole group as one block, including the gaps between them, and treat that block as a single footprint.

A worked example with real dimensions

Concrete numbers make the method easier to picture, so here is a real object with published dimensions. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it holds a wallpaper titled Pink and Rose with William Morris credited as designer and dated ca. 1890. The Met is the single source for this attribution and date.

The Met records the sheet as block-printed in distemper colors, and it measures 27 x 21 1/2 in. (68.6 x 54.6 cm). The museum also marks the object as public domain under its Open Access programme.

Now put those numbers to work. Take the Met's recorded sheet size of 68.6 x 54.6 cm as the print you have in mind. Measure your wall, note the width and height, then subtract the clear space you want to leave on each side and above and below. What remains is the largest print area your zone can take. If that remaining area is bigger than 68.6 cm wide and 54.6 cm high, a print of that size fits. If it is smaller in either direction, you need a smaller print, a tighter margin or a different wall. That is exactly the kind of check the measuring routine is for: one subtraction tells you whether a given size works before you order anything.

The example also shows why the margin matters more than the raw wall size. The same wall could hold a much larger print if you accepted a tighter margin. The tape gives you the facts; the margin is the decision.

Tips for pattern art specifically

Dense, repeating pattern designs behave differently from single-image art when you size them. A landscape painting has a natural focal point, so the eye accepts a print that sits small on a large wall. A pattern fills the sheet from edge to edge, so the wall space around the print does more of the visual work.

In practice this means the store's measure-first, leave-space advice matters even more for pattern art. A generous margin lets a busy design breathe; a tight margin makes the whole wall feel crowded even when the print itself is a modest size.

Practical tips for pattern prints:

• Err on the larger margin. If the pattern is dense, add a few centimetres to the space you planned to leave.
• Judge the design, not just the dimensions. Some Morris patterns are fine, trailing trails; others are large, bold motifs. The bold ones need more wall around them.
• Compare candidates at the same footprint. Once you know your maximum width and height, any design that fits can be judged on the pattern alone.

If you are still choosing between designs, the guide to William Morris designs walks through fourteen well-known patterns and how they differ, which helps you match the character of a pattern to the wall you measured.

You can read that comparison in the guide to fourteen famous Morris patterns and how to choose one.

Common mistakes when measuring for a print

Most measuring errors are small and easy to avoid once you know them. These are the ones that come up most often.

Watch out for these:

• Measuring the whole wall when the print will sit above furniture. The usable zone is the space between the furniture and the ceiling or picture rail, not the full wall.
• Forgetting to record units. A bare number means nothing next week. Write the unit next to every measurement, in centimeters or inches.
• Mixing up units between notes and the shop. Customers in the US and Canada see sizes in inches on this store, while everyone else sees them in centimeters. If your notes are in one unit and the product page shows the other, convert before you compare.
• Ignoring the margin. Picking a print the exact size of your zone leaves no space around it, which the store specifically advises against.
• Measuring once and trusting memory. Write the numbers down at the wall. Memory rounds numbers upward.

The unit point deserves a second look. Because the store shows inches to US and Canada customers and centimeters to everyone else, two people looking at the same print may read different numbers. If you measured in centimeters and the page shows inches, or the reverse, do the conversion once and write both values in your notes.

Quick checklist before you order

Run through this list in one glance before you choose a size. Each line maps to a step above.

Your pre-order checklist:

• Measured width of the zone, written down with its unit.
• Measured height of the zone, written down with its unit.
• Planned margin on all four sides, subtracted from the zone.
• Unit confirmed against the store's display, inches for US and Canada, centimeters elsewhere.
• Final maximum print size written as two numbers, width and height.

If every line is ticked, you know the largest print that fits your wall with the space you want around it. The next question is which format to order at that size.

Choosing a format once you know the size

The store's poster is printed on thick matte paper with a soft off-white tone, ready for a frame, a clip, or a pin board. That flexibility means your measured size is the size of the paper itself, and any frame you add later will sit outside it.

Only the framed poster includes a frame, so if you order that format, check that the listed size is the print size and leave room for the frame's own width when you check it against your measurements. The poster with wooden hangers comes with its two hangers, and the canvas comes already on its own wooden frame, so each format adds slightly different bulk around the printed area.

For a fuller comparison of formats and how they suit different rooms, see the buyer's guide to William Morris posters. And once your measurements are in hand, the details of frames, mounts and glazing are covered in the guide to choosing a framed William Morris print.