Choosing a Framed William Morris Print: Frame, Size and Mount

Who a Framed Print Suits

A framed print suits anyone who wants a piece that goes from box to wall without extra shopping. In this range, only the framed poster includes a frame, so if hanging it the day it arrives matters to you, that is the format to pick.

It also suits buyers who prefer not to handle glass, clips or hardware themselves. The other two formats ask more of you: the plain poster expects you to find a frame of your own, and the poster with hangers and the canvas each display differently, as the comparison below shows.

If you are still deciding whether a framed piece is right at all, the framed Morris poster collection shows every design currently offered in that format. Seeing the designs in context often settles the question faster than reading another paragraph about it.

What to Check Before You Order

Three checks will prevent most ordering mistakes. Run through them before you choose a design, not after.

• Confirm which format you are ordering. Only the framed poster includes a frame. The poster with hangers comes with two wooden hangers, and the canvas arrives on its own wooden frame, but neither is a framed print in the conventional sense.
• Check the size units. Customers in the US and Canada see sizes in inches, and everyone else sees them in centimeters, so make sure the number on screen matches the units you measure in.
• Measure the wall first. The store advises measuring the wall and picking a size that leaves some space around the print, which stops a design from crowding the furniture or mouldings near it.

Measuring deserves a little more care than it usually gets, because the gap around a print changes how it reads in the room. If you want worked examples and typical wall scenarios, the dedicated guide to measuring your wall for a print covers them in detail. The short version: measure the wall, note what sits near it, and leave breathing room on all sides.

The Three Formats Compared

The range splits into three formats, and each behaves differently on the wall. The differences are practical rather than aesthetic: what arrives in the box, what holds the print, and what you can change later.

The poster with hangers is the most flexible of the three. Because the wooden bars grip the paper with magnets inside, no pins or holes touch the print, and you can swap one design for another without damaging either. That makes it a good match for anyone who likes to rotate designs by season or mood.

The canvas sits at the other end of the spectrum. It is printed on canvas and stretched over a wooden frame, with no glass and no mount, so it presents the pattern as a single solid panel. Nothing about it can be adjusted after purchase, which is worth weighing if you like to reframe or reposition prints over time.

Whichever format you lean towards, the same designs are available across the framed poster collection, so the choice is about presentation rather than a limited pattern selection.

Choosing a Size for Your Wall

Size selection starts with units, and the store handles this automatically: customers in the US and Canada see sizes in inches, everyone else sees centimeters. If you habitually measure in the other system, convert before comparing, because a number that looks modest in inches can be substantial in centimeters and the other way round.

The store's own advice on choosing is simple: measure the wall first, and pick a size that leaves some space around the print. Space around a pattern does real work. Morris designs carry dense, repeating detail, and an edge of bare wall lets the eye read the repeat instead of running it into a doorframe or lamp.

Two practical habits help here. Measure the wall width and height and write both down, then mark the proposed print size on the wall with masking tape or painter's tape before ordering. Standing back from a tape rectangle tells you more about scale than any number on a product page, and it takes five minutes.

If you are choosing between two sizes, err towards the smaller one with clear space around it rather than the larger one that fills the wall. For fuller worked examples, the size guide to measuring for a Morris print walks through common wall types step by step.

Paper, Colour and Longevity

The poster is printed on thick matte paper with a soft off-white tone. A matte finish scatters light rather than reflecting it, which suits patterned designs and rooms with lamps or windows opposite the wall. It is also the format meant for a frame of your own, a clip, or a pin board, so finish matters twice over: it affects how the print looks and how it behaves once mounted.

On longevity, the store states that the paper has a pH above 7, so it resists yellowing. That is a materials fact worth checking on any print you buy, since acidic papers are the usual cause of prints browning at the edges over the years.

Colour is the one area where expectations need setting. According to William Morris Art Prints, the printed colors match the screen very closely but not exactly, because screens show color differently and matte paper and canvas reflect light more softly than a backlit screen. In practice this means a print may read slightly softer and warmer than it did on your monitor, which most buyers find suits the designs, but it is honest to know before it arrives.

Care is straightforward but has hard limits. Hang the print out of direct sunlight and away from damp walls, dust it with a soft dry cloth, and never use water or cleaning spray on the paper or canvas. Sunlight and damp are the two things that will age a print fastest, so placement does more for longevity than any aftercare.

Common Questions

These are the questions buyers ask most often before ordering, answered from the store's published specifications.