I’ve written before about how I’m addicted to printing & framing digital art for an affordable and flexible way to personalise our home. Well lately I’ve been researching the most affordable ways I can have those digital art downloads printed and framed on a LARGE scale.
I noticed a trend among some of my favourite designers to hang huge canvases or vintage paintings but, of course, big prints come with big price tags. Not only that, but many of my favourite print stores who offer the vintage and abstract designs I love are based in the US and do not ship overseas.
So, I’ve tested out 3 options for those of us in the UK who have big blank walls to fill. Here are my recommendations along with their prices.
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Where to buy large art prints – affordable ways to hang XL art in your home
Large Giclée art prints from The Print Space
The best place to order art prints in my opinion is The Print Space. I’ve been using them for a number of years and the quality and price of the prints, as well as how fast you receive them, cannot be beaten.
The way it works is you download the digital artwork of your choice from an online print shop, upload it to The Print Space and chose what size you’d like to have it printed.
I chose to print Oak Park from Juniper Print Shop at 100 x 70cm – the reason being this was the largest size I could find an affordable photo frame in.
My favourite affordable picture frames:
Ikea Lomviken
Dunelm Wood Effect Oversized Mount
John Lewis Ribbed Poster Frame Champagne
Habitat Ontario Frames
H&M Abstract House
The Print Space give you a choice of print and paper type and I always go for the Giclée print option on Hahnemühle German Etching. This is a rich, textured, heavy weight paper that has a handcrafted feel and doesn’t fray easily. It works perfectly with vintage art prints as the high contrast and texture make it look like a real painting. Even at 100 x 70cm the quality is amazing.
This print cost £110 but if you use my referral code you’ll receive 50% off the first £50. Use code 9Q35VO3 at checkout.
The frame I went with is an Oak picture frame with plexiglass from Desenio priced at £43.95. I removed the plexiglass as it gave off a lot of glare and you can see the texture of the print a lot better without it.
Habitat also offer the Ontario Oak Picture Frame at 100 x 70cm for £38.
Click here to discover my favourite places to buy art prints online
Custom canvas prints from Photowall Sweden
The second option I found for printing large affordable wall art was Photowall Sweden. They let you upload your own images and have them made into a custom canvas print up to 100 x 70cm. This is a great option as the canvas comes already stretched so you don’t have to worry about framing.
I had 3 digital downloads from Juniper Print Shop made into canvas prints that cost £95 each. Shipping is free and it took just 3 days from ordering my prints for them to arrive with me.
The canvas print is not as richly textured as the Giclée art prints from The Print Space and having printed some of the same artwork from both places I noticed a difference in colour. (The Giclée prints were much darker and richer.) I therefore wouldn’t recommend using Photowall to print a vintage art print but I think it works really well for more modern abstract artwork.
Some of my favourite abstract art prints are:
Meditation (above left)
Shadow (above right)
Read more about best places to buy art prints
Oversized mounts from Picture Frames Express
My final recommendation for large affordable art is to cheat and pair a small art print with an oversized custom mount. A while ago I created a gallery wall in our hallway using Ikea photo frames and oversized mounts from Picture Frames Express. It was a much more affordable way to achieve the same look as these West Elm gallery frames I have in my living room and lots of you loved the idea.
This time (inspired by this image on Pinterest) I decided to order oversized mounts for a 50 x 70cm Ontario Matt Black picture frame from Habitat. The artwork I used is No5 by BFF Print Shop. I printed the artwork 3 times and cropped it slightly differently in each frame for the illusion of variety.
Picture Frames Express let you create a made to measure picture mount so I input my external measurements to match my frame exactly and then played around with the internal measurements to achieve the look I wanted. In the end I went with an opening of 150 x 200mm and I printed my artwork slightly larger to make sure there was an overlap.
The mounts cost just £10.50 each, the frame was £28 and the prints were £10 but I think they look much more expensive. It’s also a more bespoke look for just a little more effort.
Which of these 3 options are your favourite? I’d love to know what you think.
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Where to buy vintage art prints
