Smart tip for getting large pictures without paying a fortune

You’ve probably tried this before. You want some large posters or prints for your walls, so you start browsing around—only to realise that the bigger they get, the more they cost! Luckily, there’s a way to get large wall art without emptying your wallet.

The trick you’ll get here is as clever as it is simple. You probably already know it—you’ve just never used it quite like this.

You’ve likely heard of a passepartout. Or maybe you haven’t. If you’re now thinking passe par what?, here’s the quick version.

‘Passepartout’ is French and literally means a key that fits everywhere. You can ponder how far that is, conceptually, from the matting we use in picture frames—or you can skip the philosophy and simply appreciate the cleverness of cutting a hole in a piece of paper or board.

The idea of cutting a hole in the centre of paper or card is to create a broad border around the image, drawing attention to what’s inside. In this case, however, we’re hijacking that wide border to make our posters—or prints, if you prefer—appear much larger on the wall.

In the two examples above and below, all the posters are A3 size. Yet, as you can clearly see, the wall in the second photo looks far fuller than in the first—even though the actual images are exactly the same size.

In this case, we chose frames measuring 42x52 cm—about 10 cm wider than the image itself. As you can tell, that makes a noticeable difference.

Where to find frames with passepartouts

At Plakatfar, we don’t yet stock frames with passepartouts. We’re working on adding them to the range, but until then, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Fortunately, they’re not too hard to find.

Ikea is always a safe bet for affordable frames. If you can live with acrylic instead of glass, and wood that’s not entirely real, Ikea offers some decent options at fair prices. Several of their frames even come with a clever feature that lets you adjust how deep the picture sits, and most include a pre-cut passepartout.

Generally, places like Ikea, Føtex and Bilka are good spots to look for budget-friendly frames. At one point, Bilka even sold loose passepartout paper for DIY framing. Whether they still do—I honestly couldn’t say.

And of course, you can always cut your own. That option is particularly handy if you’d like to reuse some old frames in a new way.

Same picture, different sizes

In this article, we’ve used the Hovsta frame from Ikea as an example. You’ll probably come across other options when you start hunting for passepartouts for your own walls. It doesn’t really matter—the point is simply to get more art on your walls for less money.

Below, you’ll find more ideas for how you can play with frame sizes, poster sizes and passepartout widths.

1. This frame fits Plakatfar’s smallest poster—which is really more of a picture. It’s A5 size, measuring 148x210 mm.
   
   
2. The frame is A4, containing the same small print as in no. 1. Although the picture area is smaller, the overall composition takes up more space.
   
   
3. The same A4 frame as in no. 2, but here the passepartout is removed, letting the image fill the frame entirely. So, no. 2 can actually be done cheaper—even though nos. 2 and 3 take up the same wall space.
   
   
4. Here, a small A4 print is placed behind a passepartout in an A3 frame. You get an A3-sized artwork for the price of an A4 poster.
   
   
5. The story repeats from no. 3. The passepartout is removed from the A3 frame, and an A3 poster fills the frame completely. It’s a matter of taste—but in no. 4 you get an A3 wall piece for the cost of an A4 poster.
   
   
6. Finally, there’s a 40x50 cm frame with an A3 print mounted behind a passepartout opening. The result? A picture that feels quite large in most homes.

Think big, pay small

And that’s really our tip for how to get large wall art at small prices.

At Plakatfar, you’ll find many posters and prints in smaller formats—from the tiny A5s, through A4s and 30x40 cm prints, to the A3 size posters.

You can easily find the size you need here:

Small prints and posters in A5 size

Smaller prints and posters in A4 size

Slightly larger prints and posters in 30x40 cm

Larger prints and posters in A3 size

If you like the images used in this article, you can find them here:

Aurland

Odda

Water Dance