Frames for 50x70 Posters

50×70 is the last format in the range that comes in colour. White, dark brown, blue, green, red, yellow and pink are all made up to and including this size, and above it the choice narrows to oak or black. That makes 50×70 the size at which the frame stops being a technical decision and becomes part of the picture — and the size where people most often get it wrong in one direction or the other.

What is available at this size

Finish	21×30	30×42	50×70	70×100	100×140
Oak	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Black	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
White	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Dark brown	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Blue, green, red, yellow, pink	yes	yes	yes	no	no

If colour is part of the plan, this is the largest you can have it. The line in that table is where the range ends, not a stock shortage, so a wall built around green frames has a ceiling of 50×70 and everything larger on it will have to be oak or black. All finishes are shown across the frame range.

When a coloured frame is right

A coloured frame adds a seventh or eighth colour to a room, and rooms have a budget for that. Three situations where it pays.

• The print is quiet and the room needs one note. A line drawing, a single botanical stem or a black-and-white photograph can carry a red or a pink frame without argument, because the picture is not competing for the same job.
• The colour is already in the room, twice. A green frame works when something else in the room is green — not matched exactly, but present. One green object plus one green frame reads as coincidence; two plus the frame reads as a scheme.
• It is a set. Three prints in the same coloured frame is a decision. One coloured frame among four black ones is a mistake unless the odd one out is deliberately the focus.

And where it does not pay: around a print that already contains that colour. A blue frame on a print with a blue sea gives you two blues that will not match, and the eye finds the difference immediately. Contrast or coincide — near-misses are the only real error. The clearest case for colour is a child's room, where the prints are bright and nothing exceeds 50×70 anyway; the motifs are in the children's collection.

The white frame is the underrated one

White is treated as the default nothing-choice and it is more useful than that. On a white wall it dissolves and leaves the image floating, which suits pale, high-key prints where black would slam a border round emptiness. On a coloured or panelled wall it does the opposite and cuts a sharp bright edge. It is also the only finish that makes a busy print look calmer rather than louder.

What 50×70 spans, so you know how many to frame

Arrangement	Gap	Total width	Suits furniture of
One portrait	—	50 cm	a narrow wall, not a sofa
Two portrait	6 cm	106 cm	140-160 cm bed
Three portrait	6 cm	162 cm	240 cm sofa
Two landscape stacked	6 cm	70 cm wide, 106 high	a narrow chimney breast

Keep the gap identical throughout and align the frame centres rather than the top edges. With mixed formats the same rule holds, and the measured arrangements are in the gallery wall guide.

Practical notes

One person can hang a 50×70 alone, which is not true of the two larger formats. A single fixing into a plug is enough in plasterboard; in brick, drill and plug. Our one accessory is a wall hook, in the accessories.

Centre at 145 cm as usual — the hanging height guide gives the exceptions — which puts the top edge at 180 and the bottom at 110 for a portrait frame. And a reminder for anyone bringing a print from elsewhere: 50×70 is not A2. An A2 sheet is 42×59.4 cm and will leave an 8 cm gap at each side. There is no passepartout in our range to close it.