where to buy nautical charts + budget-friendly tips for framing them
I’ve gotten a lot of emails lately, asking where I found the oversize nautical charts hanging over the sofa in our living room and, even though I’ve sourced where I bought mine in previous posts, there were a couple of tips I thought might come in handy for those of you who are interested in purchasing and framing some for yourself.
I love, love, LOVE our nautical charts – for one thing, they are HUGE and were a great way for me to make a dramatic impact on our vaulted walls without breaking the bank. Second, they represent where I met my husband (Lisbon) and where we took our first vacation (Eastern Caribbean). Anyone who knows me knows that it’s important to me to fill our home with things that hold strong personal meaning and it just doesn’t get more personal than that!
My charts came from Maryland Nautical. I purchased them online and received them days later. For less than $30, I have to say, I would be seriously hard pressed to find a bigger bang for my decorating buck! Each and every chart has a number in the bottom right and left hand corners. If you know your number, you can just enter it into the search box:
If you don’t know the number of the chart you’re looking for or you just want to browse to pick one you like, click PRODUCTS, then NAUTICAL CHARTS. I like the NGA options:
They have it broken down by region, making it super easy to find what you’re looking for:
When it comes to framing these bad boys, the sheer size pretty much assures it will be an incredibly pricey endeavor, especially since most of them are much larger than the biggest standard size frames in Hobby Lobby and AC Moore. When I was quoted $600 to frame each of mine, I knew I had to come up with another option, so I had them mounted on foam core mat board (I left this to professionals to do it right) and then made frames myself out of stock molding from Lowe’s. You can read all about how to do it, step by step, here.
I hope those of you who were interested in buying some for yourself found this helpful!
Posted in art, budget decorating
Hello and welcome to Bungalow Blue Interiors!
I'm Kelly, interior designer, stylist, hostess with the mostest and editor of my blog, where I share pics of my work, my own home, décor projects, entertaining hacks, where to find the best decorating deals and all the beautiful things that are currently inspiring me!
The first gift I ever gave my husband when we were dating was an enormous framed chart of the Great Lakes. It still hangs in our house 20 years later! You can also download charts for free and print them yourself by following my directions here: http://www.theimpatientgardener.com/2013/10/how-to-get-free-nautical-charts.html
Such a great idea, Erin; I've never even thought of printing them myself because of just how big they are, but I will definitely check it out!!