You found the perfect Hawaii print — now the question is how to frame it so it looks like art rather than a dorm-room tack-up. Knowing how to frame Hawaiian posters is simple once you understand a few basics about frames, mats, and placement. This guide walks through choosing a frame, matting and sizing, building a gallery wall, and keeping your island prints looking good for years.
Choosing the right frame
The frame sets the mood. For a clean, gallery finish, a simple black or natural-wood frame lets the artwork do the talking — it suits almost any Hawaiian travel poster and any room. Warm wood tones (oak, walnut) lean cozy and coastal; matte black reads modern and crisp; white frames feel airy and beachy. As a rule, match the frame to your room's other wood and metal tones rather than to the poster itself, so the piece belongs to the space.
Prefer a more casual look? A frameless magnetic poster hanger — two wooden rails that clamp the top and bottom — keeps things light and breezy, and it is easy to swap prints seasonally.
Matting and sizing
A mat (the border of card between the print and the frame) is the single easiest way to make a poster look expensive. A white or off-white mat gives the artwork room to breathe and draws the eye inward. Standard Hawaiian poster sizes — 8×12, 12×18, 16×24, 20×30, and 24×36 inches — all pair with off-the-shelf frames, so you rarely need custom framing. If you want a larger presence on the wall without a larger print, add a wide mat and a frame a few sizes up.
For sizing to the wall, aim to fill roughly two-thirds of the space above a piece of furniture, and hang the center of the piece at eye level — about 57 to 60 inches from the floor. Our posters come in the sizes above; if you want the same island scenes as a gallery-wrapped, frameless canvas instead, our Hawaii Art collection offers them as oil-painting-style prints.
Building a Hawaiian gallery wall
A group of Hawaiian posters can turn a hallway or stairwell into a little tour of the islands. The trick to a collected look is a unifying thread: choose all one island, all sunsets, all the same art style, or all matching frames — pick one and hold it. Keep the spacing between frames tight and consistent (two to three inches is a good default), and lay the arrangement out on the floor before you put a single nail in the wall. Browse the full Hawaii Posters collection to build a set, and see our guide to decorating with Hawaiian wall art for more layout ideas.
Protecting your prints
Paper prints last longest out of direct sun — strong, constant sunlight will fade any poster over time, so avoid hanging opposite a bright window if you can. Glass or acrylic glazing in the frame guards against dust and humidity, which matters in island climates. Hung with a little care and kept out of the harshest light, a good Hawaii poster will hold its color for many years.
Bring the islands home: Explore our Hawaii Posters Collection — original travel-poster prints from our Native Hawaiian–owned studio in Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi. A few worth framing:
Hawaiian Islands Pictorial Map — an illustrated map of the whole island chain.
Kekaha, Kauaʻi — a prismatic holographic-foil style print.
Maluaka Beach, Maui — a south-shore beach in cross-stitch pattern.
Ko Olina, Oʻahu — the leeward lagoons in a classic aloha-shirt pattern.
Waimea Canyon, Kauaʻi — the red canyon inlaid like wood marquetry.