Looking for a large, wall-sized map of the world

July 14, 2008 1:03 PM

Does anyone know a place in NYC or online where I can order a wall-sized map of the world. I have an image of something similar here. I want to purchase as a wedding gift for two dear friends. The one in the picture is French, which is fine, it can be in any language. But it would be large enough for a wall, and with a beautiful antique look to it. That said, the less expensive options are preferred. All advice and suggestions welcome and thank you in advance!
posted by jazzybelle to Shopping (12 answers total)

I seem to recall a place on Prince Street that carries them and occasionally even has one out in front of the store. While the exact location escapes me, I do remember that it's on the south side of the street a couple blocks west of the Apple store.
posted by JaredSeth at 1:12 PM on July 14, 2008

The map in your photo isn't wall-sized... I thought you meant like a mural or wallpaer. I have a gorgeous antique-y world map that's about the size of the one in your photo that I bought at the Rand McNally website.
posted by amro at 1:14 PM on July 14, 2008

National Geographic sells one.
posted by Houstonian at 1:37 PM on July 14, 2008

The rasterbator is your answer for making any image really big.
Get a hi-res map of the world, rasterbate it with 1mm dot and colour setting.
See if that works for you.
posted by PowerCat at 2:02 PM on July 14, 2008

I bought a nice big map of the world at a Barnes & Noble. They had several types.
posted by PatoPata at 2:16 PM on July 14, 2008

Here's one that's 8'8" x 13' for $129 and another unlaminated version for $89.
posted by carmicha at 3:02 PM on July 14, 2008

I wonder if you could find one of the pull-down ones that used to be in schoolrooms--a nice old one might be really lovely.
posted by bink at 4:26 PM on July 14, 2008

Hagstrom's? On East 43rd Street, between 5th and 6th. The king of map stores.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:30 PM on July 14, 2008

Here's one with an antique look.

Anyway, here is a category of "world maps" at allposters.com - it has a pretty wide selection with different sizes and decent prices.
posted by lullaby at 7:02 PM on July 14, 2008

Okay, I wish you didn't say antique looking since I always wanted to point someone to skymall to make up for the time reading it in flight:

http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=7317593&c=

Bu they do have an "old world tapestry"

http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=69735159&c=
posted by bottlebrushtree at 7:35 PM on July 14, 2008

Response by poster: God I love Metafilter. Thank you all these have been great suggestions! I'm going on the hunt today and will visit many of these links.

Side question: If you were the married couple, might you prefer a beautiful antique globe? I can afford to buy the map alone, but not mount it. I figured whenever they got around to it, they could do it -- but I'm wondering if it's better to give them a "complete" gift in the sense that they dont need to go through extra steps to mount/frame/etc.

Thoughts there?? Thanks again!
posted by jazzybelle at 7:48 AM on July 17, 2008

I think if we didn't ask for it I'd rather have a nice tapestry than a globe.
A tapestry can be put up pretty easily, doesn't take up too much space and can also be used all around the house (e.g. place of honor in living room, in bed room, in den, down in the finished basement, etc...)

It can also be more easily kept until a time it can be used (e.g. maybe a bigger house in the future)
than a globe.

If you do get the ma globe, maybe one of those old-school globe bar sets.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 8:13 PM on July 18, 2008