Map Poster Frames

These frames are one of our go-to gift items. When I was growing up my grandparents had a large map of the world in their living room that they would update with small pins and flags marking the locations of all the places they had visited on their vacations. It was a great conversation piece and a nice reminder of their past experiences.

As my wife and I started to travel more, I wanted a map of our own to mark our travels. Construction is really simple. It's just a picture frame with a rabbet on the back to hold the map. The map is just one ordered off Amazon that we had mounted on foam board at a hobby shop. This is a great project to practice your joinery techniques and get creative with frame options and different wood species. My first mortise and tenon and bridle joint were both done on different versions of these frames.

A frame in Sapele with proud bridle joints

Close-up of the pillowed bridle joint. You can see a small repair patch on the bridle joint. Always double check your blade height!

The joint before finish was applied. Good view of the pillowed proud tenon.

A frame in Quarter-sawn White Oak with through tenons

Close-up of the tenon. In retrospect these were way too long. They should only be ~1/8" proud

Nice angle showing the ray flecks from the white oak.

A frame in figured cherry. My first frame!

Close-up of the bridle joint.

The frame under construction.

Close up of the joint before finishing. Not very tight. I screwed up by sanding each piece separately before glueing them together.