# what sorts of things do mature adults hang on their walls? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152 "2015-05-16T01:24:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/21 "2015-05-16T04:54:02Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > People on the internet make fun of the XKCD author for that comic all the time People on the internet make fun of you all the time. Who are you trying to please? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/22 "2015-05-16T05:19:38Z")
Both of my parents (now deceased) were professional artists, and so am I. My house is filled with original art work. I need more walls! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/23 "2015-05-16T06:59:11Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Head on down to the Marriot on Route 7 this weekend and you can see hundreds of oil paintings starting at just seven dollars. Landscape, sea scenes, still lifes and more. All hand painted and starting at just seven dollars. Starving artists sale this Saturday and Sunday only. Don’t miss it! I understand you can find VERY EXPENSIVE oil paintings at these things, though actually these supposedly expensive paintings are never sold for more than five percent of their official list prices. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/24 "2015-05-16T07:08:23Z")
> [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](#): > > I’m going to go against the grain and say that hanging up cheap posters is not something that most adults do. I agree if you mean just taping or nailing pieces of paper to the wall. They need to be framed and, in most cases, glassed over. Not having them framed is like having your mattress on the floor. In the case of art reproductions, I don’t think Old Master type reproductions work too well with the way framing is usually done these days, but that’s just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/25 "2015-05-16T07:11:10Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > That’s particularly nifty! > > [I used to have something very much like this on the wall in my apartment.](http://www.aicreatures.com/2011/12/grizzly-bear-butt-taxidermy/) (A fake-taxidermy plush grizzly bear butt.) I like that…Do you tell your guests that the other end of the bear is in the apartment next door? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/26 "2015-05-16T07:33:38Z")
How about a black velvet painting of [Jesus and Elvis.](https://darnsexysecondhand.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/jesus-elvis-velvet-painting-sm-frame.jpg) Paintings of [Big-eyed Children](https://mindspaceapocalypse.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/wpid-margaret-keane-quadri1.jpeg) by Margaret Keane are also classics. (My mother used to have some of these on the wall in the living room.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/27 "2015-05-16T08:46:31Z")
I’m not a mature adult, but my parents are (they’re approaching 70 and have a hard time claiming to be a couple of kids, although they still try on occasion), and based on what they have hanging in their house I’ve come to the following conclusion: **anything purchased at a museum gift shop is by definition mature and adult, so long as it’s framed.** It could be a picture of Daffy Duck, C-3PO or Naruto, but if it has a white space at the bottom saying something like _“When Worlds Collide: a MoMA Retrospective”_, you’re in the clear. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/28 "2015-05-16T08:50:08Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m not a mature adult, but my parents are (they’re approaching 70 and have a hard time claiming to be a couple of kids, although they still try on occasion), and based on what they have hanging in their house I’ve come to the following conclusion: **anything purchased at a museum gift shop is by definition mature and adult, so long as it’s framed.** It could be a picture of Daffy Duck, C-3PO or Naruto, but if it has a white space at the bottom saying something like _“When Worlds Collide: a MoMA Retrospective”_, you’re in the clear. Does it have to be official, or can I forge it? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/29 "2015-05-16T08:59:10Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Does it have to be official, or can I forge it? Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/30 "2015-05-16T10:19:31Z")
I have a poster from a Rebeldes concert I attended back when the world was young. Someone on the line mentioned they hadn’t seen me around before (rockers being likely to know each other), I said I was newish in town and that I’d gone on account of “it’s my birthday and fuck that exam I have on Monday”. The guys carefully got one of the posters off the wall and gave it to me. Also a Blues Brothers poster with a typo, which I won in ESL class in 10th grade. Pictures of a lighthouse, a lot of chinese masks seen through a store’s grille (both bought in a street market in Miami in 1994 or 5), several pictures from a York photographer I got last year, a litograph from a local artist depicting Barcelona’s silhouette being attacked by Space Invaders, a very large steampunk-inspired clock, a painting of Our Lady and Child on wood inherited from my grandparents, a tiny image of Our Lady of Guadalupe I bought in Monterrey in '96, and I hope to inherit four Lola Anglada pencil drawings from my mother but haven’t and may not. One of my brothers has photographs from his trips, some taken by him and some by the other people in the group. He gave one to Mom that’s super-neat: him and his fiancée and the Sacré Coeur seen behind them, reflected on the glass of a store. The other brother, zip, but they have pictures of people on any horizontal surface. The TLDR version: all kinds of stuff, but it’s all stuff that I know where I got it and why, the why being “cos I like it”. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/31 "2015-05-16T10:28:13Z")
Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Jackson all collect movie posters. They need to meet the people you know so that they can go on to something more mature. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/32 "2015-05-16T10:39:05Z")
Things that make me happy and show that I am cared for. Lots of pictures of/from friends framed in various ways. Small gifts given to me that mean a lot to me, most contain very little value, like a child gave me a flashlight, a friend gave me keychain, and a bird gave me a very large feather. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/33 "2015-05-16T10:43:24Z")
“Here’s a present, from a bird to another”? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/34 "2015-05-16T10:49:18Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > “Here’s a present, from a bird to another”? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/35 "2015-05-16T11:16:10Z")
A mural of just [this.](http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/213/robocop-unicorn.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/36 "2015-05-16T11:49:34Z")
[On my wall.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Pogo_-_Earth_Day_1971_poster.jpg/240px-Pogo_-_Earth_Day_1971_poster.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/37 "2015-05-16T12:34:13Z")
A big part is how you group pictures . [How to Arrange Pictures on a Wall: 14 Steps (with Pictures)](http://m.wikihow.com/Arrange-Pictures-on-a-Wall) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/38 "2015-05-16T12:47:26Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > Frame them. Then they are not posters, they become art. IKEA has cheap frames for posters. > [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > I think what makes a difference is simply framing whatever you’ve got on the wall. Poster with no frame = teenager putting magazine foldouts up. Poster with frame = grownup. I learned from _How I Met Your Mother_ that once you hit 30 you’re too old to decorate your walls with posters…unless they’re framed! Then it’s totally grown-up. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/39 "2015-05-16T13:00:26Z")
True. Ikea has nice cheap frames in all sizes, and they have an online store, too. Ikea also has wonderful framed wall art. Aalposters also offers framed posters. For my bathroom, I bought a nice poster of a forest at home depot. It came on a matching piece of sturdy cardboard and the whole thing was tautly wrapped in shrinkfoil. I stuck it on my bathroom wall as is and its been moisture resistant for years now. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152/40 "2015-05-16T13:02:29Z")
Also, ask a female friend for advice. Make it a date, she"ll love it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sorts-of-things-do-mature-adults-hang-on-their-walls/720152.md?page=3)