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Maison Maps

Our Story

“Some journeys begin with a destination. Ours began with a map.”

Anneke, founder of Maison Maps, sitting on a herringbone wooden floor with her black Labrador in front of a framed Maison Maps United States poster.
At home with the United States collection. The best gifts are the ones that remind you of home.
A boy in a black cap and gradient hoodie holding a framed Maison Maps Netherlands food and culture poster against a soft neutral wall.
Levi, with the Netherlands collection.

Introduction

A lifelong fascination with maps.

Maison Maps began in 2015 from a lifelong fascination with maps, travel and the stories places leave behind.

Long before the first food posters existed, there were hand-illustrated maps created under the name Maps By Annie. Each illustration was a way of remembering a place — not through borders, but through the details that make it unforgettable.

What started as a collection for children slowly evolved into a more refined world of illustrated collections for homes, kitchens and people who collect places through memory, food and design.

Anneke and her friend JiaJia embracing on the Shanghai Bund at night, with the illuminated Pudong skyline glowing across the Huangpu river behind them.

Chapter one

The Beginning

During a business trip to Shanghai, life unexpectedly stood still when Anneke’s son, Levi, was born prematurely.

After spending several weeks in neonatal care, Levi was finally able to return home to the Netherlands with his family. It was there that Anneke began illustrating a world map she hoped would one day help him understand where his own journey had begun.

That drawing would quietly become the foundation of Maison Maps.

Chapter two

A Journey Through Time

  1. 2015

    Maps By Annie is founded.

    A collection of hand-illustrated maps begins with a fascination for travel, geography and the stories places tell.

  2. 2016

    First international collections.

    The illustrations find their way into homes around the world, with every map celebrating local culture through playful detail.

  3. 2017

    Travel shapes a new creative direction.

    Journeys through Asia, Europe and the Caribbean inspire a more refined visual language, laying the foundation for the Maison Maps style.

  4. 2019

    Maison Maps is born.

    The studio evolves into Maison Maps, shifting its focus towards beautifully illustrated collections celebrating food, travel and culture.

  5. Today

    Around the world, at home.

    Maison Maps collections are now enjoyed in homes across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, continuing to celebrate the world's kitchens one country at a time.

From the Archive

A decade of maps, memories and places.

Anneke and JiaJia standing together on the Shanghai Bund at night, with the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Pudong skyline lit up behind them across the Huangpu river.
Shanghai after dark — the skyline that framed the beginning.
A boy in a black cap resting his arms on top of a large framed Maison Maps Australia food and culture poster in a bright, softly lit room.
Levi with the Australia poster.
Anneke and her friend JiaJia sitting together behind a large hand-illustrated Maps By Annie world map at a restaurant in Shanghai, Anneke with long blonde hair and JiaJia in a black-and-white striped top.
Anneke and Jiajia in Shanghai — with the world map that started it all.
A boy standing in front of a gallery wall of framed Maison Maps posters for Vietnam, Australia and the United States while holding the Spain poster in front of him.
A wall of worlds — Vietnam, Australia, the United States and Spain.
A busy street scene captured on an early Maison Maps travel journey, families riding through a Caribbean town.
Dominican Republic — food connects people.
Anneke and JiaJia standing arm in arm on the Shanghai Bund in the evening, dressed up with the illuminated riverfront buildings behind them.
Some places stay with you forever.
Traditional wooden boats with striped canopies gliding along a canal in the Zhujiajiao water town near Shanghai, lined with white-washed houses and a stone arch bridge.
Zhujiajiao — the quiet canals where the story began.
Original Maps By Annie hand-illustrated map of the Dominican Republic displayed on a wooden easel in a local school classroom.
An old classroom map in the Dominican Republic.
A young boy sitting on a wooden floor placing coloured dot stickers onto the European section of an early Maps By Annie illustrated world map.
Marking Europe one sticker at a time.
A family gathered around a wooden table on a bright green Caribbean porch, a scene that later inspired Maison Maps food illustrations.
Kitchens, porches, and the everyday rituals that shape a place.
Neon signs in Chinese characters lighting up Nanjing Road in Shanghai at night, glowing in red, blue, and yellow above the shopping street.
Shanghai after dark — where the journey began.
A young child stacking panda soft toys on a red chair beneath a large Maison Maps illustrated world map hanging on the wall of a bright nursery.
Teaching kids about the world around them.
Young students reading illustrated books at their desks in a school in the Dominican Republic that received a donated Maps By Annie map.
A map donated to a school in the Dominican Republic.
A small boy in a blue anchor-print shirt standing on a red chair to place illustrated stickers on a Maison Maps world map, with rolled poster tubes in a woven basket beside him.
Placing the stickers, one country at a time.
Students working on illustrated exercises in a Dominican Republic classroom, part of the early Maps By Annie community programme.
A classroom in the Dominican Republic.
A smiling toddler in a blue anchor-print shirt pressing a sheet of cactus stickers onto a Maison Maps illustrated world map on the wall.
The moment a map becomes a world of their own.
A neighbourhood market lined with fresh fruit stands — the kind of everyday place that inspires every Maison Maps food collection.
The market on the corner — always the first stop.
Anneke, founder of Maison Maps, photographed beside an early illustrated world map with a Konnichiwa speech bubble and colourful paper tassels in the background.
Anneke and where it all started.
Close-up of two children's hands adding colourful character and speech-bubble stickers to the Maison Maps illustrated world map on a table.
Small hands, whole continents.
A child in a striped shirt walking towards new friends along a country path — an image evoking the spirit of Maison Maps journeys.
Every collection begins with a journey.
The illuminated Shanghai Pudong skyline at night, with the Shanghai Tower and neighbouring skyscrapers glowing above the Huangpu river.
Pudong after dark — the skyline that framed the beginning.
Anneke walking towards a traditional Chinese lakeside pavilion with sweeping tiled roofs, other visitors gathered under the pagoda on a misty day.
Exploring the places that inspired Maison Maps.
Overhead view of a young boy stretched across a large Maison Maps illustrated world map on a pale wooden floor, adding cactus stickers to the continents, with the words Make Memories All Over The World printed along the edge.
Make memories all over the world.
Anneke standing beside an early Maps By Annie hand-illustrated world map at the Wereldkinderdag exhibition in Wassenaar, 2015.
Anneke and her sister at Wereldkinderdag Wassenaar (2015).
Anneke hanging the Maison Maps Shanghai and China illustrated posters on a soft white wall at home.
Where the journey first took shape.

Chapter three

More than a Souvenir

A country is not remembered by its borders.

It is remembered by the breakfast your grandmother made.

The bakery around the corner.

The market everyone visits on Saturday.

The dish every family claims they cook best.

That is what Maison Maps illustrates.

A neighbourhood market lined with fresh fruit stands — the everyday scenes that inspire Maison Maps food posters and kitchen collections.

Closing

Around the World, at Home

Today, Maison Maps collections can be found in homes across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia and Asia.

What began as a single illustrated map in 2015 has grown into an ever-expanding collection celebrating the world’s kitchens — one country at a time.

Explore All Countries →