diff --git a/meshterm/ui/map_screen.py b/meshterm/ui/map_screen.py
index 385d4f7..35ed6ed 100644
--- a/meshterm/ui/map_screen.py
+++ b/meshterm/ui/map_screen.py
@@ -130,6 +130,9 @@ class MapScreen(Screen):
     """A full-screen, keyboard-driven map of the mesh's located nodes over an OSM basemap."""
 
     floating = False
+    #: The drawing runs right up to the panel's side borders: a picture has no text edge
+    #: to keep off them, so the padding columns would only be map given up.
+    flush = True
 
     #: Whether printable keys feed the find-as-you-type node filter. The location
     #: picker turns this off: there, typing has no job and a silent filter would
@@ -299,17 +302,18 @@ class MapScreen(Screen):
         """Right-edge columns the session should force-repaint on the next paint (0 = none).
 
         A braille glyph the terminal font lacks is substituted by a *double-width* fallback,
-        which shoves the row and smears the panel's right padding and border. The map body
-        itself redraws wholesale as it pans, so those cells self-heal — but the static edge
-        does not change frame-to-frame, so prompt_toolkit's differential paint never rewrites
-        it and the smear lingers there. After a move we ask the session to force just those
-        two columns (right padding + border) to repaint, scrubbing the smear without the
-        whole-frame flicker a full repaint would cause.
+        which shoves the row and smears the panel's right border. The map body itself
+        redraws wholesale as it pans, so its cells self-heal — but the static border does
+        not change frame-to-frame, so prompt_toolkit's differential paint never rewrites it
+        and the smear lingers there. After a move we ask the session to force just that
+        column to repaint, scrubbing the smear without the whole-frame flicker a full
+        repaint would cause. (The map is :attr:`flush`, so there is no padding column
+        between the drawing and the border to scrub as well.)
         """
         if not self._needs_scrub:
             return 0
         self._needs_scrub = False
-        return 2  # the panel's right padding cell and its right border cell
+        return 1  # the panel's right border cell
 
     def set_markers(self, markers: list[MapMarker]) -> None:
         """Replace the plotted nodes on the open map — nodes that arrived after it opened.
diff --git a/meshterm/ui/tui/frame.py b/meshterm/ui/tui/frame.py
index a4afcda..0a54197 100644
--- a/meshterm/ui/tui/frame.py
+++ b/meshterm/ui/tui/frame.py
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ def _panel_box(
     more_below: bool,
     border: str,
     caption: str = "",
+    flush: bool = False,
 ) -> Panel:
     """Wrap already-sliced body lines in a titled, scroll-aware panel.
 
@@ -179,6 +180,8 @@ def _panel_box(
         more_below: Whether content continues below the slice.
         border: Border style name (``"accent"`` for the focused screen).
         caption: A short muted credit for the bottom rule's right end (empty for none).
+        flush: Drop the one-column padding inside each side border, for a body that fills
+            the frame (see :attr:`~meshterm.ui.tui.screen.Screen.flush`).
 
     Returns:
         A Rich :class:`Panel` of exactly ``len(visible) + 2`` rows.
@@ -196,10 +199,20 @@ def _panel_box(
         subtitle=subtitle,
         subtitle_align="right" if caption else "center",
         border_style=border,
-        padding=(0, 1),
+        padding=(0, 0 if flush else 1),
     )
 
 
+def panel_inset(flush: bool) -> int:
+    """Columns the bordered base frame takes from the body's width.
+
+    Its two side borders, plus the padding column inside each unless the screen is
+    :attr:`~meshterm.ui.tui.screen.Screen.flush`. One definition, because the session sizes
+    a screen against this frame before the frame is drawn (``base_body_size``).
+    """
+    return 2 if flush else 4
+
+
 #: The last framed base composition: ``(content key, rendered lines)``. Re-parsing the
 #: sliced body (``Text.from_ansi``) and re-rendering it through the Panel is the priciest
 #: part of a repaint (~8 ms on a full frame), and the idle tick recomposes an unchanged
@@ -358,7 +371,7 @@ def compose_base(
         # list inside itself (see :class:`~meshterm.ui.tui.screen.ListWindow`) can size
         # its chrome to the frame it is about to be sliced into.
         base.note_viewport(viewport)
-        body_lines = base.render_body(cols - 4)
+        body_lines = base.render_body(cols - panel_inset(base.flush))
         visible, more_above, more_below = _visible_slice(base, body_lines, viewport)
         # The panel wrap is a pure function of what's between its borders: memoize it so
         # the repaints that change nothing below the header (the 1 Hz tick) skip the
@@ -372,11 +385,12 @@ def compose_base(
         caption = base.bottom_caption
         # Rich sets the padded title into the rule's inner ``cols - 4`` cells.
         title = fitted_title(base, cols - 4 - 2)
-        key = (cols, rows, title, caption, footer_hint, more_above, more_below, *visible)
+        flush = base.flush
+        key = (cols, rows, title, caption, flush, footer_hint, more_above, more_below, *visible)
         if footer_lane is None and _BASE_BOX_CACHE is not None and _BASE_BOX_CACHE[0] == key:
             body = _BASE_BOX_CACHE[1]
         else:
-            panel = _panel_box(title, visible, more_above, more_below, "accent", caption)
+            panel = _panel_box(title, visible, more_above, more_below, "accent", caption, flush)
             body = render_lines(Group(panel, footer_row()), cols)
             if footer_lane is None:
                 _BASE_BOX_CACHE = (key, body)
diff --git a/meshterm/ui/tui/screen.py b/meshterm/ui/tui/screen.py
index 32e892e..f1b222d 100644
--- a/meshterm/ui/tui/screen.py
+++ b/meshterm/ui/tui/screen.py
@@ -106,12 +106,19 @@ class Screen:
             screen may change it as its state changes. Drawn only where the platform's
             frame *has* a bottom rule — the borderless one has none, and a screen wanting
             a mark there puts it in its own body instead.
+        flush: Whether, as the base screen in a bordered frame, the body runs right up to
+            the panel's side borders instead of sitting one blank column in from each. The
+            padding is air between a border and a row of *text*; a picture that fills the
+            frame (the map) has no text edge to keep off the border, and those two columns
+            are drawing it would otherwise give up for nothing (JP, 2026-10-01). Moot where
+            the platform's frame has no border — the body is the full width there already.
     """
 
     title: str = ""
     short_title: str = ""
     footer_hint: str = "Esc back"
     bottom_caption: str = ""
+    flush: bool = False
     floating: bool = True
     modal: bool = False
     grow_only: bool = False
diff --git a/meshterm/ui/tui/session.py b/meshterm/ui/tui/session.py
index 9afd856..f649fec 100644
--- a/meshterm/ui/tui/session.py
+++ b/meshterm/ui/tui/session.py
@@ -1813,7 +1813,9 @@ class TuiSession:
         without waiting a repaint to learn its height. *Both* of that function's branches:
         a borderless platform swaps the panel's two border rows and four padding columns for
         a single title-bar row, so a screen sizing itself against the bordered math there
-        would leave a row of the frame it was handed permanently blank.
+        would leave a row of the frame it was handed permanently blank. The width is the
+        current base screen's, which a :attr:`~meshterm.ui.tui.screen.Screen.flush` one
+        widens by the two padding columns it does without.
 
         Returns:
             The inner content width and the body viewport height, both in character cells.
@@ -1823,8 +1825,10 @@ class TuiSession:
         cols, rows = self._size()
         header_h = len(render_lines(self._header(cols), cols, no_wrap=True))
         if get_platform().frame_border:
-            # minus footer(1) and panel border(2); the border eats 4 columns too
-            return cols - 4, max(1, rows - header_h - 1 - 2)
+            base = self._base_screen()
+            inset = frame.panel_inset(base is not None and base.flush)
+            # minus footer(1) and panel border(2)
+            return cols - inset, max(1, rows - header_h - 1 - 2)
         return cols, max(1, rows - header_h - 1 - 1)  # minus footer(1) and title bar(1)
 
     def _base_index(self) -> int:
diff --git a/tests/test_map.py b/tests/test_map.py
index 997e4cc..5198103 100644
--- a/tests/test_map.py
+++ b/tests/test_map.py
@@ -1891,7 +1891,7 @@ def test_map_screen_scrubs_right_edge_after_move() -> None:
     braille = MapScreen(_StubSession(80, 24), markers, _StubSource(), 14)
     braille.render_body(80)
     braille.handle("right")  # a move flags the edge for a scrub
-    assert braille.consume_edge_scrub() == 2  # right padding + border columns
+    assert braille.consume_edge_scrub() == 1  # the border column: the map is flush
     assert braille.consume_edge_scrub() == 0  # consumed — not repeated without another move
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_tui.py b/tests/test_tui.py
index 675c5dd..15c790f 100644
--- a/tests/test_tui.py
+++ b/tests/test_tui.py
@@ -743,6 +743,22 @@ def test_compose_base_fills_exactly_terminal_height() -> None:
         assert out.count("\n") + 1 == rows
 
 
+def test_a_flush_screen_draws_up_to_the_side_borders() -> None:
+    """A ``flush`` base gets the two padding columns back; an ordinary one keeps its air."""
+
+    class Fill(Screen):
+        floating = False
+
+        def render_body(self, width: int) -> list[str]:
+            return ["#" * width] * 3
+
+    for flush, row in ((True, "│" + "#" * 78 + "│"), (False, "│ " + "#" * 76 + " │")):
+        screen = Fill()
+        screen.flush = flush
+        lines = [_plain(ln) for ln in frame.compose_base(Text("h"), screen, "", 80, 12).split("\n")]
+        assert row in lines, (flush, lines)
+
+
 def test_compose_dialog_is_bounded() -> None:
     """A dialog for a huge renderable never exceeds the terminal height."""
     tall = Text("\n".join(f"row {i}" for i in range(200)))