Whether you need a frame at all depends entirely on which version of the canvas you bought, and it is worth settling that before you go shopping for one.
The framed 12x16 and framed 16x20 arrive already stretched on a wooden frame. There is nothing to buy and nothing to do — when you put the brush down, the painting is ready to hang. An unframed canvas is a different situation, and an honest one: it is trimmed close to the printed edge, so the usual advice about stretching a canvas over your own bars does not apply to it.
Do you actually need one?
A finished paint by numbers canvas is a painting, and paintings do not require frames. Plenty of people hang a mounted canvas bare and it looks entirely deliberate. What a frame buys you is three things: a clean edge where the printed area stops, physical protection for the corners, and a way to make a modest piece look considered on a wall.
What it does not buy you is quality. A heavy ornate frame on a first canvas draws attention to the frame and away from the work, which is usually the opposite of what people want.
If you have an unframed canvas
This is where most of the confusion lives, so here it is plainly. The unframed 16x20 gives you the same canvas and the same paints as the framed version for less money. It is trimmed close to the print, which means there is not enough spare material to wrap around stretcher bars and staple at the back. Several customers have found this out after buying bars, and it is a fair complaint.
What does work:
- Mount it to a rigid board, then frame the board. Foam board or a thin MDF panel cut to size, acid-free adhesive or double-sided tape, then a standard frame around it. This is the most reliable route and the one most people end up taking.
- Mount it and use a float frame. A float frame holds a mounted panel with a small shadow gap around the edge. It reads as a gallery piece and forgives an edge that is not perfectly straight, which the trimmed edge often is not.
- Mount it to a panel and leave it bare. No frame at all. Sand the panel edges, paint them a flat dark color, and hang it with a sawtooth hanger on the back.
- Take it to a framer. If the piece matters, a framer will mount and fit it properly for less than most people expect, and they will handle the trimmed edge without you having to solve it.
What does not work is trying to stretch it yourself. Do not buy stretcher bars for an unframed canvas expecting to wrap it.
Sizes, and why they help
Every size we make is a standard US frame size, which is deliberate and genuinely useful. A 12x16, a 16x20 and an 18x24 are all sizes you can walk into any craft or home store and buy a frame for off the shelf. You are not commissioning anything custom unless you want to.
One thing to check: frames are sold by the artwork opening, not the outer dimension, and the opening is usually a little smaller than the nominal size so the frame has something to hold. That is fine for a mounted panel. It does mean a millimeter or two at the edge of the print will sit under the lip, so do not plan a composition around the very outermost edge.
Choosing a style
The designs in our catalog are traditional representational artwork — Americana scenes, wildlife, cabins, florals — and they sit best in frames that do not argue with them.
- Plain wood, natural or stained. Suits nearly everything we make. A simple oak or walnut profile is very hard to get wrong on a landscape or a barn scene.
- Narrow black. Works well on the more colorful designs and on anything with a strong dark area already in the composition.
- Warm gold or bronze, kept narrow. Suits florals and the more classical scenes. Narrow is the operative word — a wide gilt frame overwhelms a 12x16.
- Match the room, not the painting. If everything else on the wall is white-framed, a white frame is the right answer even if it is not what the artwork suggests.
A safe general rule: pick a frame color that already appears somewhere in the painting, and keep the profile narrower than you first think.
Glass, or not
Most acrylic paintings are hung without glass, and there are good reasons for it. Acrylic keeps curing for a while after it feels dry, and glass pressed against a not-quite-cured surface can stick. Glass also flattens the slight surface texture that makes the piece look painted rather than printed, and it adds reflections.
If the painting is going somewhere it will get handled, or into a kitchen where it will collect grease, glass is reasonable — but use a spacer or a mat so the glass never touches the paint. Otherwise, a coat of acrylic varnish once the painting has cured for a couple of weeks does the protective job better and looks like a painting.
Getting it done
If you want the step-by-step for mounting and fitting a canvas into a frame, how to frame a paint by number canvas walks through it with the tools you actually need. If you are still deciding between framing and simply mounting, frame or mount compares the two.
And if you would rather not think about any of this, buy the framed size. It arrives pre-stretched on a wooden frame with a tabletop easel included, and the decision goes away entirely. You can see which designs come in which sizes across the full catalog, or look at the customer gallery to see how other people have hung theirs.
