A paint by numbers kit is a good gift for a specific reason: it gives someone twenty hours of something to do that is not a screen, and an object at the end of it. Twenty-one of our reviews mention the kit being bought as a present, which is a lot for a product nobody advertises that way. Weddings and anniversaries are the other common occasion, and a canvas from the couple's own photograph is the version people keep.
It is also easy to get wrong, and the way people get it wrong is consistent.
The mistake almost everyone makes
They choose the picture they like, rather than the kit the recipient will enjoy painting.
Those are different problems. The picture has to suit their taste, obviously. But the kit also has to suit their eyesight, their patience and their free time, and none of that is visible in the thumbnail. Hand a detailed floral to someone with tired eyes and you have given them a chore with your name on it.
Three things to get right, in this order.
1. Difficulty, which is not the same as canvas size
Difficulty in this category comes from how finely the design is divided, not how big it is. Open sky, still water, snow and a barn wall are large forgiving shapes. Flowers are the hard end — every petal is its own numbered section. Anything with many separate small objects, like a team of reindeer, is demanding regardless of how simple it looks.
If you do not know how experienced the person is, choose a landscape over a floral.
2. Size, where bigger is easier
The same design on a larger canvas gets larger sections and larger printed numbers. A 16x20 gives every section about two-thirds more room than a 12x16 of the same artwork. For an older recipient, or anyone who wears reading glasses, buy the larger size. It is the single most useful decision in the whole purchase, and our guide to choosing a kit for an older painter goes through it in more detail.
3. Framed or unframed
For a gift, framed. A framed kit arrives pre-stretched on a wooden frame, so the moment they put the brush down the thing is finished and can go on the wall — no framing shop, no extra cost, no half-done canvas sitting in a cupboard for a year. Framed sizes also include a small wooden tabletop easel, which matters if they will paint in an armchair rather than at a table.
Unframed is cheaper and perfectly good for someone buying for themselves. As a gift it hands the recipient a chore.
Nine designs, and who each one is for
All licensed original artwork, all available framed at 12x16 and 16x20 or unframed at 16x20. Every one includes vacuum-sealed paints, brushes in a range of sizes, and an 11x17 printout of the design.
For someone who has never painted anything
Hummingbird — James Hautman's ruby-throated hummingbird at morning glory vines, against a soft green wash. Among the best-rated and most straightforward kits we make. Customers say directly that the numbers are easy to read, which is down to the plain background. Only the bird asks for care, and it is small.
Summer's Song — a canoe drawn up on a rocky point at dusk, from a Darrell Bush painting, with a campfire and a loon on flat water. The other design reviewers single out for legible numbers. The lake, sky and tree trunks are wide and simple; only the fire and lantern are fine work.
For someone who wants something that looks harder than it is
Aurora Bliss — Kim Norlien's log cabin under the northern lights, snow-loaded pines, a campfire on the bank of an open stream. The aurora looks like the difficult part and is not: it is broken into wide bands running the same direction, so you lay them in one after another and the blend appears by itself. The lit windows and the fire reflections are the fiddly bit.
House Near the Lake — a lakeside house under a full moon with every window lit gold, deer at the shore, ducks in the lily pads. One of the highest-rated kits in the range and busier than it needs to be at first glance. The night sky and the water are large forgiving areas, and the warm windows are small enough to keep back as a reward.
For someone with a bit of patience
Away From it All — Hayden Lambson's log cabin on a bluff above a northern lake, birch and aspen turned gold. Sky, water and the rock face are all large comfortable areas. The autumn foliage holds the small sections.
The Road Home — Kim Norlien's white farmhouse and red barn at the end of a summer day, with a child on a tire swing and a yellow dog. Middling difficulty. The barn, road and sky go in easily; the windmill and the fenceline are the patient part.
For someone who wants flowers
October — Judy Buswell's watercolor of zinnias, poppies and cosmos spilling out of ceramic pitchers. The warmest thing in the range. Be aware that every petal is a separate numbered shape, so there are far more small sections here than in any landscape.
Cosmos From the Garden — the quieter Buswell, pink cosmos in a green glass jar on a windowsill with fruit beside it. Soft rather than bold. Same caveat about petals, with the compensation that a wobbly edge disappears among flowers in a way it never would in an open sky.
For Christmas, with a warning attached
Christmas Magic — Abraham Hunter's Santa's sleigh outside a snowbound cottage, eight reindeer in the snow, wreaths in every window. It is the obvious seasonal choice and it is not a beginner's kit. Eight reindeer means eight sets of antlers and harness, and the garland is fine work. The snow and sky are broad and easy.
If you want it finished and hung as a gift, allow about six weeks at an evening or two a week. Giving it as the gift in December is the easier plan.
How long it takes, which affects when you give it
Most people spend 10 to 20 hours on a 16x20, spread over a few weeks in sittings of twenty minutes to an afternoon. Nothing spoils if it sits untouched for a month.
That matters for gift timing in one direction only. If the plan is for them to paint it, any time is fine. If the plan is to give them the finished painting, start early.
When a kit is the wrong gift
Worth saying, because a gift that creates obligation is not a gift.
- Someone who does not want a hobby. A kit is twenty hours. If they have not expressed interest in anything like it, you are giving them homework.
- An experienced painter. Numbered canvases remove the decisions, which is the appeal for most people and the insult for someone who paints freehand.
- Someone with significant sight loss or a tremor. The larger canvas helps and there is a limit to how much. Be honest with yourself about it.
- A child. We do not make a children's range and these are not it. Every design in the catalog is licensed adult artwork.
The version that almost always lands
If the person is hard to buy for, use their own photograph.
A custom kit made from a photo you send takes the taste problem out entirely — nobody dislikes a painting of their own dog, their own house or their own wedding. They are printed in the USA in 12x16, 16x20 and 18x24, framed or unframed.
Two things to get right. Choose the largest size if there is more than one face in the picture, because faces get small quickly. And pick a photo with one clear subject in good light rather than a group shot. There are finished ones in the customer gallery, painted by customers rather than rendered, which is the page worth looking at before you decide.
Our best sellers and the full range of 39 designs are both worth a look, and every design's page says plainly what is harder about it.
Common questions
What should I add if I want it to feel like more of a gift?
A matching extra paint set for the same design. It costs little, it removes the one thing that genuinely derails a project, and it signals that you thought about it rather than picked something off a shelf.
Is a kit a good gift for a couple to do together?
Better than you would expect, though not simultaneously on one canvas. Two kits at the same table works well. Reviewers mention doing them alongside someone far more often than doing them with someone.
Which is the safest choice if I know nothing about the person's taste?
A landscape, framed, at 16x20. Hummingbird or Summer's Song. Both are forgiving to paint and neither is a strong statement on a wall.
Can I give one without them knowing how long it takes?
Tell them. Twenty hours framed as a pleasant surprise is a good gift; twenty hours discovered halfway through is a burden. Most people like knowing there is that much of it.
