The largest stock canvas Ledgebay makes is 16x20 inches, and a custom kit from your own photo goes up to 18x24. That is the honest answer, and it is worth knowing before you start looking, because size changes the painting more than most people expect.
What the sizes actually are
- 12x16 framed — pre-stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang, includes a wooden tabletop easel.
- 16x20 framed — the same, one size up. This is the large option in the stock range.
- 16x20 unframed — the same canvas and paints without the frame, at a lower price. Trimmed close to the printed edge, so it suits mounting to a board rather than stretching over your own bars.
- 18x24 custom — available only on a custom kit made from your photo, framed or unframed.
You can see the whole range in the larger canvases.
Why bigger is usually easier, not harder
This is the part that surprises people. A larger canvas does not mean more difficulty. It means the same design printed at a larger scale, so every numbered section gets bigger too.
On a 12x16, the finest sections in a detailed design can be a couple of millimeters across. The same section on a 16x20 is meaningfully wider, which is the difference between needing a magnifier and not. Twelve of our reviews mention numbers being hard to read on the finer designs, and the single most useful thing to do about that is go up a size rather than buy a stronger lamp.
So the rule of thumb is straightforward. Simple design with broad areas of sky and water: either size is fine. Detailed design with grass blades, feathers, foliage or small windows: take the 16x20.
What bigger costs you
Time, mostly. A 16x20 is 67% more surface than a 12x16, and the hours go up roughly in step. A straightforward 12x16 is a matter of ten to fifteen hours spread over a few weeks. A demanding design at 16x20 can run past twenty-five. That is not a warning, it is the point for most people, but it is worth knowing before you start something you want finished by a particular date.
It also costs a little more paint per section, and heavily used colors can run low. There is a matching extra paint set for every design, which is the reason people go looking for one.
Choosing a size for the wall, not the desk
Most people choose the size while thinking about painting it and then find it does not hold the space it is hung in. A 12x16 works above a side table, in a hallway, or as one piece in a group. On a large blank wall above a sofa it disappears.
Two practical checks. Cut a rectangle of newspaper to size and tape it where the painting will hang, then look at it from the doorway. And for a piece above furniture, aim for the artwork to be somewhere between half and two-thirds the width of what it sits above.
If you want genuine presence on a big wall, two or three canvases hung as a group beat one canvas that is slightly too small.
Going past 16x20
If 16x20 is genuinely not big enough, the only route in this catalog is a custom kit at 18x24 made from your own photograph. Sizes above that are worth being skeptical about wherever you find them. Very large numbered canvases tend to be printed from low-resolution source images, so the sections get vague rather than getting better, and the hours climb into a range most people do not finish.
If you do go to 18x24 from a photo, send the highest-resolution original you have rather than something forwarded through a messaging app, and pick an image with one clear subject. A group photograph at that size still gives each face only a small share of the canvas.
A note on technique, since the old version of this page contradicted itself
Work from the largest areas down to the smallest, and from the top of the canvas downward so your hand does not rest on wet paint. Not the other way round. Do one color at a time across the whole canvas before rinsing, which saves both paint and washing up.
Light colors sometimes need a second coat to hide the printed number underneath. That is normal, not a fault. Let the first coat dry properly first.
More on all of this in the beginner's guide, and other customers' finished canvases are in the customer gallery.
