The last number is filled in and the canvas is lying on the table. What happens next depends on one thing: did it arrive rolled, or already stretched on a frame? The two need different steps, so find your path below and skip the other.
Either way, give the paint a few days to cure before you handle the surface. Acrylic feels dry in an hour but keeps hardening for longer, and a canvas rolled or pressed too early can pick up marks.
If Your Canvas Came Rolled
A rolled canvas is just the painted cloth with a blank border around the design. To hang it, it needs a frame to be stretched over — and the border is there for exactly that.
- Get a frame in the canvas size. The DIY wooden frame kit comes in the same four sizes as the canvases — 16x20 in (40x50 cm), 20x20 in (50x50 cm), 20x28 in (50x70 cm) and 28x40 in (70x100 cm) — and assembles into a wooden stretcher frame that matches the printed area, with the blank border wrapping around the back.
- Assemble the frame first, on a flat surface, and check the corners are square by measuring both diagonals. Equal diagonals mean a square frame; the canvas will follow whatever shape the frame has.
- Lay the canvas face down, center the frame on the back, and fold one long edge over. Fix it in the middle of that side only, following the instructions in the pack.
- Move to the opposite side, pull the canvas gently taut, and fix the middle there. Then the two short sides. Working from the middle of each side outward, alternating sides, keeps the design centered and the tension even. Pull firmly but not hard — the aim is a flat surface, not a drum.
- Fold the corners last. Tuck the excess canvas under at a diagonal so the corner lies flat, then fix it. From the front, a well-folded corner shows nothing but the painted edge.
If stretching sounds like more than you want to do, a local framer will stretch a rolled canvas for a fee, and the blank border is what they need to do it. Ordering the custom kit pre-stretched or with a DIY frame at checkout skips this step entirely on the next one.
If Your Canvas Came Pre-Stretched
A pre-stretched canvas is already on its wooden frame and can hang as it is. The painted border wraps the sides, so an outer frame is a choice, not a requirement.
- Decide whether you want an outer frame. Many people hang a stretched canvas bare, gallery-style. If you want a frame around it, a floating frame — the kind with a small gap between canvas edge and frame — is made for stretched canvases and avoids covering any of the painting.
- If you add a frame, fit the canvas so it sits securely but not tightly. Canvas and wood both move slightly with the seasons and need a little room.
- Add hanging hardware to the outer frame, not the stretcher bars, if the frame is the heavier part.
Kits that arrive this way are gathered in the paint by number with frame collection.
Should It Go Behind Glass?
Usually not. A painted canvas is meant to be seen without glazing, and most framed canvases hang bare. If you do want glass or acrylic — a kitchen or a dining room, where splatter and grease reach the wall — the conservation rule is simple: the glazing must not touch the paint surface. A frame with a spacer keeps a gap between the two.
Hanging It So It Stays Flat
The Canadian Conservation Institute's basic care guidance for paintings comes down to a few habits that apply just as well to a canvas you painted yourself:
- Two hooks, not one. Two hooks make it easier to hang level and keep it level.
- Out of direct sunlight. Daylight fades paint over time, and the fading can't be reversed.
- Not above the fireplace. Heat, dryness and soot from a working fireplace are the worst conditions on the wall.
- Away from radiators, doors and vents, where temperature and humidity swing.
A stretched canvas on two hooks, on an inside wall, out of the sun, will look the way it did the day you finished it for a very long time.
Brushes, paints and frames for the next canvas are in the accessories collection.
