News
Paint by Numbers vs Diamond Painting: What’s Right For You.
Paint by numbers and diamond painting are the two most popular “colour-by-guide” crafts, and people ask us all the time which one to pick. We make paint by numbers, so we won’t pretend to be neutral — but we’ll be honest. Both are calm, screen-free, and rewarding. They just feel different, and they leave you with very different things on the wall. Here’s a fair look at each, so you can choose the one that’s right for you.
What paint by numbers is
With paint by numbers, you get a canvas printed with faint outlines. Each region carries a number that matches a pot of pre-mixed acrylic paint, and you fill the shapes in one colour at a time until a whole picture appears. An Our Paint By Numbers kit comes with a numbered linen canvas, pre-mixed acrylics (24, 36 or 48 colours depending on the detail level), three brushes and a printed reference sheet. It’s real painting — brush, paint, canvas — with all the hard decisions already made for you. New to it? Our complete beginner’s guide walks through every step.
What diamond painting is
Diamond painting works differently. Instead of paint, you place tiny sparkling resin “diamonds” (small faceted beads) onto a sticky, colour-coded adhesive canvas. You pick up each little gem with a pen-like tool and press it onto its matching symbol, section by section, until the surface is covered in a shimmering, mosaic-like sheen. There’s no drying, no brushes and no paint — it’s a placing craft rather than a painting one, and the finished piece has a beaded, glittering texture rather than a painted one.
Both are genuinely relaxing. The difference is what your hands are actually doing — one is brushing colour onto a surface, the other is placing thousands of small beads.
Side-by-side comparison
Here’s how the two crafts stack up on the things people care about most:
| Paint by numbers | Diamond painting | |
|---|---|---|
| Skill involved | Brush control; anyone can do it, improves with practice | Steady placing; repetitive but low-skill |
| Time per piece | An evening for a small kit; weeks of relaxed sessions for a large one | Often longer for the same size — thousands of beads to place |
| Mess | A little — water cup and wet paint; wipes up easily | Very tidy, but loose beads can scatter and are easy to lose |
| Finished look | A true painting — matte or varnished, frame-worthy wall art | Sparkly, beaded mosaic with a glittering, textured sheen |
| Cost | Comparable; kit includes paint & brushes, and we replace paint free for life | Comparable; drills and tools included |
| Best for | Anyone who wants to make a painting — and custom photo keepsakes | People who love sparkle and a very repetitive, meditative rhythm |
Worried it’ll be too hard? Paint by numbers is more forgiving than it looks — acrylic covers acrylic, so any slip is fixable. We break down exactly what makes a kit easy or challenging in are paint by numbers hard?
How each one feels to do
Diamond painting has a soothing, almost hypnotic rhythm — pick, place, repeat. Many people love it precisely because it asks so little of your concentration; you can do it half-watching a film. The trade-off is that it can feel a bit mechanical, and a large design is a long haul of placing many thousands of near-identical gems.
Paint by numbers has a different kind of calm. There’s a small, satisfying sense of craft to it — testing a colour, outlining an edge cleanly, watching a section come to life under the brush. It engages you a touch more, which is why so many people describe it as genuinely absorbing rather than just busy. And because it’s real paint on canvas, the result looks like art you made, not a kit you assembled.
Which suits beginners, kids & gifts
For beginners, both are easy to start, but paint by numbers gives you more to be proud of for the same effort — you learn a little brush control and end with a genuine painting. Start with an easy paint by numbers design and you really can’t go wrong.
For kids, it depends on age. Diamond painting’s tiny beads can be fiddly (and a swallowing risk for very young children), while a large-area paint by numbers kit is a lovely, contained painting project. For gifts, paint by numbers has one thing diamond painting can’t easily match: you can turn a personal photo into the kit itself. That’s what makes it such a meaningful present.
Why we’d choose paint by numbers
We’re biased, and we’ll own it — but here’s the honest case. Paint by numbers is real painting, so the finished piece looks like art on the wall rather than a craft project. It’s endlessly personalisable: with custom paint by numbers from a photo, you can paint your dog, your wedding day, a grandparent, or a favourite view — and we show you a proof with free revisions before we ever print. And a finished, varnished canvas is genuinely frame-worthy, the kind of thing people ask about when they visit.
If sparkle is your thing, diamond painting is a lovely craft and we’d never talk you out of it. But if you want to end up with a painting you made — one that could just as easily hang in a gallery frame — browse our paint by numbers for adults collection and pick your first canvas. It’s a small commitment for something you’ll want to keep on the wall.
Paint something worth framing
Turn a photo you love into a canvas you paint yourself — proof approved before we print, and free revisions until it’s right.
Create My Custom Canvas