Create Your Custom Valentine's Canvas (Step by Step)
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To create a custom Valentine's canvas: choose the photo, pick a size that suits the relationship, and place your order. Production takes 24–48 hours, then it ships free - ready to hang, backed by a 30-day guarantee.
In this guide
Step 1: Which photo should you choose?
Choose a candid over a posed shot, and a rear-camera photo over a selfie - front cameras have lower resolution and distort faces at arm's length, which is invisible on a phone and obvious at 24×36.
If you don't have a good photo of the two of you
Print the place instead: where you met, a trip you took, the street you lived on. It carries the same meaning and prints beautifully. Guidance is in best photos for a Valentine's canvas.
Use the original file rather than a screenshot or a copy from a messaging app - both are compressed and print softer.
Step 2: What size should you pick?
Size sets the tone more than the image does, so pitch it to the relationship.
| Situation | Size | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New relationship | 8×10 – 12×16 | Sits on a shelf; no wall-space obligation |
| Established couple | 16×20 – 18×24 | Fits any shared home |
| Shared home, known wall | 24×36 – 30×40 | Statement piece - only if you know where it goes |
For a wall you both live with, size to about two-thirds the width of the furniture below it.
Step 3: Which style and finish suits it best?
Choosing a treatment
Black-and-white is the quiet choice - intimate, timeless, and it reads as art rather than as a photograph of you, which matters if the canvas is going somewhere you both relax. Full colour shows the moment as it was. Pop art suits a pet or a bold, playful piece.
Matte is the safer finish. It avoids glare on any wall, and you don't control where they'll hang it. Landscape orientation usually suits two people; portrait rarely does.
Step 4: How do you place your order?
Once you're happy with the photo, size, and style, place the order for your custom Valentine's canvas. Every canvas is made to order - production takes 24–48 hours, then it ships, arriving in about 7 days in total. There's no rush or next-day option, so it's worth ordering with a little lead time rather than right on the 14th.
It's worth double-checking your photo's resolution against the size you've chosen before you order, since a low-resolution image can look soft once it's printed large and stretched over the frame.
What about delivery and the surprise problem?
Aim for the canvas to arrive two or three days early, not on the 14th itself. Valentine's isn't a holiday - a parcel landing that afternoon may arrive while you're both at work, and a box on a doorstep is not a gift.
And if you live together: a canvas comes in a large box, which is not a subtle object. If it's meant to be a surprise, ship it to your office, a friend, or a parcel locker. Plan the address when you plan the date. Full timings in when to order for Valentine's Day.
Start your order
Upload the photo, choose the size, and place your order. Your canvas is then printed with giclée on 100% cotton, hand-stretched over kiln-dried pine in our USA studio, inspected by hand, and shipped free - backed by a 30-day guarantee.
Why the process stays simple
None of these four steps require any special skill, just a few clear decisions made in order. Once you've been through the process once, ordering a second custom Valentine's canvas in a future year becomes considerably faster and more familiar.
Building a custom Valentine's canvas this way - photo, size, style, order - takes only a few minutes once you've actually chosen the image, and it removes most of the guesswork that makes a first order feel more complicated than it needs to be.
If you take away only one thing from this guide, let it be the photo advice: everything else - size, finish, delivery is easy to adjust after the fact, but a photo that isn't quite right is the one single decision genuinely worth getting correct from the very start, well before anything else even matters at all.
Whatever stage of the relationship this canvas is for, the same four steps apply equally well, which is really the point of laying it out this clearly in the first place.
FAQ
How do I order a custom Valentine's canvas?
Choose your photo, pick a size, and place your order. Production takes 24–48 hours, then it ships free and arrives stretched and ready to hang, backed by a 30-day guarantee.
What size canvas should I order for Valentine's?
Pitch it to the relationship. A new relationship suits a small 8×10 or 12×16, which sits on a shelf and asks nothing of their wall space. An established couple suits 16×20 or 18×24. Only go large if you know exactly which wall it's destined for.
What if my photo isn't high enough resolution?
It's worth checking your photo's resolution against your chosen size before you order. As a rule of thumb, a modern phone photo taken in good light comfortably covers most sizes; an older or heavily compressed photo may only suit a smaller canvas.
How do I stop them seeing it arrive?
Ship it to your office, a friend's address, or a parcel locker. A canvas arrives in a large box and the delivery notification reaches whoever's home, so if you live together it's hard to keep quiet. Decide the delivery address at the same time you decide the date.
Candid photo, size pitched right, delivered somewhere they won't see it. Start your custom canvas