Create a Custom Year-in-Review Canvas

⏱ 5 min read

To create a custom year-in-review canvas: choose either one defining photo or three to six for a collage, pick your size, and place your order. It arrives stretched and ready to hang, shipped free, backed by a 30 day guarantee usually about 7 days in total.

Step 1: One photo, or several?

This is the only real decision, and it changes everything downstream.

One photo makes a statement. It reads as artwork from across the room, holds a wall on its own, and gives a single moment the weight it deserves. If one image genuinely defined your year, this is the stronger choice for a custom year-in-review canvas.

A collage captures more of the year but asks the viewer to come close and study it. Choose it when no single photo can carry the story - a first year, a year of travel, a year with a lot in it.

If you're torn between the two

If you're torn, go with one. Most people who choose a collage do so to avoid making a decision, and the result is usually less powerful than the photo they would have picked.

Step 2: How do you choose the photos?

Don't scroll the camera roll - that's how you lose an evening and print nothing. Close the app, write down from memory the moments that defined the year, then go and find those specific photos.

For a collage, keep it to three to six images. Twelve - one per month - sounds appealing but each photo ends up too small to make out. If you want all twelve, choose a larger canvas or print a set of smaller ones instead.

The full method is in how to choose your photos of the year.

Step 3: How do you pick your size?

For a single photo on your own wall, size to the space: about two-thirds the width of the furniture beneath it. Above an 84-inch sofa, that's roughly 50–60 inches of art - a 24×36 or 30×40.

Sizing a collage differently

For a collage, go a size up. Each photo occupies only a fraction of the canvas, so a collage at 16×20 gives every image about the size of a postcard. This is the most common mistake with multi-photo canvases, and it's an easy one to avoid.

Sizes run from 8×10 up to 30×40, with 36×45 available. If it's a gift rather than for your own wall, stay medium - 16×20 or 18×24 fits almost any home.

Step 4: How do you place your order?

Once you're happy with the photo or photos and the size, place the order. 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.

It's worth double-checking your collage layout in your head before you order: make sure no face would fall awkwardly at a cell edge, and that each image is large enough to actually read once printed. And it's worth checking resolution against your chosen size, since a low-resolution image can look soft once it's printed large.

Can you make it an annual thing?

The best version of this is a habit rather than a one-off. Print one canvas each January, same size, same treatment and hang them as a growing row along a hallway or up a stairwell.

Keep the treatment consistent, because that's what makes different years read as one collection. Black-and-white is the easiest way to unify photos taken on different phones, in different light, across a decade.

After three years it's a nice set. After ten, it's the best thing in the house.

Start your order

Upload your photo or photos, choose your 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.

Start your custom canvas, or browse ideas in your year in photos.

Building a custom year-in-review canvas this way - photo, size, order - takes only a few minutes once you've actually chosen the images, and it's a habit worth repeating every single January from here on.

Why this stays simple even years later

None of these four steps require any special skill, just a few clear decisions made in order. Once you've built a custom year-in-review canvas once, doing it again next January becomes considerably faster, since you'll already know roughly which photos and size work best for your particular wall.

FAQ

How do I make a year-in-review canvas?

Choose one defining photo or three to six for a collage, pick your size, and place your order. Production takes 24–48 hours, then it ships free and arrives stretched and ready to hang.

What size should a photo collage canvas be?

Go a size up from what you'd choose for a single photo. Each image occupies only a fraction of a collage, so a six-photo collage at 16×20 gives every picture roughly the size of a postcard. Undersizing is the most common mistake with multi-photo canvases.

Can I put 12 photos on one canvas?

You can, but each one becomes small and hard to make out. Three to six photos stay readable on a single canvas. If you want all twelve months represented, choose a larger canvas or print a set of small ones instead which also lets the wall grow year on year.

What if my photos aren't high enough resolution?

It's worth checking each photo's resolution against your chosen size before you order. A collage is more forgiving than a single large photo, since each image is printed smaller but it's still worth checking, especially for older or heavily compressed files.

One photo, printed properly, every January. Start your custom canvas