Last updated: · Written by Marcus Richardson, founder of Paint A Moment
In short
A paint by numbers kit takes 5 to 10 hours for a beginner design, 15 to 25 hours for an intermediate one, and 25 to 40 hours or more for an advanced one. Those are the ranges we grade every design against, measured on a 40x50cm canvas, the size most people choose. Difficulty decides how long it takes far more than size does, because a bigger canvas of the same design has the same count of numbered sections, just larger ones.
Most articles on this give you one figure, like "2 to 6 hours", and stop there. That is about right for a small mini kit with a dozen colours. It is nowhere near right for a 40x50cm canvas with 36 colours, which is what most of our customers actually buy. So here is the real breakdown, including why canvas size moves the number much less than people expect.
How Long Does a Paint by Numbers Take?
Between 5 and 40 hours of painting, spread over as many sessions as you want. Which end you land on comes down to the difficulty grade of the design. Every kit we sell is graded against one of three bands, and each band has a completion time attached to it:
| Difficulty | Painting time | Section size | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 5 to 10 hours | Large, clearly defined areas | A first kit, gift recipients, casual painters |
| Intermediate | 15 to 25 hours | A mix of medium and small areas | Anyone who has finished one or two kits |
| Advanced | 25 to 40 hours or more | Small to very small, under 8mm² on average | Experienced painters who want a real project |
These are the figures we use internally to grade a design, taken on a 40x50cm canvas. The jump between the bands is not a gentle one. An advanced kit can take four to eight times as long as a beginner kit, and the reason is the section count: the areas shrink, there are far more of them, and the colour transitions get subtle enough that you slow down to get them right. If you are weighing up which band to start in, we go through that choice properly in is paint by numbers hard.
Does a Bigger Canvas Take Longer?
A bit longer, yes, but far less than most people assume.
When we print one of our designs at 20x30cm and at 60x70cm, it is the same design. The same numbered sections, the same colour count. What changes is that each section gets physically bigger. So the large canvas does not give you more sections to hunt down, which is the slow part of painting by numbers. It gives you more paint to lay inside each one, which is the fast part. That is why difficulty sits at the top of this article and size sits here.
Across our standard range, stepping up one size adds roughly this much to the total:
| Canvas size | Imperial | Time added against the size below |
|---|---|---|
| 20x30cm | 8x12in | Our smallest size, the baseline |
| 30x40cm | 12x16in | Add 3 to 5 hours |
| 40x50cm | 16x20in | Add 5 to 8 hours |
| 50x60cm | 20x24in | Add 5 to 8 hours |
| 60x70cm | 24x28in | Add 6 to 10 hours |
40x50cm is where most people land, and not by accident. It is big enough to hold the wall on its own and small enough that a beginner design in that size still finishes inside a couple of relaxed weekends.
Custom kits, made from your own photo, come in a slightly different set of seven sizes: 20x30, 30x40, 40x40, 40x50, 50x50, 50x60 and 60x80cm. Two of those are squares, which the standard designs do not offer, and 60x80cm is the largest canvas we make in any range. If you want the biggest possible project, that is the one, and it only exists as a custom paint by numbers kit.
What Else Changes the Time
Three things move the number once size and difficulty are settled.
How many colours you choose
Every kit comes in 24, 36 or 48 colours. More colours hold more detail in the finished piece, and they also mean more switching between pots, rinsing, and checking you have the right one. That switching is where the extra hours go, not the painting itself. One reviewer, Isabel, put it plainly: "Although a lot of similar colors. Less colors would have been fine." If you want a calmer, quicker session, pick 24. If you want the finished canvas to carry proper depth and you do not mind the extra evening or two, 48 is the one to take.
What the picture actually is
A single Highland cow against a soft background paints faster than a woodland scene with a dozen small elements, even at the same size and the same difficulty tag. Faces, fur and feathers carry the most small sections by a wide margin.
Whether it came from your own photo
Custom kits tend to sit at the detailed end of whichever band they fall into. A pet's face or a person's features need finer colour transitions than a landscape does, because we are all unreasonably good at spotting when a face we know looks slightly wrong. If you want a custom kit that paints quickly, choose a photo with a simple background and one clear subject rather than a tight close-up portrait. Our guide to turning a photo into a paint by numbers kit covers what makes a good source image.
How Many Evenings Is That, Really?
Nobody sits down and finishes a kit in one go, and you should not plan to. Every figure above is total painting time spread across sessions.
The average American spends about 5.16 hours a day on leisure, and more than half of that goes on watching television, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2025 American Time Use Survey. Trade two evenings a week for a canvas instead of a screen and a beginner kit is finished inside a fortnight, without a single session feeling like a chore. An advanced kit on the same two evenings a week is a project for a couple of months, which is rather the point of it.
That matches what we see in orders. People rarely buy one kit and stop. One repeat customer, Kip, wrote in after a recent order: "Well done, Marcus and Sarah, now we have another project to work on. Thanks." That is the honest shape of the hobby: something slow that fits around a life. If you want to paint at that pace on purpose, our guide to mindful painting is about exactly that.
Common Questions About Paint by Numbers Time
Can I finish a paint by numbers kit in one day?
Only a small beginner canvas. A 20x30cm beginner design sits at the short end of the 5 to 10 hour band, so a full weekend day or two long evenings will see it done. Anything graded intermediate or advanced is a multi-day to multi-week project whatever size you buy it in.
Does a bigger canvas have more numbers to paint?
No. The same design printed larger has the same number of sections, each one bigger. That is why a 60x70cm beginner kit can finish faster than a 40x50cm advanced one, even though it covers more than twice the area.
Does the number of paint colours change how long it takes?
Yes, by an hour or two across the whole canvas. A 48 colour version of a design takes longer than the 24 colour version of the same design, almost entirely from switching pots and rinsing more often.
Do the painting times include drying or sealing?
No, those are separate, and they are mostly waiting rather than working. The acrylics touch dry quickly between sections, and if you want to varnish the finished canvas that is a short job plus drying time on top. We cover the options in how to seal a paint by numbers.
How long before a custom kit arrives and I can start?
Every kit takes 3 to 5 working days to make, custom ones included. After that, tracked delivery runs 5 to 7 working days to the UK and the US, 7 to 10 to Europe, and 10 to 14 to the rest of the world. Shipping is free everywhere.
Choosing a Kit for the Time You Have
If you have a free weekend and want something finished by Sunday night, start in the beginner kits. If you have done one or two already, the intermediate kits are the right step up and will hold your attention for a few weeks. And if you want something that genuinely takes over your evenings for a month or two, in the best way, that is what the advanced kits are built for. New to the hobby altogether? Our complete beginner's guide covers everything else worth knowing before you open the first pot.
Written by Marcus, founder of Paint A Moment. Before this brand existed we ran MegaPaws, an Etsy shop that shipped thousands of custom pet paintings. That is where most of what is in this article comes from: watching how long real kits actually took real people, rather than guessing at it.
Related guides
Times vary most by difficulty level. Our paint by numbers for adults page sets out realistic hours for Easy, Intermediate and Advanced kits at each canvas size.
Weighing it up against another craft? We compare the two in paint by numbers vs diamond painting.
