Best Paint by Numbers Kits UK 2026: Our Top Picks Tested and Ranked

Wild and Certain Paint by Numbers Kit

Bear and Landscape Art | Animals Collection

The best beginner kit is not necessarily the simplest. It is the one that gives you enough room to build confidence while still producing a result that genuinely surprises you. Wild and Certain does exactly that.

The composition pairs a grizzly bear in the foreground with an open wilderness landscape behind it. The background sky and distant treeline feature larger colour zones that feel approachable from the start. As you move into the bear itself, the fur texture and rich tonal variation in the coat provide a real sense of progression and achievement. The contrast between the soft background and the bold, detailed animal in front is what makes this kit so visually satisfying as a finished piece.

It is also one of the few kits that teaches two distinct techniques in a single project: the loose, sweeping brushwork of atmospheric landscapes and the controlled, directional strokes of animal fur. For anyone wanting to genuinely improve through their first kit, this is the one.

Van Gogh's Starry Night Paint by Numbers

Famous Art Collection | Advanced Level

Of all the famous art reproductions in the collection, Van Gogh's Starry Night is the one that demands the most from you and gives back the most in return. The swirling night sky, one of the most recognisable compositions in art history, requires you to work with deep contrasting blues, bright whites, and the subtle yellows of the stars and moon across hundreds of small, interlocking sections.

What makes this kit technically demanding is not just the number of colours but the way those colours interact. Van Gogh's impasto style, his thick layered brushwork that gives the painting its sense of movement, is translated into a numbering system that rewards patience. Each section builds on the ones around it. Rush a section and the swirl breaks. Work carefully and the whole sky comes alive.

The finished result is unmistakable and genuinely striking on any wall. It is also the most requested kit in our expert collection, which tells you everything about how rewarding the experience is.

Zen Garden Paint by Numbers Kit

Meditative Nature Art | Landscapes Collection

Not every painting session is about skill development. Sometimes you want to sit quietly, switch off, and let the brush do the thinking. The Zen Garden kit is designed precisely for that.

The composition, inspired by traditional Japanese zen gardens, features raked gravel patterns, smooth stones, bamboo, and still water in a palette of soft greens, warm greys, and muted whites. There are no bold contrasts demanding attention. The colour transitions are gentle, the sections are generous, and the overall effect of painting this design is genuinely calming in a way that more visually complex kits are not.

The evidence for paint by numbers as a stress relief tool is well established: the focused, repetitive motion of applying paint to numbered sections has been shown to lower cortisol levels and induce the meditative flow state associated with mindfulness practice. A design this serene amplifies that effect considerably. Read more in our paint by numbers for mental health and wellbeing guide.

Her Own Rhythm Paint by Numbers Kit

Abstract Figure Art | Abstract and Modern Collection

Most paint by numbers kits ask you to reproduce something that already exists. Her Own Rhythm asks you to paint something genuinely original. The design depicts a female figure in motion, rendered in bold, expressive colour blocks that feel more like contemporary gallery art than a traditional numbered canvas.

The palette is rich and deliberately unconventional: deep blues, warm ochres, vivid crimsons, and layered neutrals that interact differently from anything in the landscapes or famous art collections. The abstract nature of the composition also means that slight variations in your technique only enhance the result rather than undermining it.

For painters who find traditional landscapes and wildlife kits aesthetically conservative, or for anyone furnishing a modern interior where classic pastoral scenes would look out of place, this is the kit to reach for. Browse the full Abstract and Modern collection for more designs in this style.

Wild and Certain Paint by Numbers Kit

Bear and Landscape Art | Animals Collection

For painters who love wildlife art specifically, Wild and Certain earns a second mention here. The combination of a grizzly bear set against an open wilderness landscape is one of the most technically interesting compositions in the animals collection because it requires two entirely different approaches within a single canvas.

The landscape sections teach you atmospheric colour blending: how to create depth in a sky, how to suggest distant trees without painting every leaf, and how to use cool blues and warm greens to imply distance and light. The bear sections then shift the skill entirely, demanding directional brushwork that follows the lie of the fur, careful work around the muzzle and eyes, and the patience to build a three-dimensional animal from flat numbered sections.

The Japanese Bridge (Water Lilies) by Claude Monet

Famous Art Collection | Intermediate to Advanced

Monet's water garden at Giverny is the most imitated subject in Impressionist painting for good reason. The interplay of light on water, the soft reflections of the willow and the bridge, and the floating lilies that seem to dissolve into the surface create a composition that rewards the kind of patient, layered brushwork that paint by numbers naturally encourages.

What separates this from most landscape kits is the colour subtlety. The palette moves through dozens of greens, blues, mauves, and dappled whites that blend at their edges to create the shimmer that Monet captured in the original. At 36 or 48 colours this kit is demanding, but the payoff is a finished painting that looks genuinely impressionistic rather than rigidly outlined.

Experienced painters who find simpler landscape designs too easy but are not yet ready for the precise detail of the Starry Night will find this sits at exactly the right level. Browse the full Famous Art collection for more reproductions.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Famous Art Collection | Advanced

The Mona Lisa is the most recognised portrait in the history of art. Painting it as a numbered canvas is not simply an exercise in filling sections: it is a lesson in how Da Vinci built skin tones, depth, and expression from layers of subtle, overlapping colour.

The sfumato technique that defines the original, Da Vinci's method of softening edges between tones so that shadows seem to dissolve rather than terminate sharply, is translated into a palette of warm ochres, earthy umbers, cool half-tones, and deep darks that teach you the fundamental principles of portrait painting. You will finish this kit with an understanding of skin tone construction that no tutorial can replicate as effectively.

It is a challenging project. The face demands precision, and the dark atmospheric background requires careful, even coverage to avoid patches. But the result is one of the most genuinely impressive finished pieces in the entire collection.

Rise Again Phoenix Paint by Numbers Kit

Mythical Art | Abstract and Modern Collection

If you are looking for a statement piece rather than a meditative project, the Rise Again Phoenix is the kit that delivers. The composition depicts a phoenix in full flight against a fiery background of deep golds, crimsons, burnt oranges, and rich purples. There is nothing restrained about it, and that is the point.

From a technical perspective, this is one of the warmest and most colour-intensive palettes in the entire collection. You will work with more shades of orange, red, and gold in a single project than in any landscape or famous art kit, which gives you an unusual and valuable opportunity to understand how warm colours interact, intensify, and shift at their edges.

As a gift, it is also one of the most frequently chosen kits for someone dealing with a significant life moment. The phoenix is a universal symbol of renewal, which gives this design an emotional weight that purely decorative designs lack.

Custom Paint by Numbers from Your Photo

Personalised Gifts Collection | Difficulty varies by photo

Every kit on this list is a carefully chosen ready-to-paint design. The Custom Paint by Numbers kit is something different: it is your photograph, any photograph, converted into a premium numbered canvas with a paint set matched precisely to your image.

Wedding portraits. Holiday sunsets. A parent's garden on a summer afternoon. A face that matters more than any famous painting ever could. The finished piece is not something you choose from a catalogue: it is something no one else in the world has, painted by you, of a moment that belongs to you.

Available in four canvas sizes from 30x40cm to 60x80cm, with 24, 36, or 48 colour options. Each kit takes 2 to 3 business days to produce from your photo, then ships with standard UK delivery of 6 to 8 business days. For guidance on getting the best result, read our complete guide to choosing the perfect photo.

Custom Pet Paint by Numbers

Personalised Gifts Collection | Difficulty varies

Pet owners who have painted a portrait of their own animal know something the rest of us only suspect: there is no finished painting quite like one you made yourself of the animal that lives in your home. The Custom Pet Paint by Numbers kit is built specifically for that experience.

Upload a clear photo of your pet and our design team converts it into a numbered canvas engineered to capture fur texture, eye detail, and the individual character of your specific animal. Unlike standard animal kits that feature generic designs, this canvas is uniquely yours. The painting you produce is a portrait of your actual pet, made by your own hands.

It is also, consistently, one of the most emotionally significant purchases our customers make. For pet owners who have lost an animal, painting from a favourite photograph becomes a tribute that no shop-bought print can replicate. For those whose pets are very much alive, it is the kind of gift that gets hung up and never comes down.