Quick answer: City and travel designs are the paint by numbers kits people buy to keep a place: the Paris of a honeymoon, the Amsterdam canal from a fortieth-birthday trip, the Italian village where the family went every summer. They paint well because buildings are made of straight-edged, distinct sections, and the best ones for beginners have a big sky or a wide stretch of water to balance the detail. Paris street scenes and Amsterdam canals are the most popular; Vermeer's Little Street is the most beautiful; a custom kit from your own holiday photo is the most personal. Allow 20 to 35 hours for a detailed cityscape.
A photograph of a place goes into an album. A painting of it goes on the wall, and you spent thirty evenings looking at every window and doorway while you made it. This guide covers the city and travel kits in the shop, which ones paint easily and which are a long project, and how to turn a trip of your own into a canvas.
What you will find in this guide
Why cities paint well (and what to watch for)
Architecture is straight lines and flat planes: a wall is one color, a roof another, a window a small dark rectangle. On a numbered canvas those become clean, satisfying sections, and the finished picture has a crispness that florals and landscapes do not. The thing to watch for is density. A skyline of fifty buildings is fifty sets of windows. A single street with a café, a few façades and a wide sky is a very different evening. Look at the design and count the windows before you buy.
The best balance is a city scene with a large sky, a river or canal, or a tree-lined foreground: quick areas to rest in between the detail.
Paris
The most painted city in the shop. The Parisian Street is a classic café scene with awnings and a tree-lined pavement — detailed but warm and forgiving. Eiffel in Spring puts the tower behind blossoming trees with a big soft sky, which makes it one of the easier city designs. The Eiffel Tower street café and the Paris Eiffel street scene in the cities collection are the same idea in different light. Difficulty: medium. Time: 20 to 30 hours.
Amsterdam and the Netherlands
Canal houses are a gift to paint by numbers: tall, narrow, each a different color, with water in front to reflect them. The View of Amsterdam's Canals and the Amsterdam Canal both give you a row of façades above calm water. For something older, Vermeer's The Little Street is a 1658 view of two Delft houses — brick, shutters, a woman in a doorway — and one of the loveliest designs in the shop. Van Gogh's church at Nuenen is a village scene in his early, earthy palette. Difficulty: medium. Time: 20 to 30 hours.
Italy
Italy comes as mini sets as much as canvases: the mini paintings collection has Italy Lover, Italian Dolce Vita and Italian-inspired sets of six small canvases — lemons, Vespas, doorways, coastlines — which hang beautifully as a group in a kitchen. For a single canvas, the Car in a Floral Village is a sunlit lane with a vintage car and flowers over every wall. Difficulty: easy to medium. Time: 10 to 25 hours.
Further afield
The Taj Mahal Bride sets the white dome behind a figure in red — a dramatic, high-contrast design that paints faster than it looks. And for American travel, the new arrivals include national park scenes: a redwood forest path, Joshua Tree at sunset, a glacier lake, Zion's red cliffs and the Acadia lighthouse. These are landscapes rather than cities, with big skies and easy sections, and they suit a wall of places you have been.
Your own trip as a kit
The place that matters most to you is probably not in any collection. A custom kit turns a holiday photograph into a numbered canvas, and buildings and views convert especially well because they are made of distinct areas. Choose a photo taken in good daylight with the sun behind you, without crowds or parked cars in front, and with a clear foreground to give the picture depth. A 24-color kit suits most street scenes; choose 36 colors for a sunset or a view with a lot of sky. Our photo guide has the full checklist.
Painting buildings, windows and streets
- Sky and water first. They are the biggest areas and the quickest progress, and the buildings sit on top of them.
- Walls before windows. Paint each façade's main color, let it dry, then do the windows and doors as small dark sections on top. Their edges are tidied by the wall color, not the other way round.
- Straight edges want a flat brush on the big walls and a fine round on the trim. Pull the brush along the edge, toward you. See our brush guide.
- Windows are the fiddly part. Do them in a fresh session, not at the end of a long one.
- Do not blend. Unlike florals and Monets, cities want crisp edges everywhere. Save soft techniques for the sky.
- A slim black or dark wood frame suits architecture. Our framing guide shows how.
Frequently asked questions
Are city paint by numbers kits hard?
Medium, mostly. Buildings are clean sections; the work is in the windows. Designs with a big sky or a canal in front are the easiest, dense skylines the hardest.
Which city design is best for a beginner?
Eiffel in Spring or an Amsterdam canal view: large sky or water, a few façades, clear sections.
Can I turn my holiday photo into a paint by numbers?
Yes, with a custom kit. Buildings and views convert well: choose a sharp daylight photo with the sun behind you and no crowds in front.
How long does a cityscape take?
Twenty to thirty-five hours for a detailed street scene, less for designs with a big sky. Our time guide explains how to estimate a kit.
Which brush for windows and edges?
A fine round, loaded only at the tip, pulled along the edge toward you with your wrist resting on the table.
Do travel scenes come as mini sets?
Yes. The Italian sets of six small canvases are the most popular, and they hang as a group.
Paint the place you keep going back to
Browse the cities and architecture collection, the Italian sets in mini paintings, or send us a photo for a custom kit. Sky first, walls second, windows on a fresh evening — and then hang it where you will see it every day.
