Choosing Your Lettering and Canvas Colours in the Canvas Builder

Step three of the Canvas Builder is all about colour. You make two choices: the colour of the lettering and the colour of the canvas. Two choices sounds simple, and it is, but a few ideas make the result much better.

Start with the canvas

The canvas colour is the backdrop, and it sets the mood. Light canvases feel open and calm. Dark canvases feel dramatic and cosy. Colour in between, such as soft sage or blush, feels gentle and personal. Choose the one that suits the wall it will hang on, then choose the lettering against it.

Contrast keeps words readable

The most common mistake is choosing two colours that are too close. Words in a mid-tone on a mid-tone canvas fade out, especially from across a room. As a quick test, look at the preview and squint. If the letters are still easy to find, the contrast is good. The Builder warns you when the two colours are the same, but near-matches deserve a second look too.

There is one exception. A tonal combination, such as white lettering on a white canvas, can look beautiful when the lettering is raised and the surface is textured, because the shadows do the work colour would do.

Echo your room, don’t copy it

Pick one colour in the room, such as a cushion, a rug or a curtain, and use it as your lettering colour. That ties the canvas in without matching everything. Our guide to matching canvas colours to your room goes into this in more detail.

Gold, silver and black

Metallic and dark shades have a way of looking expensive without trying. Black on white is timeless. A gold or silver lettering colour on black or deep blue is dramatic. Our gallery’s gold-flecked Family Means Everything is a good example of the effect.

Screens lie a little

The colours you see on your device are a guide. Different screens show colour differently, and a painted finish has its own character. If you have a specific shade in mind, a paint reference, tell us in the notes at the end, and we can match it.

Try a few combinations in the Builder, and keep the one you keep coming back to.