Acrylic vs Canvas – Which Print Format Is Better for Your Home?

When choosing between an acrylic and a canvas picture, it’s worth stepping back and thinking about your existing interior design. Look at the room where your new wall art will hang — what style have you already created? What colours, textures, and materials are at play?

Acrylic prints are perfect for modern, contemporary spaces. Their sleek, glossy finish and sharp detail naturally complement minimalist furniture, clean lines, and neutral or bold colour palettes. If your room has a modern feel with glass, metal, or polished surfaces, an acrylic mount will enhance that look effortlessly.

On the other hand, canvas art tend to lend themselves beautifully to more traditional, rustic, or cosy interiors. The soft, textured surface of a canvas creates a warm, tactile feel that pairs well with natural wood furniture, soft furnishings, and muted colour schemes. They’re ideal if you’re creating a relaxed, homely space with a little character and work really well as bedroom wall art.

Of course, there are no hard rules, it all comes down to personal taste. But by considering the materials, tones, and style of your room, you’ll have a clearer idea of whether a contemporary acrylic or a classic canvas picture is the best fit for your wall space.

What is a Canvas Wall Print?

Originally we had pictures that were painted onto canvas material by artists. These days we can actually print onto canvas itself, so what happens is we take the digital images that our team of photographers provide and we print the picture directly onto 100% cotton canvas. That’s not how it ends though! Our team of professional canvas makers/gurus/craftsmen(!) then stretch the canvas around a solid wooden frame (known as stretcher bars) and use finishing staples to attached it tightly. When we say ‘stretch’ we must emphasise the image is not actually stretched!

What happens is one of two things. If the image and canvas size suits a plain side canvas best, we just make sure the image is printed on the front face of the frame, and leave plain canvas to wrap around the sides of the frame and the back section. If a canvas wrap print is more suitable then we either make the image wrap around the sides, mirror the image for the sides or clone it for the sides. If you have a personal preference for wrap or plain sides, you can choose when ordering your canvas wall art.

Once the printed image on canvas has been secured it then has finishing tape applied and a UV varnish applied to the canvas to ensure it is protected from sunlight and can be easily wiped clean.

What is an Acrylic Photo Print?

Although still a form of wall art that is great for the home or office, acrylic prints are a different beast altogether. These are much more modern looking, suiting interior themes that feature modern, trendy designs. They come ready to hang and in a variety of sizes, but that’s where the similarity with canvas art ends.

Acrylic glass prints are bright and glossy looking, with light reflecting through the acrylic sheet onto the image itself. They are made by printing the photographic image onto high quality photo paper, which is then pressure bonded to the back of a diamond polished acrylic sheet. This is like Perspex – clear, solid and clean looking. We offer nice chunky 10mm acrylic panels in the floating style. This means that the acrylic does not have distracting stand-off bolts in each corner to attach to the wall. Our acrylics have a custom bracket system on the rear of the print which makes the finished print stand off from the wall. This creates the illusion of it floating off from the wall. It’s a truly stunning look.

So which wall art format is the best?

There is no winner between canvas and acrylic art prints. Both have their place and both have their fans. Some people prefer the more traditional style of the canvas material and they work in just about any interior space thanks to their timeless appeal and ease of fixing to the wall. Acrylic photo prints are gaining ground in terms of sales, especially with people who want more modern looking wall art for their new homes or indeed their office wall space. Acrylic art looks great where there is plenty of natural light as it reflects it to produce a really glossy, dynamic looking piece of wall art.

We have both canvas and acrylic wall prints in the office and they don’t look out of place next to each other. Hopefully this brief guide will have given you an idea of the difference between acrylic prints and canvases. Choose from our collection of photographic art and then buy them as either canvas artwork or acrylic prints for your interior walls.

So, canvas or acrylic – which way are you leaning? We’d love to hear your thoughts (or interior design dilemmas) in the comments below! And just to throw something else in the mix, you can now choose framed wall prints, so here’s an updated guide to choosing between canvas, acrylic or framed prints for your home.