The newest addition to our new apartment in Nashville is this tropical flower canvas print. I was contacted by the folks at Easy Canvas Prints, a photos to canvas company, who asked me to review their product in exchange for a canvas print of my own.
I chose a photograph I took at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden on a recent trip to Hilo, Hawaii for my best friend's wedding. The botanical garden was truly a wonderland, filled with waterfalls, ocean views, an orchid garden, tropical birds, and so many varieties of plants that I'd never seen before. I was snapping photos non-stop during my visit (you can see some of my other botanical photos in my flickr photostream) and I was looking for a way to display some of my favorites once returning from our trip. This canvas print was just what I needed.
Ordering a canvas from EasyCanvasPrints.com really is, as the name suggests, easy. The website is simple to use, and it guides you through the step-by-step process of designing your own canvas. And this handy guide shows all of the options and pricing so you can pick out exactly what you want.
You can choose any sized canvas (mine is 8" x 10"), and you can either upload your own photograph like I did or you can choose an image from their gallery. You also have the choice of upgrading to a thicker canvas or opting for photo retouching. For the edges of the canvas, you can have your image wrap onto the edges or you can select a solid color for the border.
I opted for a bright orange border for the edges of my canvas. My print is displayed against lime green walls in my apartment, and I wanted it to tie into colors of the room but still pop against the wall color. I debated the borders of my canvas for a while before placing my order. I really like the look of the canvases where the images continues onto the edges, and I think I would probably choose that option next time, but for this particular print the bright orange border worked out best.
The option of wrapping the image around to the edges of the canvas would be best for a picture with a background that's not crucial to the composition. If you choose this option, the photo will appear slightly larger on the front surface of the canvas so there's enough leftover to wrap. I didn't think the composition of the tropical flower photo was quite as strong once the whole image wasn't visible on the main surface of the canvas. The orange border worked out better in my case because I could better control the composition of my print, while adding an extra pop of color.
I do wish there was a better way to select the color for the edges though. It would be a nice touch if the website allowed the option to sample a color directly from your photograph, like you can with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, rather than choosing a color and hoping it matches.
The option of wrapping the image around to the edges of the canvas would be best for a picture with a background that's not crucial to the composition. If you choose this option, the photo will appear slightly larger on the front surface of the canvas so there's enough leftover to wrap. I didn't think the composition of the tropical flower photo was quite as strong once the whole image wasn't visible on the main surface of the canvas. The orange border worked out better in my case because I could better control the composition of my print, while adding an extra pop of color.
I do wish there was a better way to select the color for the edges though. It would be a nice touch if the website allowed the option to sample a color directly from your photograph, like you can with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, rather than choosing a color and hoping it matches.
My husband and I have a fairly extensive art collection (including artwork made by friends, family, and ourselves, as well as original work by professional artists, and a collection of vintage photographs), and we're pretty particular about what we put on our walls. If we don't love it, there's just not space for it. That said, we were happy to include this canvas print into our home decor.
And another perk of this canvas is how easy it is to hang on the wall. One nail will do the trick. My husband and I have lived in four apartments since college, and we've hung our artwork on the walls of each one. This is by far one of the easiest pieces to hang.
Overall, the vibrant colors and high-quality printing makes it evident that this is a high quality product. I love having a reminder of our trip to Hawaii on display for me to see each day. The look of our particular print is contemporary and casual, which is exactly what we wanted for our vacation photo. But I think these prints could be a great choice for displaying wedding photos too, especially a larger canvas print placed in an elegant frame. If only I'd known about these two years ago!