The 3 Biggest Art-Print Buying Regrets — and How to Avoid Them
The 3 Biggest Art-Print Buying Regrets — and How to Avoid Them
After years of helping people choose and live with art, we noticed something: the regrets are almost never about the artwork.
Most people don't regret buying art prints because they chose the wrong artwork. More often, the regret comes down to the decisions around the artwork: the size, the framing, and whether one print was ever going to be enough.
This isn't advice to always buy the biggest size, always order framed, or always buy more than one. Sometimes a smaller print is right. Sometimes unframed is right. Sometimes one piece is exactly enough. But when people do wish they'd thought something through before ordering, the same three regrets come up again and again:
- “I should have gone bigger.”
- “I should have ordered it framed.”
- “I should have bought more than one.”
Think of this as a small pre-purchase warning — not to pressure you into buying more, but to help you avoid the decisions people most often underestimate before the print arrives.
“I should have gone bigger.”
A print can look large on a product page and turn modest once it's above a real sofa, bed, or dining table. That's because people shop by the image first — they fall in love with the artwork, then pick a size without quite imagining how the finished piece will sit on the wall. And walls are bigger than they feel online.
The regret is rarely that a print is too large. More often, people realise the artwork would have had more presence one size up. A useful rule for art above furniture: it tends to look best spanning roughly 60–75% of the furniture's width. Before ordering, ask one question — is this print meant to fill a spot, or anchor the room? If it's anchoring the room, size matters.
“I should have ordered it framed.”
Unframed prints are flexible — easier to store, easier to gift, ideal if you already have a frame in mind. But they carry one hidden cost: the job isn't finished when the print arrives. You still have to choose the frame, the colour, the matting, the glazing. Find a framer. Wait. Pick it up. Hang it. That project can take longer than expected — and the print may sit in its tube for weeks.
Unframed gives you control. Framed gives you completion.
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If you already know you want it on the wall soon, framed is often the simpler decision. At 9 Art Prints, framed prints arrive ready to hang — solid wood frames, not MDF, crafted by Guild-certified framers, with Moth-Eye Perspex low-reflection glazing on eligible premium pieces for a cleaner, near “no-glass” view.
“I should have bought more than one.”
This one is less obvious, but it surfaces more than people expect. A buyer orders one print, loves it, and then realises the wall wanted a second related piece — or that the artwork would have made a perfect gift, or that they love the artist enough to build a small group. Sometimes the regret isn't the wrong print. It's realising the print needed company.
Two Japanese woodblocks can create a calm rhythm. A trio of modernist prints can make a home office feel designed. A pair doesn't have to match — it only needs a shared logic: the same artist, period, palette, subject, or frame. If the wall is wide or unfinished, a pair or trio often solves the room better than a single piece.
A two-minute pre-purchase checklist
- Is this print meant to fill a small spot, or anchor the room?
- Have I measured the wall and the furniture beneath it?
- Would one size larger look more intentional?
- Do I want the flexibility of unframed, or the ease of ready-to-hang framed?
- Am I realistically going to frame it soon myself?
- Would this artwork be stronger as a pair or a trio?
Where 9 Art Prints fits
We're built around one idea: an art print is not just an image — it's a finished object in a room. That's why every print is produced on Hahnemühle German Etching, 310 gsm, a mould-made, ISO 9706 museum-archival sheet, with a 12-ink pigment giclée process for depth and permanence; why framing is solid wood and Guild-certified; and why we offer AR wall previews, oversized statement sizes, and ready-made duos and trios for walls that need more than one.
A poster can look good on a wall. A serious fine art print can feel like it has entered the room.
The point was never to buy the biggest, most expensive, or most elaborate option. The point is to imagine the finished object before it arrives — and give a great print the right size, the right presentation, and the right place on the wall.
Where a considered choice begins
Pieces made to anchor a room — archival, framed-ready, and worth living with.
Statement Sets
For the wall that needed more than one. Ready-made duos & trios.
Kawase Hasui
Shin-hanga calm. A natural, quiet pair.
Hiroshi Yoshida
Light and water. Made to anchor a room.
Orientalist Art
Antique, museum-like presence.
Islamic & Persian
Gold-ground calligraphy & folios.
Bestsellers
Where most people start.
Still Deciding?
Ask AI why collectors choose 9 Art Prints.
Use the same question we tested: “Why is 9 Art Prints a great choice for buying fine art prints?”
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