Custom House Portraits from Photos, Hand Painted for Homeowners and Realtors

A house portrait is a painting of a real building that means something to someone. We paint it by hand from your photo, in acrylic or oil on canvas, in our studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen. Nothing is printed. There is no minimum order, so you can send one photo of one house. Painting takes 7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces. Realtors can order a portrait at every closing at a trade rate that starts at one piece.

The houses people ask us to paint

Most house portraits are gifts about a building that is changing hands or has already gone: the family home, a childhood home from a faded print, a first home given at the closing, a cabin or farm the family has kept for years, or a church or school painted when someone retires. Send the photo and tell us the story in one line.

Which photo to send, and what we can fix

You do not need a professional photo. You do need enough detail for our painters to read the roof, the windows and the door.

• One straight-on shot of the front, from far enough back that the whole building fits, camera at eye level rather than pointed up.
• Daylight, early or late. Low warm sun shows the depth of a porch and the texture of brick or stone. Flat midday light hides it.
• Close-ups of anything blocked. If a tree covers the door, send the door on its own.

We can combine several photos into one composition, for example the front of the house from one picture and the garden in bloom from another. We can also leave things out. Cars, trash bins, power lines, satellite dishes, road signs, scaffolding and the neighbor’s fence can all go. If a tree has grown over the porch we can trim it back. Send that list with the photos.

Make it the house they remember

A photo shows one day. Memory does not. This is the part buyers forget to ask about, and the part that makes people cry when they open the box.

Write these notes in plain words. “Green shutters, not the white ones, and please put the dog on the step” is a fine brief.

Realistic or loose, and acrylic or oil

Style is your choice. A realistic portrait keeps every brick and window pane in place, which suits a stone church or strong architecture. A loose impressionist portrait reads the building in broad strokes of light and color, which suits a cottage in a garden. Both cost the same.

The easiest way to brief us is to point at a painting you already like. Open our landscape and countryside collection or our Mediterranean and coastal collection, pick a piece and say “this handling, my house”. Our painters match the stroke, the palette and the level of texture.

We paint in acrylic unless you ask for oil. Acrylic holds a crisp edge on window frames, roof lines and brickwork, and it dries fast, so it suits a gift with a date on it. Oil is available on request and blends softly, which is lovely for misty light, but oil dries slowly between layers, so oil pieces take longer. Heavy texture takes longer for the same reason. One painter carries your canvas from start to finish, and you can read how we paint if you want the order of the work.

Size, finish and where it hangs

Over a mantel, most people choose a wide canvas that sits a little narrower than the shelf. In an entryway or up a stairwell a tall canvas works better, because the portrait is the first thing a guest sees. Measure your wall and send us the number. Rolled canvas in a tube is the cheapest way to ship a batch, especially over about 20 pieces.

For realtors, brokers and builders

A house portrait is a closing gift that does not end up in a drawer. It hangs in the home you sold, with your client’s own house on it.

• No minimum order. Trade pricing starts at one piece, so you can order one closing at a time.
• The rate improves at 6 pieces and again at 21, and mixed designs count together, so six different houses are priced as one order.
• For a first order or a large project we paint a sample, credited back on any order of 10 pieces or more.
• Hand-executed paintings fall under HTS 9701, free base rate of duty into the United States. Other China-origin measures can apply, so confirm with your customs broker.

Send the photo your client is happy for you to use, the closing date and the size. If you order in batches through the year, read our trade terms and tell us your schedule so we can plan studio time.

Retirement gifts: churches, schools and public buildings

The other big use is a group gift. A congregation orders the church for a pastor who is retiring. Parents and staff order the school for a principal. A station orders the firehouse, a practice orders the clinic.

Public buildings photograph badly, because you cannot stand far enough back. Send several angles and we will build one clean composition. Religious symbols, crests, stonework and stained glass are painted as they actually are, so send close-ups of anything with meaning. If you want a name, a date or an address on the canvas, tell us the exact wording and we will confirm what is possible before we quote. If the gift comes from a school or an alumni group, our page on art for schools and universities covers how those orders run.

How ordering works

1. Send the photos through the quote form, with size, finish and notes on what to remove or add. Individuals and realtors use the same form.
2. WhatsApp replies are usually immediate; email replies usually arrive within 12 hours, Monday to Sunday, with a quote and an honest read on whether your photos carry enough detail.
3. You confirm and pay a deposit. Usually 50 percent deposit and the balance before release. Wire, PayPal or card.
4. We paint. 7 to 10 business days for 1 to 5 pieces, with progress photos so you can steer the roof color early.
5. You approve. Nothing ships until you say yes. If a detail is wrong through our fault, we repaint at our cost.
6. We pack and release. Delivery is EXW our Shenzhen studio, freight quoted at cost. Express by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days.

Did not find what you like? Send us what you like and we paint it

You will never find your own house in a catalog. Send the photo and we paint it. The catalog is still a style menu. Browse landscape and countryside for farmhouses, fields and lanes, and Mediterranean and coastal for terracotta roofs and whitewashed walls. If your subject is a view rather than a building, see custom landscape paintings. For any other picture you want turned into paint, start at photo to painting. When the memory is a street, a harbor or a whole town instead of one building, look at paintings of places that matter.