Questions, mostly answered.

We ship direct from Durham — no retail middleman, no advertising bills baked into the price. You pay for the bricks, the baseplate, the booklet and the postage, plus a small margin so we can keep going.

Small (48×48 studs, 2,304 bricks, ~38cm) is tabletop size, great as a 'just because' gift or for a shelf. Medium (64×64 studs, 4,096 bricks, ~51cm) is our most popular — a proper wall feature without dominating the room. Large (80×80 studs, 6,400 bricks, ~64cm) is a real statement piece. If you're unsure, Medium is rarely the wrong choice.

Close-up faces, well-lit, plain backgrounds. Pet portraits, baby photos, and head-and-shoulders shots all work brilliantly. Group photos and busy backgrounds are much harder — the lower the size, the more critical this is. If you're unsure, upload it on the create page: the live preview is honest. If it looks mushy there, it'll look mushy in real life.

Yes — that's the whole point of our create page. Upload a photo and you see the exact mosaic you'd receive, with your chosen size, palette and adjustments, in real time. No 'render' button, no waiting. What you see is what we ship.

Right now we offer three set sizes — Small (48×48), Medium (64×64) and Large (80×80), each in square, portrait or landscape. Bespoke wall sizes are coming back soon; if you need a specific size in the meantime, drop us a line and we'll do our best to help.

Not automatically just yet — for now every mosaic keeps your photo's own background, which usually looks great in brick form. You can still recolour any individual bricks by hand on the create page to tidy details. One-tap background removal is coming soon.

Budget around 20 minutes a plate — we timed our own studio build. Small (48×48, 9 plates) is about 3 hours. Medium (64×64, 16 plates) is around 5 hours, nice over a couple of sittings. Large (80×80, 25 plates) is a proper weekend project at 8 hours or so. The bricks arrive pre-sorted into colour-coded bags, so there's no hunting through a pile.

No. If you've ever built any plastic brick set, this is much easier — you're following a numbered grid sheet, not interpreting instructions. Children from age 6+ can help build the smaller sizes with light supervision. Not suitable for under-3s (choking hazard, same as any small brick).

Yes — standard 1×1 plates and a studded baseplate on the standard 8mm stud pitch, compatible with most major brick brands. You could mount your mosaic on a larger custom build if you wanted.

Email hello@mosaicify.co.uk with your order reference and the brick colour ID, and we'll post replacement bricks free of charge, usually within 5 working days. We send just the parts you need, not a whole new kit — better for the planet, and it means we can keep prices low. For after-build care (hanging, dusting, knocked-off tiles) see the dedicated care guide at /care.

We hand-pack within 5 working days, then post Royal Mail Tracked 48 (typically 2-3 working days). Most orders arrive 7-8 working days after they're placed. We'll email a tracking number when it ships. If you need it for a specific date, email us before ordering and we'll tell you honestly whether we can hit it.

Free UK shipping on all orders. We currently ship to UK addresses only — international shipping is planned but not yet live.

Yes — every kit ships with a free brick-built frame: side strips and corner pieces in matching brick to your mosaic, plus two hidden hangers on the back. Click together at the end of the build, hang on the wall. No extra cost, no separate purchase.

Email hello@mosaicify.co.uk with a photo. Missing or damaged bricks: we post replacements free of charge, usually within 5 working days. Wrong colour bag: we'll send the correct bag. We replace the parts that need replacing, not the whole kit.

Yes — within 14 days of delivery under the UK Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Kit must be unopened and resaleable. Bespoke / personalised items normally fall outside the standard right of return, but we'll always honour a return where the kit is unused. Email hello@mosaicify.co.uk to start a return.

Yes. Tick 'This is a gift' on the create page, enter the recipient's address at checkout, and we'll ship directly with no invoice or pricing inside the parcel. You can also add a gift message — beautifully printed as the opening page of their build booklet, so it's the first thing they see.

Aim to order at least 2 weeks before you need it. The create page shows an estimated delivery window. If you're cutting it close, email hello@mosaicify.co.uk before ordering and we'll tell you honestly whether we can hit your date — we'd rather say no upfront than miss a birthday.

No, they're high-quality LEGO-compatible bricks (ABS plastic, standard 8mm pitch). LEGO is a registered trademark of the LEGO Group and we have no affiliation with them.

Your photo runs through our pixelator: we crop to your chosen aspect, optionally adjust brightness/contrast/etc., downsample to your grid size, then map each cell to its nearest match in the brick palette using CIE Lab colour distance. The same algorithm runs in your browser (for the preview) and on our server (to generate your bag list), so the preview is faithful.

Up to 60 — that's our full brick palette, and far more than you'll find elsewhere (LEGO's own Mosaic Maker uses five). More colours means skin, eyes and hair come out true rather than muddy. Most photos naturally settle on fewer than 60: the picture only uses the colours it actually needs, and bigger canvases carry more. Prefer a bolder, poster-like look? Dial the palette down on the create page.

The official LEGO Mosaic Maker builds your photo from just five colours (white, light grey, dark grey, black and yellow) on a single 48×48 board, so it reads as a near black-and-white portrait. Mosaicify uses up to 60 brick colours across sizes from 48×48 to 80×80, so you get a full-colour likeness, with real skin tones, eye colour and hair, plus a live preview before you pay. We're not affiliated with the LEGO Group; ours are LEGO-compatible bricks.