Paint by Numbers Kmart vs The Warehouse: New Zealand Comparison

A dedicated kit states exactly what you get before you buy. A retail kit often does not.

Kmart and The Warehouse both sell paint by numbers in New Zealand for around twelve dollars. On price alone that makes a dedicated kit look like an unnecessary upgrade. The reality is more specific than that. This guide checks exactly what is in each retail kit, whether it is reliably in stock, and where the twelve dollar price actually stops being good value.

Kmart New Zealand

Kmart's paint by numbers range sits in the Art and Craft section of their website, usually under a handful of individual SKUs rather than a dedicated collection. One current listing, a Positano coastal scene, is priced at $12 and includes a 50cm by 40cm printed canvas, 21 paint pots, 3 paint brushes, and a reference template. For a beginner kit at that price, 21 colours is a genuinely reasonable starting point, more than enough to render a simple landscape with some depth.

The catch is the range itself. Kmart carries only a small number of designs at any given time, and the selection rotates. There is no way to choose your canvas size, no option to add more colours for finer detail, and no custom photo kit. You are also at the mercy of stock. Individual designs go in and out of availability both online and in store, so a design you want today may simply not be there next week.

The Warehouse

Stock on individual retail designs can be unreliable, which matters if you are buying for a specific date.

The Warehouse sells paint by numbers under its own Uniti and Kookie house brands, priced around $11 to $12, in line with Kmart. At the time of writing, several individual designs, including a lake scene and an owl design, were showing as online out of stock, with availability dependent on what happened to be left in a nearby store.

A more practical issue than stock is the product description itself. The Warehouse's listings describe contents simply as canvas board, brushes, and colour pots, without stating the canvas size or how many paint pots are included. You are buying without knowing exactly what you will receive until the box arrives, which makes it difficult to judge whether the kit is actually good value compared to anything else on the shelf.

Side by Side Comparison

The honest reading of this table is that Kmart and The Warehouse are not trying to be a dedicated paint by numbers store, and they are reasonably good at the thing they are actually doing, which is selling a cheap one off craft activity. Where they fall short is anything beyond that single use case. There is no upgrade path, no size options, and at The Warehouse specifically, not even basic information about what is in the box before you buy it.

When the Twelve Dollar Kit Is the Right Call

If you want to find out whether you or someone else will actually enjoy paint by numbers before spending more, a Kmart or Warehouse kit is a sensible way to test that for the price of a coffee. It is also a reasonable choice for a child's one off rainy day activity, or as a small stocking filler where the specific design matters less than just having something to do.

Where it stops making sense is the moment you have a specific design in mind that is not currently in stock, want a larger canvas, want more colours for a smoother finished result, or want to turn your own photo into a kit. None of that is available at either retailer, regardless of price.

What a Dedicated Kit Adds for the Difference in Price

A dedicated kit states exactly what is included before you buy, down to the canvas size and paint pot count.

A standard 40x50cm kit with 24 colours starts at $49 NZD, with 36 and 48 colour options if a design needs more gradient than 24 colours can show. Every size, colour count, and frame option is stated upfront on the product page, so there is no guessing what arrives in the box. A custom kit, starting from $57 NZD, takes a photo you upload and turns it into a canvas, which is not something either retailer offers at any price.

The price difference reflects choice rather than just a markup on the same product. You are paying for a guaranteed size and colour count, a design you actually picked rather than whatever happened to be in stock, and the option to go custom if a catalogue design is not what you are after.

Frequently Asked Questions

About the Author

William Murdock is the Founder of Paint On Numbers. He checks what competitors actually deliver before writing about them, so this comparison reflects real prices and real stock status rather than assumptions.