I have been Diamond Painting for a few years now and there are some things I wish I knew before I started. Here I am sharing some of the things I wish I had known before I got started, so that if you are new you can skip the struggles I had. What do you wish you knew before you started? Share in the comments below.

1. Size matters

The first mistake I made was buying too small paintings. They did not look very good when they were finished and I wish I had known that bigger is better when I started. Then I wouldn’t have wasted both time and money on them.

knew before
One of my earlier purchases; a painting from the movie Peter Pan where you can barely see what it is.

2. Easier with a light board

Exactly how much a light board helps is definitely something I wish I knew before. You do not have to strain your eyes to try to figure out what the symbols are. Even a canvas with hard to see symbols can be done without major problems. Which makes you manage to finish that painting you started on, but put aside because you did not see anything.

3. More end pieces for the pen

That there were several different end pieces to the pink pen was not something I understood immediately. Had I known that there were end pieces to lay several diamonds at once, I would probably have finished several paintings more. The flat end that you can use to adjust diamonds would also have been very helpful in the beginning.

different end pieces
Three different end pieces for 3, 6 & 9 drills.

4. Big tray makes it easier

For a long time I used the small green and white trays that you often get with a Diamond Painting kit. For large areas of the same color, I did nothing but refill them. If I knew beforehand that there were bigger ones that made me not have to refill them all the time, it would have made my life so much easier.

knew before
A large tray that holds many diamonds and you do not have to refill it all the time.

5. Distance to the painting

Even a painting in a good size can look completely wrong and pixelated when you sit and work. There have been times when I put away a painting because I do not think it looks good. When I then found the painting later and looked at a distance, I see nothing wrong with it, and do not understand why I did not finish it. So it is good to take a step away from the painting and look at it from a little distance. Then it usually looks better. I still have to remind myself of this when I sit and work on a painting.