Ontario is really two markets. Half our orders here go onto a concrete condo wall in the GTA or downtown Ottawa; a lot of the rest go to a cottage that sits empty and unheated from October to May. Both change what you should order. This page is about the wall, not just the photo.
The wall decides more than the photo does. A 24-inch panel on a hanging strip is right for most GTA condos; a century home in Hamilton or Kingston needs a toggle because plaster will not hold a drywall anchor; a double-height great room in Milton swallows anything under 48 inches.
Find the row that matches where the print is going. If you are between two rows, go with the smaller size in a condo and the larger one anywhere with a ceiling above nine feet.
| Where it’s going | The wall | Size | Mount | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Condo or apartment, GTA or downtown Ottawa | Poured concrete or a short feature wall, often 8 to 9 ft ceilings | 24–36 in wide | Hanging strip | Concrete needs a masonry bit and sleeve anchors. A strip keeps the panel close to the wall so it does not crowd a narrow room. |
| Century home — Toronto, Hamilton, London, Kingston | Plaster over lath, sometimes crumbling, studs rarely at 16 in | 30–48 in wide | Float mount | Find a stud or use a toggle rated well above the panel weight. Plaster will not hold a plain drywall anchor. |
| Cottage — Muskoka, Kawarthas, Prince Edward County | Pine or cedar board, sometimes exposed framing | 36–60 in wide | Float mount | Wood takes a screw easily. This is the setting where metal most clearly beats canvas, for reasons in the cottage section below. |
| Suburban new build — Milton, Barrhaven, Ancaster, Barrie | Drywall, open plan, frequently a double-height great room | 48–72 in wide | Float mount | The commonest mistake here is going too small. A print that looked big in the room on screen disappears on a two-storey wall. |
| Office, clinic or restaurant | Drywall or demountable partition, high traffic | 30–60 in wide | Hanging strip or float mount | No glass to break and a surface that wipes clean, which is why metal turns up in waiting rooms and dining rooms more than anything else we make. |
| Student rental or first apartment | Drywall, with a lease that says no holes | 8–16 in | Desk easel | A small panel on an easel on a shelf solves the no-drilling problem entirely, and moves with you in May. |
Hanging height is the same everywhere: centre the print 57 to 60 inches from the floor, and leave 8 to 10 inches between the top of a sofa and the bottom of the panel. Oversized pieces are covered on the large metal prints page.
Yes, but not with the anchors in the box. Poured concrete needs a masonry bit and sleeve or wedge anchors rated above the panel weight. A hanging strip works better than a float mount here, because it keeps the panel tight to the wall in a room that is usually narrow to begin with.
Not every condo wall is concrete. Interior partitions are usually steel-stud drywall, which takes an ordinary toggle. The exterior and demising walls — the ones with the view, which is where the print usually goes — are the poured ones. Tap it: a dead, solid sound with no give means masonry.
Weight is rarely the problem. A 24 × 36 panel is around four pounds, which is lighter than the same picture framed behind glass. What stops people is the anchor, and a $6 packet of sleeve anchors solves it.
Check your building's rules on service elevator booking and whether couriers can go past the concierge. Both catch people out on larger panels.
Rental and some corporate leases forbid holes. A smaller panel on a desk easel, on a shelf or console, gets you the same surface and no damage deposit argument.
Delivering to a building with a concierge? Add the suite number and any delivery instructions at checkout and we will pass them to the courier.
Yes, and this is the strongest practical argument for metal in Ontario. A closed-up cottage swings from humid in August to freezing and bone-dry in January. Stretched canvas slackens and ripples through that cycle and paper absorbs moisture. An aluminium panel has no fabric to tension and nothing to absorb.
This is worth being specific about, because it is the single most common reason an Ontario customer switches to metal after years of canvas. A closed cottage in Muskoka or the Kawarthas goes through a brutal annual cycle. August is humid enough that doors stick. By January the place is well below freezing and the air holds almost no moisture at all. Then it does it again, every year.
Stretched canvas is fabric held under tension on a wooden frame, and both halves of that respond to moisture. Through enough cycles it slackens, and you get a visible ripple across the face or a sag at the corners. Paper prints behind glass have a different failure: moisture gets trapped and you get foxing spots and a wavy mount.
An aluminium panel has no fabric and no stretcher, and the image is sealed inside a coating rather than sitting on an absorbent surface. Freeze it, steam it, leave it for seven months — it comes back the same.
A print facing a west-facing lake window takes direct low sun for hours. Choose semi-gloss. The glare off a gloss panel at that angle is genuinely unpleasant to sit opposite.
High humidity and big temperature swings in one room. This is the best possible argument for metal and the worst for anything stretched or papered.
Unheated and often damp. Metal is the only thing we make that genuinely belongs out there.
If the place is only used on weekends, ship to your home address and bring it up. A large panel sitting on a porch for five days is an avoidable risk.
Autumn is the dominant season by a long way, and it is also the one people most often get wrong on finish. Spring brings tulips and blossom, summer brings water, and winter brings snow and ice — which is quietly one of the best subjects for a metal panel.
Ottawa tulips, orchard blossom in Niagara and Prince Edward County, high water on the Grand and the Thames
Printing it: Blossom and tulips are mostly pale pinks and mid-tones. Semi-gloss keeps them from washing out under bright spring light.
Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe shorelines, the Toronto Islands, Thousand Islands, cottage docks and long blue evenings
Printing it: Water and sky at midday is a high-contrast scene. Gloss holds the blues; a panoramic crop suits a dock or shoreline better than a standard rectangle.
Algonquin, Muskoka, the Dundas Valley, Gatineau Hills and every tree-lined street in London
Printing it: This is the Ontario subject, and the one people get wrong. Fall colour is dense mid-tone detail, not saturated blocks. Semi-gloss keeps the individual leaves readable; gloss can turn a hillside into one orange mass.
The Rideau Canal, ice on Kempenfelt Bay, snow on limestone in Kingston, Niagara in freeze
Printing it: Snow scenes are mostly bright values, which is where a metal panel genuinely shines, because the white carries the brightness of the aluminium itself.
More on choosing a finish for your own photo, and on how much of the frame survives each panel shape, is on the custom metal prints page.
The GTA is usually 1–2 business days in transit after production, the Golden Horseshoe and Niagara 1–3, Southwestern and Eastern Ontario 2–3, and cottage country 2–4. Northern Ontario runs longer. Shipping is free wherever you are in the province.
Grouped by region, because a print going to a Liberty Village condo and one going to a farmhouse outside Strathroy are not the same job.
Our busiest region by a wide margin, and the one with the most condo walls.
Condo towers, converted lofts and family homes, all asking for the same clean, considered look.
Lakeside neighbourhoods on one side, a dense corporate core along Hurontario on the other.
Escarpment views, restored industrial space and a lot of waterfalls.
Restored industrial lofts, Locke Street character homes and escarpment-view properties.
University towns, farmland and the only place in the province where the view across the water is another country.
The Forest City. Tree-lined streets make this the most autumn-driven market we ship to.
A tech sector and two universities, which means modern offices, co-working space and new-build condos.
The Detroit skyline glittering across the water is one of Ontario’s most distinctive views, and it prints beautifully.
Where most of the seasonal properties are, and where the humidity argument below matters most.
The gateway to cottage country, sitting right on Lake Simcoe, and that waterfront drives what people hang.
Heritage limestone, the Rideau and the St. Lawrence.
Heritage architecture alongside a growing tech and government sector, and a downtown condo market much like Toronto’s.
Limestone architecture where Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence and the Thousand Islands meet.
Not listed? We cover the whole province, including Peterborough, Belleville, Sarnia, Brantford, Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and everywhere between. Northern Ontario takes longer in transit than the figures above, and a little longer again in winter. Shipping is free wherever you are.
These are the Ontario-specific ones. Price, durability, cleaning and returns are on the main page and in the full FAQ.
Email info@metalprintscanada.com or call +1-825-977-3451.
The GTA is usually 1–2 business days in transit after production, the Golden Horseshoe and Niagara 1–3, Southwestern and Eastern Ontario 2–3, and cottage country 2–4. Northern Ontario runs longer. Shipping is free wherever you are in the province.
Yes, but not with the anchors in the box. Poured concrete needs a masonry bit and sleeve or wedge anchors rated above the panel weight. A hanging strip works better than a float mount here, because it keeps the panel tight to the wall in a room that is usually narrow to begin with.
Many do. Buildings in Toronto, Mississauga and downtown Ottawa often require a booked service elevator for anything oversized, and some will not let a courier past the concierge. Check with your property manager before ordering a large panel, and give us a delivery note if the concierge needs to sign.
Yes, and this is the strongest practical argument for metal in Ontario. A closed-up cottage swings from humid in August to freezing and bone-dry in January. Stretched canvas slackens and ripples through that cycle and paper absorbs moisture. An aluminium panel has no fabric to tension and nothing to absorb.
It damages canvas and paper, not metal. A room that opens onto a lake in July sits at high humidity for weeks, which is enough to slacken a stretched canvas and to foxing-spot a paper print behind glass. The image on a metal print is sealed inside a coating, so humidity cannot reach it.
In most GTA condos, 24 to 36 inches wide is the right range. Measure the sofa and aim for about two-thirds of its width, then check that the print will not sit behind a floor lamp or a swinging door. Going bigger in a small room makes it feel smaller, not grander.
Choose semi-gloss. Fall colour looks like saturated blocks of orange on a screen, but it is actually dense mid-tone detail with thousands of individual leaves. Semi-gloss keeps that detail readable, while high-gloss tends to merge a hillside into a single mass of colour.
Yes, and mist and moving water are among the better subjects for metal. Smooth water is a long, delicate gradient, and a dye-sublimated panel holds those gradations without banding. Upload the original full-resolution file rather than an export sized for social media.
Yes, usually 2–4 business days in transit. If a print is going to a cottage that is only occupied on weekends, send it to your home address instead and take it up yourself. A large panel left on a dock or a porch for five days is a risk worth avoiding.
Yes, including Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Timmins and the smaller communities around them. Allow longer in transit than the southern figures above, and a little longer again in winter. Shipping is still free.
Yes, and for condos and offices it is usually the better option, because someone is there to receive it. Add the suite or unit number and any concierge instructions at checkout. If a signature is required, tell us and we will flag it with the courier.
Upload your photo, choose the size and finish, and we’ll print it on ChromaLuxe aluminium and ship it free anywhere in the province.
Start your Ontario print From $50 CAD. Free shipping province-wide.We ship free to every province and territory. See metal prints by province for your area, or Alberta if you are out west.