What a brick mosaic really costs
The honest answer is a range, and the range is wide. Across the 34 mosaics in our gallery the plates work out at about € 0.048 per stud at second-hand marketplace prices. Multiply that by the studs in your mosaic and you have the ballpark.
| Size | On the wall | Studs | Plates cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32 × 32 | 26 × 26 cm | 1 024 | ≈ €50 |
| 48 × 48 | 38 × 38 cm | 2 304 | ≈ €111 |
| 64 × 64 | 51 × 51 cm | 4 096 | ≈ €198 |
| 96 × 96 | 77 × 77 cm | 9 216 | ≈ €446 |
| 128 × 128 | 102 × 102 cm | 16 384 | ≈ €792 |
Square mosaics, at second-hand prices. A portrait is taller than it is wide, so it lands between two rows.
What actually moves the number
Size, more than anything. Cost grows with area, not with width: going from 48 to 96 studs is four times the mosaic, not twice. This is why the cheapest way into the hobby is a small one — and why a first mosaic at 32 studs costs about as much as a takeaway.
New versus used. Second-hand plates cost roughly half of new ones. For a mosaic nobody will inspect from 20 cm away, used is the obvious choice, and it is what the numbers above assume.
What your photo looks like. A picture with large flat areas merges into big plates; a face needs 1×1s everywhere. Two mosaics of identical size can differ by several times in piece count — see the piece-count guide for the measured spread.
What it is not
None of this money comes to us. We sell the plan — the instructions and the parts list — and you buy the bricks wherever they are cheapest, or take them from what you already own. A boxed mosaic set from LEGO® runs about €80–€250 at a fixed size and a fixed picture; here the picture is yours and you can spread the spending over months, colour by colour.