It costs $2,900 -3,500 to professionally paint the interior of a 1,500 sq.ft. house. If you do the all the work yourself, you can save up to 50-60% off.
Aside from the money, you need to consider how much time this project will take to do solo, your painting skills, and the quality of work you want to have.
Across the US, the average cost to paint the interior of the house (2,500 sq.ft.) is $4,300 – $6,750 including all materials, paint, and professional labor.
Average Cost to Paint House Interior
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If your painting project is very simple and your home is located in the Southern states or the Midwest, its possible to spend as low as $3,900 – $5,250 on a 2,500 sq.ft. space.
What is included in a professional paint job:
– Set up and clean up
– 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint on the walls
– Painting the ceiling
– Painting windows, skylights and doors trims
– All supplies, primer and paint
– Moving furniture in and out (extra charge)
Painting a room or the entire house on your own can be a good way to cut remodeling costs, but only if you’re sure you can get the job done right the first time.
A contractor may be more expensive up front, but could save you money by avoiding the need for corrective painting.
Use our Interior Painting Calculator to get an accurate price estimate for your house.
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Cost of Painting A House Per Square Foot
Most homeowners spend $1.9 -$3.50 per square foot on a professional interior painting job. This estimate includes all materials and mid-level paint, such Behr.
However, if you want trim, doors, moldings, and ceilings done the average painting price per square foot will be$2.95 – 3.5 per square foot. This is equivalent to $4,720 – 5,600 for a 1,600 sq.ft. house interior.
Depending on your location and complexity of the job, your painting cost can be as high as $2.5 -$5 per square foot.
In areas with very low professional labor fees, you can spend as little as $1.75 – $2.50 per square foot.
Note that the above prices are for a Single Coat application. Two coats will typically cost 25-30% more.
If you have vaulted, tray or cathedral ceiling there will be about 10-25% up-charge, depending on the height, size and complexity of the ceiling construction.
The average cost to paint a ceiling in 10×12 room is $150-350.
Repairing and damages or holes in the ceiling can cost $200-400 or more, depending on the extend of the damage.
Overall, the more square footage you want to paint, the cheaper your price per square foot will be.
How Much Do Pros Charge For Interior Painting?
Labor cost for a professional painting job starts at $60 per hour and can go up to $90 per hour, depending on your location, as well as complexity and scope of work.
One of the factors that greatly impacts your total painting cost is professional labor charges. These can vary up or down by as much as 20% depending on where you are located.
California and the Northeast have high overall labor rates for contractors. Similarly, big expensive cities in these areas, such as San Francisco, LA, New York, Boston, Washington D.C. will have the highest labor rates in the country, because pros need to factor in the cost of living in order to make a profit in these cities.
Keep in mind that if you hire a General Contractor to supervise this painting remodel, you should add 12-20% of the total painting cost to cover his fees. For example, on a $3,500 interior painting cost, a general contractor will charge $420 – 700.
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Factors That Increase Painting Prices
While you can use an online painting calculator to get a general estimate how much it will cost to paint your home, don’t expect it to be 100% accurate.
This is because there are many factors that can increase the total cost of painting and the calculator simple cannot account for all of them. These include:
– Total square footage (coverage area) of the paint job. For example a room that has 4 windows will have smaller coverage area than a room with 1 window.
– Number of rooms that need to be painted
– Accessibility and location of the space. If supplies need to be hauled up to a second floor or an attic, expect extra charges
– Shape of the room/number of angles. A hexagon shaped room with be a lot more expensive to paint than a rectangle shape space
– Any baseboards and crown moldings that need to be painted
– Number of windows, as well as window shape
– Number of doors
– Ceiling height and shape. Tall ceilings, as well as irregular shapes cost 15-20% more to paint compared to a standard 8 ft ceiling
– Any skylights in the ceiling
– Condition of the walls and ceiling/any repairs that are needed
– Any special textures on the walls/ceiling
– Quality of the interior paint. Using designer brand paint can easily add $1,000 – 2,500 to the total cost
– Local labor rates
As you can see, there are a lot of variables that can change the actual cost of the paint job.
Only a pro can give you an accurate price after assessing your house in person. Its best to request 3-4 painting estimates from local contractors to compare their prices.
Painting Costs Based On Total Square Footage
Here are rough price estimates for interior painting costs based on $3 – 3.5 per square foot.
| Square Footage | Total Cost |
|---|---|
| 500 | $1,500 – 1,750 |
| 800 | $2,400 – 2,800 |
| 1,000 | $3,000 – 3,500 |
| 1,200 | $3,600 – 4,200 |
| 1,500 | $4,500 – 5,250 |
| 1,800 | $5,400 – 6,300 |
| 2,000 | $6,000 – 7,000 |
| 2,500 | $7,500 – 8,750 |
| 3,000 | $9,000 – 10,500 |
| 3,500 | $10,500 – 12,250 |
Cost To Paint One Room vs Multiple Rooms
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Typically, the cost to paint one room is much higher per square foot compared painting multiple rooms or the entire house. This is because, the contractor has the same prep and clean up work, as well as overhead and profit charges for a small project as for a big one.
For example it will cost you $380-565 to paint a 300 sq.ft. room (does not include trim, moldings, ceiling). This is equivalent to the cost $2.52 – 3.76 per square foot. . When you add all the extras, you total cost can be as high as $500-675
In general, if you only need to paint one room, and its a simple square or rectangular shape, it is much cheaper to do this on your own.
However, if the room has many window, angles, irregular shape, or very high ceilings, it will be much more difficult and time consuming to tackle this job yourself. In this case, it may be worth it to hire a painting pro.
Additional Paint Job Charges
You should be prepared for some additional costs that may come up during the project.
Drywall Repair ($20-50 per hour): if your house walls have a fair amount of damage, it can take 4-10 hours to fix it.
Wall Paper Removal: if you want to get rid of old wall paper and repaint, the price of removing the wall paper can increase your total painting cost by 40-50%, because its such a time consuming process.
Paint Accent Wall: your cost will vary depending on the color used, the location and whether this color is being used in another part of the house. Expect to pay at least $80 for a small accent wall.
Moving Furniture: if you would like the contractors to move furniture expect to pay at least $100 – 150 for every room from which furniture needs to be removed.
How Much Does It Cost To Paint A Room Yourself?
The average cost to paint a house interior on your own is $1.25 – 2 per sq.ft. depending on the type and quality of primer and paint you use.
This is at least 50% cheaper than hiring a contractor. For example a 250 sq.ft. room would cost $315-500 to paint DIY.
Since most handy homeowners view interior painting as an easy project, they would rather do it themselves than pay a pro.
Especially if only one or two simple rooms need to be repainted, like a bedroom or an office, many homeowners tackle this remodel alone.
However, big paint jobs that involve multiple rooms including a kitchen are left to contractors most of the time.
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How Long Does It Take To Paint The Interior Of A Home?
An experienced paint crew can paint the entire house in 2-3 days (depending on square footage and job complexity).
To compare, if you only paint on week nights and weekends the same job may take you 2-3 weeks. During this time, the area that you are painting will not be usable and the house will be in a general state of disarray.
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What Is The Best Interior Paint?
Interior paint really varies in price and quality. Cheap paint by brands like Valspar can cost as little as $20-30 per gallon for flat/matte paint.
High-end brands, such as Farrow and Ball, that have very high quality pigments that don’t fade overtime as well as unique colors can cost as much as $100-120 per gallon.
However, you can get very beautiful results and lasting quality with middle of road, trusted brands such as Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore (sold at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot). Depending the type of paint, these brands cost $40-55 per gallon.
How To Hire The Best Painting Pro
When you get price estimates from different painting pros, its usually safe to go for a middle of the road estimate. You will most likely get the best value: good job quality for a reasonable price.
Always be sure to ask for 3-4 local references of recently completed jobs. Its also a good idea to call at least one of these references and find out how the job actually went down and whether the homeowner was overall satisfied doing business with this contractor.
Once you find a painting pro you want to hire, be sure to have a detailed contract that includes the scope of work and prices for all materials and paint that is being used. Find out how many coats of paint will be applied as well as the brand of paint that will be used.
Most decent painting pros will use quality brands like BEHR or Sherwin Williams. The contract should also spell out the time frame to complete the project and as well as set up clean up details.
How Should I Paint My House Before Putting It Up For Sale?
Real estate brokers can’t say enough about how much impact a newly painted home can make on a prospective buyer’s desire to buy the property.
Follow these tips for best results:
– Paint ALL rooms: This will create a sense of unity, flow and design consistency throughout the home. Many people will be disappointed if they see a freshly painted living room and kitchen, but dingy looking bathrooms and bedrooms. In today’s market, most buyers are looking for a turn-key house.
– Paint trim, ceilings, doors, windows: While it will cost more and will take more time, your space will get a real face lift. If you just do the walls, the room will not look as presentable and modern.
– Go for neutral colors: Every person has their own color preferences, so there is no point in trying to impress with the trendiest hues of the current year. Instead, go for time tested, classic and neutral colors, such as beige, taupe, cream, shades of grey, off white. If you want to add more color on an accent wall, shades of blue, green, or warm earth tones always have a nice general appeal.
ROI Of Painting Your House
Compared to most remodeling projects, repainting your home interior is relatively inexpensive, yet it brings in a very high ROI of 80% or more.
Putting on a fresh coat of paint is a must if you want your home to sell fast and for the asking price.
Thank you for your insight an knowledge I got a lot out of this !
I had no idea that designer brand paint could add $1,000 to your total cost. My wife and I have been saving up to paint our home for months now. An extra $1,000 doesn’t sound too bad.