Costs & Hiring

What Interior Painting Really Costs (Room by Room)

Updated

Painting is the rare project where DIY genuinely competes with the pros — which is exactly why the pricing confuses people. Here are the real numbers, then the honest way to decide.

Woman rolling sage green paint onto a living room wall

What pros charge in 2026

Bedroom (12×12): $400 – $900
Living room: $600 – $1,400
Kitchen (lots of cutting-in): $500 – $1,200
Bathroom: $250 – $600
Whole interior (2,000 sq ft home): $4,000 – $10,000
Ceilings, trim, doors: usually quoted separately — ask up front

The spread comes from three things: prep work (patching, sanding, taping is most of the labor), paint quality, and ceiling height. A quote that's dramatically cheaper than the pack usually means the prep is being skipped — and prep is the whole difference between a paint job that lasts ten years and one that peels in two.

The DIY math

A bedroom takes roughly $60 – $120 in paint and sundries (roller, tape, drop cloth) and a full weekend if you're careful. That's real savings of several hundred dollars per room — if your walls are in decent shape and you don't mind ladder time.

The one factor that decides it: prep. Smooth walls, one color, standard height — DIY all day. Water stains, peeling, dark-to-light color changes, stairwells and two-story foyers — pay the pro. The skill in painting isn't the rolling; it's everything before the rolling.

How to hire it right

Get two or three quotes — painting quotes vary as wildly as HVAC quotes do, and for the same reason: overhead.
Ask what prep is included, in writing: patching, sanding, priming, caulking.
Ask what paint line they're using — builder-grade paint on a premium-priced job is a classic margin trick.
Walk the job at the end with painter's tape in hand and flag misses before final payment.

Planning a bigger overhaul than one room? Paint comes last — see the right order to renovate before you open a can.