Based on aggregated data, interior painting costs $300 to $1,200 per room in 2026, with a typical room landing around $700. Measured by area, interior painting runs approximately $2 to $6 per square foot including labor and paint. Painting the interior of an average 2,000-square-foot home usually totals $4,000 to $9,000 once every room, ceiling, and trim run is counted.
As with most painting work, labor dominates the price. Paint for a single room costs only $50 to $200 — the rest goes to prep, taping, cutting in, and application.
Interior Painting Cost by Room
Room size and what gets painted (walls only vs. walls, ceiling, and trim) drive the per-room figure.
| Room | Typical Size | Walls Only | Walls + Ceiling + Trim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom | 10x12 | $300–$550 | $500–$800 |
| Living room | 15x20 | $600–$1,000 | $900–$1,200 |
| Bathroom | 5x8 | $150–$350 | $250–$500 |
| Kitchen (walls) | 12x14 | $350–$650 | $500–$900 |
| Hallway / stairwell | varies | $400–$900 | $600–$1,200 |
Stairwells and vaulted rooms cost more than their floor area suggests because high walls need ladders or scaffolding, which slows the work.
Interior Painting Cost per Square Foot
For whole-house estimates, painters often quote per square foot of floor area:
| Scope | Cost per Sq Ft | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|
| Walls only | $2.00–$3.50 | One to two coats, standard prep |
| Walls + ceilings | $3.00–$4.50 | Adds ceiling coverage |
| Walls + ceilings + trim | $4.00–$6.00 | Full-room repaint, detailed trim |
What Drives the Price
- Number of coats. Deep color changes, covering a dark wall, or painting over new drywall usually needs two coats or a primer coat.
- Ceilings and trim. Ceilings add coverage area; trim, doors, and baseboards are billed as detailed work that slows application.
- Wall condition. Patching nail holes, cracks, or water stains adds prep labor before any paint is applied.
- Ceiling height. Rooms above standard 8-foot ceilings require ladders and more paint per wall.
Where the Money Goes
Interior painting is the most labor-heavy project on this site by share of the bill. The split below is the project record the calculator reads:
| Component | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Materials (paint, primer, tape, sundries) | $50 | $100 | $200 |
| Labor (prep, patching, taping, cutting in, rolling) | $200 | $550 | $900 |
| Painted total, one room | $300 | $700 | $1,200 |
Labor is around 79% of a typical room. That is the single most useful number on this page: it explains why the per-room quote swings so hard between metros, and why a DIY repaint saves a larger share of the cost here than on almost any other project.
Cost by City
| City | Labor Adjustment Factor | Adjusted Range, One Room | Typical Room (paint + adjusted labor) | Whole House, 8 Rooms | vs. National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 1.33 | $400–$1,595 | $830 | $6,650 | +33% |
| Seattle, WA | 1.29 | $385–$1,550 | $810 | $6,475 | +29% |
| New York, NY | 1.23 | $370–$1,475 | $775 | $6,210 | +23% |
| Philadelphia, PA | 1.12 | $335–$1,345 | $715 | $5,730 | +12% |
| Houston, TX | 0.93 | $280–$1,115 | $610 | $4,890 | −7% |
| Tampa, FL | 0.87 | $260–$1,045 | $580 | $4,630 | −13% |
Paint held flat at the national figure; only the labor share is scaled by the metro factor. The whole-house column is eight typical rooms.
Labor adjustment factors are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025): the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the trades that do this work. How this is calculated.
Because labor carries almost four-fifths of the bill, the metro factor lands on this project almost undiluted — a whole-house repaint in the most expensive metro in the dataset costs thousands more than the same house in the cheapest.
DIY vs Professional
Painting a room yourself cuts the cash cost to materials of roughly $50 to $200 per room. The trade-off is 4 to 8 hours per room of moving furniture, taping, cutting in, and rolling — plus the finish-quality gap that shows up on edges and coverage. Because labor is most of the professional price, DIY savings are largest across many simple rooms and smallest on high or detailed spaces.
How to Reduce Interior Painting Cost
- Paint several rooms in one visit to share setup and minimum-charge costs.
- Do your own furniture moving and wall patching before the crew arrives.
- Keep ceilings their existing color to avoid ceiling coverage labor.
- Choose a color close to the current one to stay at a single coat.
- Compare at least three quotes on the same scope — walls only vs. full room changes the number significantly.
Related Painting Costs
Interior and exterior painting are priced on entirely different bases, which is why a whole-house quote can look inconsistent. Interior work is quoted per room — aggregated data puts a single room at $300 to $1,200, typically near $700 — because the cost is driven by cut-in work, trim and the number of surfaces rather than by area alone.
Exterior house painting runs $1,800 to $6,500 for a typical home and is quoted against the whole envelope, where surface preparation, siding condition and access (ladders, staging, height) carry most of the labor. The result is that exterior work costs more in absolute terms but usually less per square foot of coverage.