Interior Painting Cost Calculator

Floor area to paint
1,200 sq ft
Coats
Wall condition
Your ZIP code

Showing the national average. Enter your ZIP code for local cost estimates.

Low $2,950
Typical $3,600
High $4,475

National average

Wall area to paint: — sq ft Floor area times 2.6, which is roughly what walls come to once doors and windows are taken off. Measure if you want the quote to be exact — wall height is what moves this most.

Where these figures come from
  • Painting and wall covering contractors, United States: $33.74/hour, August 2026 (BLS CES CES2023832003)
  • Interior wall paint: $38.00 per gallon (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)
  • Masking, filler, caulk and sundries: $0.06 per sq ft of wall (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)

Interior Painting costs $2,950 to $4,475 for a typical 1,200 sq ft job in 2026, against a national benchmark of $3,600. Labor runs 38.4 crew hours at $33.74 an hour. Enter a ZIP code to apply that area's measured wages for this work and its regional price level.

What makes up the price

Labor $1,812 38.4 hours at $33.74/hour, 40% burden, 1.00x regional
Interior wall paint $676 17.8 gallon at $38.00 each
Masking, filler, caulk and sundries $187 3,120 sq ft of wall at $0.06 each
Contractor overhead and profit $936 35% applied to the work above
Typical total $3,600 $2,950 to $4,475 depending on contractor

Cost by size

National averages, before any local adjustment. Computed from the same model as the calculator above, so the two always agree.

Floor area to paint Sq ft of wall Typical Range
650 sq ft 1,690 $2,050 $1,675 to $2,525
950 sq ft 2,470 $2,900 $2,375 to $3,600
1,200 sq ft 3,120 $3,600 $2,950 to $4,475
1,600 sq ft 4,160 $4,750 $3,900 to $5,900
2,050 sq ft 5,330 $6,050 $4,950 to $7,500

What actually drives the price

Around 85% of an interior painting quote is somebody's hours. Paint for a 1,200 square foot job comes to roughly $675 against $1,800 of labor, which is why the brand of paint is a far smaller decision than it feels like and why the time on the wall is the whole argument.

Three things change that time.

How much wall there is

Not how much floor. Painters quote by wall area and homeowners think in floor area, and the two differ by a factor of about two and a half once doors and windows are taken off. A 1,200 square foot home has somewhere near 3,100 square feet of wall.

Ceiling height moves this more than anything else about the room. Going from eight-foot to ten-foot ceilings adds a quarter to the wall area and more than that to the labor, because the second half of the wall is reached from a ladder.

How many coats

Two is what a professional quote means unless it says otherwise. One coat covers only when the new color is close to the old one and the wall is in sound condition; over a color change it leaves a patchy result that reads as cheap work rather than as one coat.

A primer coat is a third coat of work, not a cheaper one. It is cut in as carefully as the finish, and the usual reasons for it — bare drywall, a drastic color change, water stains, nicotine, a glossy surface — are reasons that also make everything else slower.

What has to happen before any paint

This is the real gap between two quotes on the same house. Filling nail holes, caulking gaps, sanding gloss, scraping, patching cracks and sealing stains are all invisible the moment the first coat goes on.

That is precisely why a cheap quote leaves them out, and why the difference shows up a year later as paint lifting away from an uncaulked seam rather than as anything you could have seen on the day.

How painters quote, and how to compare two

Basis Typical What it tells you
Per sq ft of floor $1.50–$3.50 walls only Quick comparison, hides ceiling height
Per sq ft of wall $0.90–$1.60 The honest unit, rarely offered
Per room $400–$900 for a bedroom Easy to agree, easy to disagree about later
Per hour $35–$60 per painter Only useful with a cap

The number worth extracting from any quote is what is included, not which basis it uses. Two quotes a thousand dollars apart almost always differ on three things, and asking about them turns an unaccountable gap into a decision:

  1. How many coats, and whether a primer coat is one of them.
  2. What preparation is covered — filling, caulking, sanding, stain sealing — and what is extra.
  3. What surfaces are in the price. Walls only is the usual default. Ceilings, trim, doors, closets and the inside of closets are each a separate decision.

What is usually not included

Surfaces

Work

Paint quality, and when it matters

The gap between a $30 gallon and a $60 gallon is real but smaller than the gap between two and three coats, and far smaller than the gap between prepared and unprepared walls.

Where better paint earns its money is in washability and coverage. A premium paint covers in two coats where a cheap one needs three, which can make the expensive paint the cheaper job once labor is counted. In a hallway, a kitchen or a child's bedroom, the ability to wipe a wall without burnishing it is worth paying for; in a guest room that nobody touches, it is not.

Sheen is a durability decision

Higher sheen shows every flaw in the wall underneath, which is another reason preparation and sheen are one decision rather than two.

Doing it yourself

Honest arithmetic, because the saving is real and so is the reason people stop halfway.

Materials for a 1,200 square foot job come to around $675 of paint and $190 of sundries — call it $900 with rollers, brushes and a ladder. The quote for the same work is around $3,600, so doing it yourself saves roughly $2,700 and costs you about 38 hours.

That trade is worth it for one room and gets steadily worse as the job grows, because the fixed part — masking, moving furniture, cutting in every edge — is the part that is slow and unrewarding whoever does it. The jobs most worth paying for are high ceilings, stairwells, and anything that needs a ladder on a staircase.

Questions worth asking

Common questions

How much does it cost to paint the interior of a house?

Around $3,600 to paint the walls of 1,200 square feet of living space in two coats, with most quotes falling between $2,950 and $4,475. That is about $3 per square foot of floor. Ceilings and trim are usually separate and can add half again.

How much does it cost to paint one room?

Around $600 for a standard bedroom of about 150 square feet, painted in two coats with the walls in sound condition. Smaller rooms do not scale down proportionally, because masking, moving furniture and cutting in every edge take much the same time whatever the room measures.

How much paint do I need?

About one gallon per 350 square feet of wall per coat. A 12 by 12 bedroom has roughly 390 square feet of wall, so two coats take a little over two gallons. Buy the whole job in one order: paint mixed in separate batches can differ slightly in color.

Why are two painting quotes so far apart?

Almost always because they are not quoting the same job. The three differences that matter are the number of coats, how much preparation is included — filling, caulking, sanding, sealing stains — and which surfaces are covered. Preparation is invisible once the paint is on, which is why it is the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.

Is one coat of paint enough?

Only when the new color is close to the old one and the wall is in good condition. Over a color change, one coat leaves a patchy finish that shows in daylight. A professional quote means two coats unless it says otherwise, and one coat at two-coat prices is the most common way a job goes wrong.

Do I need primer?

Yes on bare drywall, over a drastic color change, over water or smoke stains, and on anything glossy. No on sound painted walls going to a similar color. Primer is a third coat of work rather than a cheap extra, so it adds around 40% — and the situations that call for it are usually ones that slow everything else down too.

Does expensive paint make a difference?

Less than an extra coat, and far less than preparation. Where it pays is coverage and washability: a premium paint that covers in two coats where a cheap one needs three is the cheaper job once labor is counted. Worth it in hallways, kitchens and children's rooms; not worth it in a guest room nobody touches.

How long does it take to paint a house interior?

Around 38 painter-hours for 1,200 square feet of living space in two coats — two or three days for a pair. A single room is most of a day once masking and cutting in are counted. Heavy preparation can add a third to that before any paint is opened.

Should I paint the ceilings too?

If they need it, do it at the same time: ceilings add roughly 40 to 60% to a walls-only job, and far more if done later, because the room has to be masked and the furniture moved all over again. Ceilings are usually flat white and usually need only one coat unless they are stained.

Is it cheaper to paint it myself?

Materially, yes. Paint and sundries for a 1,200 square foot job come to around $900 against a $3,600 quote, so the saving is roughly $2,700 for about 38 hours of work. The arithmetic is best for one room and gets worse as the job grows, since the slow part — masking, moving furniture, cutting in — is slow for everyone. High ceilings and stairwells are the ones worth paying for.

Where these numbers come from

Nothing here is copied from a contractor directory. Labor is priced from what the trades are actually paid, materials from published producer prices, and both are adjusted to your area using federal cost-of-living data.