Interior painting cost by house size
Estimates from this calculator's default prices for walls only, 8 ft ceilings, two coats, the same color and light prep. Size here is the floor area of the rooms being painted. Change the defaults above to match quotes or prices near you.
| Floor area painted | Walls only | Walls and ceilings | Walls, ceilings, trim and doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| One room (170 sq ft) | $440–$670 | $640–$960 | $920–$1,380 |
| 1,500 sq ft | $3,900–$5,850 | $5,650–$8,500 | $8,100–$12,150 |
| 2,000 sq ft | $5,200–$7,850 | $7,550–$11,300 | $10,800–$16,250 |
Walls only for other sizes: 500 sq ft comes to about $1,300–$1,950, 1,000 sq ft to $2,600–$3,900, and 2,500 sq ft to $6,500–$9,800.
Interior painting cost per square foot
With these defaults, painting walls only works out to about $3.26 per sq ft of floor. Adding ceilings raises it to about $4.72, and adding trim and doors to about $6.76. Painters who quote by wall area instead are pricing a bigger number of square feet: for walls only, this estimate is about $1.51 per sq ft of wall.
Ask which one a quote means. A 1,500 sq ft house has about 3,240 sq ft of wall in this model, so the two figures aren't comparable.
How much does it cost to paint a house interior?
For a 1,500 sq ft house, walls only, the estimate is about $3,900–$5,850. Paint and supplies are only about $825 of that, for 18.5 gallons. The rest is labor: about 52 worker hours of prep, cutting in and rolling. That's why painting is one of the jobs where doing it yourself saves the most, if you have the time.
What changes the price
- What gets painted: ceilings, trim and doors can double the walls-only price, mostly in labor. Trim is slow, brush work.
- Ceiling height: 9 ft ceilings raise the 1,500 sq ft walls-only estimate to about $4,350–$6,550, and 10 ft to about $4,850–$7,250.
- A big color change: going light to dark or dark to light adds a coat of primer. That takes the same house to about $5,500–$8,200.
- Wall condition: heavy patching and spot priming bring it to about $5,350–$8,050.
- Coats: one coat over the same color is about $2,300–$3,450, but it only works when the color and sheen don't change.
- Furniture and occupied rooms: moving furniture and covering floors take time. Empty rooms go faster.
How this estimate works
The floor area is split into rooms of 170 sq ft (about 12 × 14 ft), each with one door and two windows. Wall area is each room's perimeter times the ceiling height, less 20 sq ft per door and 15 sq ft per window, as in our paint calculator. Paint covers 350 sq ft per gallon per coat. Wall paint is $35 a gallon (a 5-gallon bucket price), ceiling paint $30, trim paint $55 and primer $26 at 300 sq ft per gallon. Supplies add $20 per room.
Labor is 150 sq ft per hour per coat on walls, with ceilings 25% slower. Trim is 40 linear ft per hour per coat, each door takes an hour, and prep is 1 hour per room (3 for heavy patching). Labor is billed at $75 per worker hour, which includes the painter's overhead and profit, and the markup on materials is 20%. The range is the result minus 20% to plus 20%, because real quotes vary with region, season and the painter. Change any of these above.
For comparison, Homewyse lists $1.29–$2.78 per sq ft of wall to paint a wall and $4.79–$9.04 per sq ft to paint a home's walls, ceilings and doors (May 2026 figures, accessed November 2026); with these defaults we get about $1.51 per sq ft of wall for walls only and $6.76 per sq ft with everything included.
Getting quotes
Get at least three quotes and compare the same things: which rooms and surfaces, number of coats, the paint brand and line, primer, patching, and who moves the furniture. If a quote is far below this estimate, ask whether it's one coat or a cheaper paint.
Questions
How much does interior painting cost per square foot?
With this calculator's typical defaults, about $3.26 per sq ft of floor for walls only, $4.72 with ceilings, and $6.76 with ceilings, trim and doors. Per sq ft of wall, walls only come to about $1.51.
How much does it cost to paint one room?
A 12 × 14 ft room with 8 ft ceilings comes to about $440–$670 for walls only with these defaults, $640–$960 with the ceiling, and $920–$1,380 with trim and the door.
How much does it cost to paint the interior of a 2,000 sq ft house?
About $5,200–$7,850 for walls only with these defaults, $7,550–$11,300 with ceilings, and $10,800–$16,250 with ceilings, trim and doors.
Is it cheaper to paint the interior yourself?
Much cheaper. For a 1,500 sq ft house, walls only, paint and supplies are about $825 in this estimate against $3,900–$5,850 hired. Expect about 52 hours of work.