How much does it cost to paint a 1500 sq ft house interior

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.

To get started on your painting project, contact your local pros for FREE ESTIMATES!

How Much Does It Cost To Paint A House Interior?

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.

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.

Painting Price 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 start 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.

Factors That Increase Interior Painting Cost

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.

Paint Job Cost Based On Total Square Footage

Here are rough price estimates for interior painting costs based on $3 – 3.5 per square foot.

Cost To Paint One Room vs Multiple Rooms

x

Low End

Mid Range

High End

Cost / S.F.

$2.52

$2.96

$3.76

Total Cost

$352

$414

$526

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.