Cost to Paint an Interior Room

Paint and Room Size

You can’t just eyeball a room and figure out how much paint you’ll need. It pays to make good use of your measuring tape. Of course, you’ll want to consider not just the size of your room, but also the type of room you’re painting as well as the type (and finish) of the paint. It also matters how many coats of paint you use, and if you’re using primer.

Here’s the breakdown about room size, and the cost if you’re painting an extra-large bathroom or an extra-small kitchen.

The average sizes of each room in a house are as follows:

• Primary bedroom – 17’ x 18’
• Primary bathroom – 10’ x 16’
• Average bedroom – 12’ x 12’
• Average bathroom – 8’ x 12’
• Kitchen – 12’ x 20’
• Living Room or Great Room – 20’ x 20’
• Dining Room – 20’ x 15’

These sizes, of course, can and do vary significantly. Costs also change according to room type. It’s much more complicated to paint a kitchen with all of its gadgets and water and electricity fixtures than it is to paint a bedroom. Here are some cost breakdowns by room type, on average:

• Bedroom: The most straightforward of all the rooms you can choose to paint is a bedroom. These uncomplicated rooms only cost about $300 to $750 to paint, and will fit into a weekend. 
• Kitchen: It’s not the paint job itself that can be challenging in a kitchen paint job. It’s the persnickety details that really drive your labor (and costs) up. You must paint around ventilation features and lots of outlets, plus factor in wiring and pipes. With this more nuanced process, you can bet on less paint, but more effort. It will cost you $600 to $1350 to paint your kitchen. 
• Great room or living room: These rooms are usually the largest in a house, and can also include fancy features like crown moldings or built-in bookcases. Homeowners also reserve their most expensive paint choices for their living room or more formal rooms, so painting a square foot of your living room may be more expensive than other rooms in your house, costing you anywhere from $900 to $2000.
• Bathroom: Bathrooms are small, compact, and rewarding as a weekend project. They don’t cost too much to paint either. All told, you only need to pay $150 to $350 to paint a bathroom. The main challenge of painting your bathroom is watching out for all the water features in there, like the toilet, shower, and bathtub. Moisture is another issue to be aware of, so choosing the right type of paint is key. 

If every room in your house needs a new coat, you can plan according to room type, available budget, and time — your other most precious resource. Here are the different types of paint you can use and the rooms for which they’re best suited.